From Night Shifts to Leading Law Firm: Shazia Ali on Building Scarsdale Solicitors Through Determination, Empathy, and Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Shazia Ali didn't have the luxury of a traditional path to becoming a solicitor. Growing up in an impoverished family and facing daily racism as a teenager, she funded her entire legal education herself, starting at age 14 by waitressing to afford a private tutor for her GCSEs. She worked grueling night shifts as an auxiliary nurse with social services while dragging herself to law lectures during the day, navigating both financial barriers and prejudice as a young Asian woman in a male-dominated profession. Against all odds, she qualified as both a barrister and solicitor, trained at prestigious London law firms, and in 2016 founded Scarsdale Solicitors in Rochdale with a clear mission: to be a voice for the voiceless.
Today, Scarsdale Solicitors is a results-driven law firm specializing in criminal defence, motoring offences, immigration, and family law. Featured in Authority Magazine as a founder whose mission is "rooted in integrity, high-quality service, and serving the community," Shazia has built a practice where clients are never just file numbers. She runs pro bono clinics for domestic violence survivors, works with charities supporting homeless individuals and asylum seekers, and has created a firm culture centered on empathy and fierce advocacy. Her team reflects the diversity she wished she'd seen in her early career, with staff hired for their skills regardless of background, gender, or social status.
In this conversation, Shazia shares how vulnerability and crisis became catalysts for her best decisions, why she refuses to give power to people who underestimate her, and how she's built a reputation-based practice where word-of-mouth referrals drive 90% of growth. Her story is a testament to what's possible when determination meets purpose, and when building a successful business means lifting others up rather than leaving them behind.
From Night Shifts to Law Firm Founder – Building Your Practice Against the Odds
You financed your own legal education by working grueling night shifts as an auxiliary nurse while facing prejudice as a young Asian woman in law school. For female entrepreneurs, particularly women of color entering male-dominated professions, how did you maintain focus and confidence during those years when the odds were stacked against you? What strategies did you develop to navigate both financial barriers and systemic discrimination, and how do those experiences inform the way you run Scarsdale Solicitors today?
The first few years were the toughest of my life, working at night to pay the term fees and dragging myself to lectures in the day. I have never felt I quite fitted in anywhere, and I was perpetually exhausted. I was quiet, shy and not confident, but I have always been very stubborn so if somebody tells me I can’t do something I go ahead and do it. I think this helped me become more disciplined with my time and very resourceful. I stretch myself and can be laser-focused even when I am tired. This has helped me build a confidence in myself, I don’t allow people to control me, I don’t give them power over me. Listening to positive mindsets every day gives me focus, and I no longer feel underestimated.
My path has shaped the way I run my business today< I don't feel like an outsider in the room and I have built a culture around those feelings I had in my 20s as a student. I don’t care about someone’s background, accent, age; I see people for who they are, just as I wish people would have seen me, not just my gender or the colour of my skin. I make sure my team can come to me if they feel overlooked. I don’t want people to feel their colour or gender or social status holds them back.
Law is a male-dominated field and I am bringing in diversity; my staff are from all sorts of different backgrounds. I employ them for their skills and qualities, regardless of any other factor that may have held them back before.
Turning Personal Crisis Into Purpose – The Decision to Start Your Own Firm
Your daughter's serious illness became the catalyst for drafting your business plan and launching Scarsdale Solicitors. That's an incredibly vulnerable moment to make such a major professional decision. What made you realize that starting your own practice was the right move during such a difficult time? For women entrepreneurs facing their own crises or crossroads, how do you balance personal challenges with the demands of building a business, and what advice would you give about trusting your instincts when the timing seems imperfect?
When I am most vulnerable I make my best decisions, because I am out of my comfort zone. At that time I felt my whole world had stopped, I didn’t know what the future held and feared for my daughter’s life. But somehow this made me more determined to create the sort of future I wanted for my kids. I knew I needed to do the school run, to be there for them, and if an employer wouldn’t allow that I would have to create that life for myself. Hard moments make me strip back to everything and think about what really matters – and what matters is my children, and making a difference. By building Scarsdale I am building something that helps people, and that will provide an income for me to be able to give my children all and any support they need.
For other women going through their own crises – don’t underestimate yourself, I am living proof that you can do more than you believe. There is no such thing as perfect timing, you need to do it. You can’t live on other people’s terms, there will always be something trying to hold you back, but believe in yourself.
Building a Reputation-Based Practice Through Empathy and Advocacy
You've built Scarsdale Solicitors on the principles of empathy and fierce advocacy, with growth driven primarily by reputation rather than traditional marketing. In the legal profession where credentials and institutional prestige often matter more than client relationships, how do you position your firm as a client-focused alternative? For female founders in professional services, what does "giving others a voice" look like in practice, and how do you translate that mission into business development and sustainable growth?
Scarsdale is centred around our clients. When people come to us we don’t treat them as a file number, they are a person. This builds trust which means we re recommended personally from person to person. I will not take on a client if I don’t believe I can help them, I want to be known as authentic and rely on that as my prestige rather than just results – although our results are unrivalled too! We stand up for people who feel intimated, and also champion each other, so we celebrate our colleagues’ successes. We have men on the team but I am proud to be giving senior roles and opportunities to women that may not achieve them elsewhere. I believe in investing in staff, and when you have a happy and secure workforce, they perform better and are a living advert for your business.
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