Sally Woodward, 1973

Sally Woodward read Law at Clare. She is now a leadership coach and works with educational charities that support young people with different challenges.

Who was your greatest Clare influence and why?

That’s hard. All of Colin Turpin, Bob Hepple and Kurt Lipstein had a massive impact on my life and my thinking. If I must choose – it has to be Colin who, as my long-suffering Tutor, kept me (more or less) sane, as well as on track academically.

Sally's Story

The first significant moment I recall was realising within my first week that I really wanted to study Law from the outset rather than do one year of modern languages as planned. Alison Sinclair and Bob were so helpful and encouraging and I can’t thank them enough for making this happen. Studying law taught me how to think critically and argue coherently - irrespective of the subject-matter. I reckon that such skills – supported by the confidence that three years at Clare built -  enabled me to change career several times; from practising lawyer to law academic - including being Special Supervisor at Clare whilst Director of Studies at Newnham; then into a senior management role at Freshfields (and an executive MBA); designing and teaching an MBA for Lawyers; founding a business consulting company and eventually retraining as a leadership coach - giving me the great  privilege of working with some extraordinary leaders. Bob Hepple was especially insistent on us combining intellectual rigour with understanding the practical impact of one’s arguments. That’s stayed with me – so much so that as an academic I gather my nickname was ‘Professor So what Now what..’

I have vivid memories of my time at Clare including some bitter sweet - not to be shared! Some most memorable  include: May balls on the backs; playing Sorel in Hay Fever in the Fellows garden in May week during a hail storm; Roman Law supervisions with afternoon tea on the lawn at Kurt Lipstein’s house; regularly using the window in the old Law Reading Room to get back into Old Court after the gates were closed (there was always someone doing an ‘all nighter’); and more generally living in Old Court in my final year – this entailing running (very fast!)  in a bathrobe across the court to the one staircase that had showers  - sometimes in the snow!

My best advice to my younger self would be to reach out and grab the amazing opportunities that Clare and Cambridge provide to meet very different people and pursue both new and established interests -  whilst allocating enough (and not too much) time for study. I reckon I just about got the balance right by the third year - but I guess we all have to learn this ‘the hard way’.

I can’t quite believe that it’s 50 years since I matriculated.  But I do believe I owe everything that I am - and have - to my education – and especially to my time at Clare, which is why I now spend much of my time and energy working with educational charities who support youngsters with different major challenges. Who knows – in 50 years’ time   some of them might be reminiscing of their life-changing time at Clare.