Ciaran Roche

Ciaran is an executive assistant in our Leeds office. He talks about his journey towards this role, and his passion for sports outside of work.

illustration for Ciaran Roche

Can you tell us about your career journey so far?

I feel I took quite a different route into the legal sector. I went to sixth form and progressed onto university to study sports science, but for various reasons I never got a job in sports. I was working in retail and hospitality for quite a few years and didn’t really know what direction I was going in, until I spotted a job advert for Mills & Reeve. It was for a facilities assistant, so I applied and was successful in the interview. After a year of working in facilities, I transferred over to the admin team where I was an administrative assistant (AA) for three years. While in my role as an AA, I was picking up quite a lot of work for the family team, which was the area of law that I was most interested in and enjoyed. Fortunately, this led me to build positive relationships with some of the family solicitors and eventually a role came up for an executive assistant (EA) working in the team. I applied, and have officially been part of the team as an EA since August 2023. 

How did you find your transition from AA to EA? 

I was exposed to similar tasks already in my role as an AA so it made the transition easier. I think one of the main differences coming into this new role has been the extra responsibility to make sure everything goes smoothly and to plan in the team. 

The role is also client facing, something I wasn’t used to in my previous position, so I’ve been dealing with new enquiries as they come in and speaking directly to the clients. I initially found this quite challenging, but it’s enabled me to come out of my comfort zone. 

What’s your favourite thing about working at Mills & Reeve? 

I think the main one for me has been the opportunity to progress within the firm. I’ve seen it with my own career journey here and also in other employees within the firm, in particular the Leeds office. There’s been lots of examples where people in the admin team have progressed into an EA or another role and that was important for me to see in a workplace when I was looking for a job back in 2019. 

What do you enjoy doing outside of work? 

I have a big interest in sports and have had a season ticket for Leeds United for the last 26 years…and counting. Along with a big interest in football I also enjoy watching rugby league, in particular the Leeds Rhinos so, as you can tell I enjoy anything Leeds and sports related. Also, in the past year I’ve got more serious about running and I’ve taken part in two marathons, so training for them takes up a lot of my spare time.