Unlike many in our profession, I didn’t watch episodes of Ally McBeal, LA Law and Perry Mason at the age of 10, and realise that my calling in life was to become a lawyer. In fact, I had no idea at the age of 10 or up until 21 what I wanted to do in terms of a career. The inevitable decision obviously came at the end of a three-year history and politics degree at Newcastle University when I realised that you couldn’t spend your days watching Pet Rescue and your nights dancing on sticky floors and drinking out of plastic cups. (No, amazingly no one will pay you for this!)
The decision of what to do was a tricky one especially with a history and politics degree. I could have become Prime Minister, but unfortunately Tony Blair had already secured that one so I therefore looked into other professions such as accountancy and law. I had done some work experience in accountancy, and although I had enjoyed some aspects of it such as client contact, I did not enjoy the maths! I therefore decided to get some work experience in a large Scottish law firm where I was involved in dealing with large corporate transactions. I really enjoyed my work experience there, so my decision was made and I decided to go to Law College in York.
Choosing to study law can be quite a big risk. For one thing, if you don’t have a law degree, you need to do the Graduate Diploma in Law and then the Legal Practice Course which takes two years and is very expensive. The fees on average are around £15,000 plus living expenses and books, etc. If you decide that you wish to work in a large corporate firm, and you are lucky enough to secure a position in advance, then often the firm will pay for these fees, but if you decide this is not for you, then medium to small firms are unlikely to make any financial contribution. Moreover, as smaller firms tend to recruit closer to the training contract start date, this can mean you are incurring a huge debt on the assumption that you will secure a training contract. This is not an easy task. In 2004/2005 5,734 training contracts were registered with the Law Society whilst 8,649 students were registered on the Legal Practice Course.
Having had some work experience in a large corporate firm, I found that I had enjoyed the type of work, but I was unsure that working in such a large company was for me. I therefore decided to do further work experience in a provincial practice, where I experienced work such as producing wills and dealing with property disputes. At provincial practices, the majority of clients tend to be individuals rather than companies. This would severely limit the type of work I was exposed to, and the direction my career would take. I therefore decided to look at more mid-tier firms (a bit like Goldilocks but with law firms instead of porridge!) A friend of mine worked at Raworths and often talked about her experiences there in a positive light, so I decided to apply for some work experience
The first thing that struck about me about Raworths is that there was a clear determination to expand, and move forward but this was not at the expense of providing good client service. I knew at Raworths I would receive proper training and support, because client service was paramount, and that I would not be sheltered or kept away from clients, because at this size firm, you needed to do the job from day one. I was also impressed by the range of clients that Raworths has. We deal with individual clients as well as businesses starting out and large, long-established companies.
I secured a training contract at Raworths starting in October 2005. During my training contract, I covered many different areas of law including conveyancing, litigation, family and employment. I particularly enjoyed employment law because it was one of the few areas of law that involves a mixture of non-contentious work (e.g. drafting contracts, policies, etc) and contentious work (assisting employers with disciplinary proceedings, and tribunal proceedings, etc) which means the work is always varied. The employment department also has a large amount of client contact which I enjoy, and it is fast-moving as the law is constantly changing making it a challenge to keep up to date with it, to ensure that our clients are complying with the latest legislation. I have now qualified into the Employment Department and work alongside Deborah Boylan and Sally Togher.
For those of you that are considering a career in law, I would say that it is nothing like TV shows such as Ally McBeal (for one thing, Barry White doesn’t drop in on a regular basis!). However, it does provide a varied workload, with the opportunity to meet new people on a daily basis and is a challenging and worthwhile career.
Ruth Butt
