Reaching new heights at Tower — Victoria Palfrey

Reaching new heights at Tower with balance and flexibility

Victoria Palfrey, Head of Risk, Remediation & Regulatory Affairs

Congratulations on your expanded role! Can you give us a snapshot of your career to date?

I started out in a big law firm straight out of law school, working in competition law. That took me to London, where I joined Slaughter and May. It was amazing—working on some of the biggest deals in the world at a super prestigious law firm—but also punishing in terms of hours. I knew I didn’t want to do that long-term.

After that, I moved around a bit—spent time in commercial law and even did some business development work. Eventually I found myself back in commercial law at a firm, but I started thinking: why don’t I go in-house and really get to know one business, rather than lots of little bits about lots of different businesses?

That’s how I ended up at Tower. I got involved in lots across the business, and when a newly created role came up—Head of Remediation—they encouraged me to apply, since I’d already been doing work in that area. I did, and I got the job. After about a year and a half, my role has been expanded to cover risk, and regulatory affairs as well as keeping the customer remediation scope. They’re all closely related areas—essentially keeping the business safe—but the remit is broader. So, it hasn’t been a straight-line career path, but everything connects within that same field.

What does a day in the life of Victoria Palfrey at work look like?

At the moment, it looks like hiring! I’ve just placed an amazing team member and have another exciting role to fill.

Day-to-day, I do anything from reviewing customer communications to managing regulatory interactions, including submissions.

Over time, once our new team is embedded the role will become more strategic – stepping back from the ‘doing’ and looking across the three areas to spot gaps, start new initiatives, and focus on the bigger picture. Ultimately, we want to create simple and rewarding customer experiences and managing risk for our people and customers is a big part of that.

How have you balanced building your career, with being a parent?

I’ve got two kids, and I took around 12 months parental leave with each of them. At first, I picked up about 10 hours’ work a week and gradually increased from there. I haven’t planned my career too rigidly; I’ve just taken opportunities as they came. Right now, I work four days a week, and try to stick to that religiously. I did go up to five days last year for about six months, but I got run down juggling busy family life. My boss said, ‘look, I think you can manage this job in four days. Take Fridays for yourself.’ That’s worked really well.

I treasure my Fridays. Sometimes it’s for exercise or painting—a creative release I’ve taken up recently—but also getting the little things done so I can spend the weekends with the kids instead of catching up on chores. And yes, it sounds cliché, but having that day off makes me more productive. I’m big on compartmentalisation: when I’m at work, I’m focused on work; when I’m at home, I try not to think about work. So, Fridays are sacred unless there’s something urgent, and people generally respect that.

Connection to SHIFT

I’ve known Prue for years. When I was first looking to increase my hours after having kids, I started speaking with her.

I’ve worked with several SHIFT consultants in both the legal and risk teams. I’ve been really impressed. Contracting is a real skill: you have to come in, get up to speed quickly, and deliver straight away. Every SHIFT lawyer and consultant I’ve worked with has been able to do that.

What would your advice be for other people embarking on a similar career path to yours?

My biggest advice is not to plan everything too strictly. Don’t feel like you have to have a straight-line career path. Take opportunities as they come—even if they don’t look like what everyone else is doing, or if there’s no obvious next step.

And don’t see taking time out or working part-time to raise a family as career suicide. It’s absolutely not. If you’re smart and you work hard, you’ll be fine.