Five minutes with Jenny Donnelly

Many of you will recognise this familiar face from when you walk into our reception on Level 21. Our receptionist Jenny Donnelly has worked for CGW for 21 years and has seen the firm change location, change names and grow through the years.  We asked her to tell us in her own words what life at Cooper Grace Ward is like, and a few of her past experiences and favourite things.

1. If you could summarize CGW in three words, what would they be?

Reliable. Inspiring. Empathetic.

2. How long have you worked at Cooper Grace Ward for and what brought you to that position?

I started on 5th August, 1996, so that makes it twenty-one years this year. I’ve been working since leaving school in 1984 and had done a very eclectic range of jobs, but I had my first experience of working for a law firm in 1991 (a firm called Power & Power) and decided it was the field for me. I moved from there to work in the legal recruitment field for a few years, then I saw that a (always coveted) reception role had opened up in a well-respected firm, and that was that.

3. If you could invite three people for dinner, dead or alive who would they be and why?

I’m someone who prefers to admire my idols from a distance rather than meet them (the joys of being an introvert) but as long as I could simply drink my wine and listen to them talk amongst themselves, I would go the literary route and have Agatha Christie, JK Rowling and Marian Keyes.  I suspect it would be a rather diverse conversation.

4. Where’s the best place to go for a drink or dinner after work?

Too soon – I’m still mourning Jo-Jo’s!  That said, I’m very much a ‘head home for nice wine and food with husband and dogs’ these days, so I’m someone who tends to ask my food blogger friends for recommendations at the last minute.

5. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

Don’t worry about what anyone else is doing, just do your own best work.  Circa Grade Five, I believe, and still extremely relevant.

6. Do you have any hobbies/interests outside of work?

I read copious amounts of fiction, I spend a lot of time in dog parks, I help my wine-collecting sister enjoy her wine collection, I suffer through gardening so I can enjoy the finished product, I collect paint samples from Bunnings in the hopes I will make a decision about ‘that living room wall’ one day soon, and spend as much time as possible relaxing with my husband, our friends and our families.

7. Complete this sentence: If I wasn’t working at Cooper Grace Ward I would be …

See #6

8. What do you love about your job?

The daily challenge of answering hundreds of questions to the best of my ability and sending people on their way in a happier/more confident state of mind. Thanks to CGW, I will never need the likes of Luminosity to keep my brain in shape.

9. Something you might not know about me is that…

I am the person to invite to an 80s trivia night if you want to absolutely ace the music section.