Harriet Creamer

Harriet specialises in providing developmental training in groups or one to one: helping individuals achieve their potential and developing their understanding of the business and commercial skills required to reach the highest levels of the profession. She has considerable experience in training all levels of post qualification and, in particular, focuses on mid-level associates (3 or 4 years PQE) and on those in the run up to partnership (5+ years PQE).She also helps clients to improve their presentational and business-getting skills, and can advise on pitch delivery and client relationship management.

Her style is largely facilitative - as opposed to chalk and talk, and she focuses on enabling clients to enhance the skills they already have and to identify individuals main strengths.

Harriet works closely with Gina Jennings and together they can provide focussed help, advice and training to move clients on to the next stage of their careers in a targeted way. This will usually be done with the help of career plans and associated action plans which clients can use to build their professional future.

Examples of recent assignments include:

• Developmental training for small groups of senior lawyers to prepare them for partnership in a different range of firms and jurisdictions. This was modular training so that clients could, if they wished, choose only certain elements of the course to focus on;

Harriet Creamer read law at Cambridge and qualified into the corporate department at Freshfields where she worked for several years before becoming the firm's first professional support lawyer. She became a partner in 1991 with responsibility for knowledge management and training across the firm's international network.

She retired from the partnership in 1999 but remained with the firm as a consultant, working on a range of projects in a variety of areas – including financial management, knowledge management, business development and professional development.

In 2008 she appeared in The Lawyer's "Hall of Fame" for pioneering the professional support role in City law firms.

With Gina Jennings, she left Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer later in 2008 to set up Outer Circle, consultants to and troubleshooters for professional services firms.