Background & Experience
Shalini began her career at Norton Rose and Shearman & Sterling as a solicitor before moving into Learning & Development at Addleshaw Goddard, where she progressed to Acting Head of L&D. Her experience on both sides of professional services, first as a practising lawyer and later developing its leaders, gives her a strong understanding of the pressures, stakeholder dynamics and career structures that shape leadership in partnership environments.
Her career has also taken her across Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, and she now combines executive coaching with leadership and facilitation work. Alongside her corporate experience, Shalini brings board-level perspective through her work as a non-executive director in the not-for-profit sector.
Who Shalini Works With
Shalini coaches senior managers, leaders and high-potential professionals across legal, technology, telecommunications, financial services, energy and infrastructure. She supports clients at important points in their careers, from preparing for greater responsibility or an international move to returning from parental leave, changing direction or deciding what the next stage of their career should look like.
She has specialist experience supporting women and professionals of colour as they progress into leadership, including navigating organisational politics, building influential stakeholder relationships and developing a leadership approach that feels credible and authentic to them. Her international background also makes her well placed to coach leaders working across cultures, countries and global teams.
Coaching Style
Shalini's style is calm, perceptive and challenging. Clients value her ability to bring clarity to complicated situations, helping them step outside the immediate pressures of their role and understand what may be influencing their effectiveness.
Her coaching is practical and individual to the client. She helps leaders make sense of feedback, understand their leadership style, strengthen important relationships and identify where changes in behaviour could increase their impact. She also creates space to consider the wider career decisions that can become difficult to address amid the demands of senior roles.
Clients
Shalini has extensive experience coaching within the legal sector alongside her work across other industries. Representative clients include Akin Gump, Allen & Overy, Cooley, DLA Piper, HSF Kramer, Hogan Lovells, White & Case, Clifford Chance, Proskauer Rose and Pallas LLP.
Qualifications & Credentials
Shalini holds a Diploma in Coaching and has achieved Professional Certified Coach (PCC) status with the International Coaching Federation; she is also British Psychological Society-qualified and accredited in a range of psychometric tools including DISC, 16 PF and MBTI. Alongside her coaching career, Shalini has substantial governance experience, including serving as a Non-Executive Director of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and holding several trustee and chair roles in the not-for-profit sector. She is a qualified solicitor and a published co-author of Key Skills for Professionals (Kogan Page).
