What’s Your Law Origin Story?
“Everyone wants to say they hate lawyers, and yet I’ve never met a parent who didn’t want their kid to be a lawyer.”
What was the moment when you realized that you wanted to become a lawyer?
My parents strongly encouraged my two sisters and I to go down the law route. Both my parents were teachers when we were growing up and they repeatedly warned us against entering what they described as a “thankless profession”. We were studious and liked reading. My Dad informed us that our objective should be to find a job that we liked and which would involve “getting paid the most money for the least work”. I’m certain that law doesn’t meet the last criterion but it wasn’t bad advice overall. It’s no coincidence that two out of the three of us ended up as lawyers.
I did work experience at a high street firm of solicitors whilst I was at school. I was so quiet, I barely spoke to anyone whilst I was there. I remember following a solicitor to the magistrate’s court where he was representing someone accused of some minor misdemeanor, and thought it looked like fun.
Fast forward a few years later, I’d left university without any real plan. I was doing an extremely dull temping job for Birmingham City Council, manually inputting data for housing benefit claimants. One of my colleagues was smart, funny and articulate. One day, when I was walking past his desk, he grabbed my arm and, with the desperate misery of a condemned man, looked me in the eye and said quietly: “DON’T! Get stuck here!”
Wow. Message received. He was right. If I didn’t pull my finger out, I’d end up like him, in a job I really didn’t enjoy. Not long afterwards, I began a concerted effort to find a job with better prospects, and sent off a sackful of speculative letters to law firms (emails weren’t really a thing yet) applying for paralegal jobs.
After a brief stint at a divorce law firm working for a boss whose idea of suitable tasks for law graduates was to ask them to arrange her salad on a plate for her and to take her daughter’s parcels to the post office, I hit the jackpot. In 2001, I got a job at a firm in Birmingham City Centre doing actual legal work for the first time. We were acting for insurance companies defending personal injury claims. I’ll never forget preparing the bundle for one case involving one poor man who had lost his head (literally) after a tragic incident where he’d stuck his head out of the train window as said train was heading towards a bridge. I’ve avoided train windows ever since.
One day, I accompanied my boss on a day out to London, where we attended a conference with Counsel at Temple. At least, I say a conference with Counsel but to be honest, I can’t remember why we were there now. All I remember was my boss, John, regaling me with fascinating tales of when he’d been an articled clerk (now called a “trainee solicitor”) in London, when much of his job had involved delivering briefs to Counsel in Temple, neatly tied with pink ribbon. He was London born and bred and had worked his way up from delivery boy after leaving school to eventually becoming the Managing Partner of the firm I worked at.
At the end of the day, we drank beer in a pub in the heart of Temple which, unsurprisingly, was filled with lawyers. If you’ve never been to Temple then I recommend a visit. Its origins date back to the 12th century when the Military Order of the Knights Templar built a church by the Thames. Lawyers moved in two hundred years later, in 1312, and formed themselves into two societies, the Inner Temple and Middle Temple. Lawyers and students lived, worked and studied there. Some of the buildings in the Inner Temple date back to the 1600s. As you walk around the cobbled streets, it’s like being on a film set, especially seeing the barristers striding around in their robes. I LOVED it.
In the pub, as the late afternoon sun shone through the window, I asked my boss if he’d be willing to train me up so I could become a solicitor. I must have shown sufficient aptitude and/or enthusiasm because he kindly agreed and there my legal career properly began. It couldn’t have been in a more fitting location.
Over 20 years later, I’m now a Partner and have (mostly) loved my career. I’ll never forget that feeling I had in the pub in Temple, surrounded by thousands of years of history infused into a legal system which I was now going to become a part of. It was completely magical, and I am to this day so grateful for my then boss for giving me a chance.
What’s your law origin story? I ask because I think it helps, when the job gets tough, to remember why you wanted to be a lawyer in the first place; to tap into those feelings of wonder and possibility.
If you don’t have a good origin story, then I would encourage you to go and create one – it’s never too late! Go and visit Temple and walk down the cobbled streets, and sit in the ancient pubs surrounded by lawyers. Or go to the library at the Law Society and feel the dusty books dating back centuries. Remember that you’re an important part of an ancient profession which fulfils an essential and highly respected role in society. And which isn’t badly paid, let’s be honest. I think my Dad was right after all.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
~Rachel