It's been a while, I'm very sorry about this but I've been on a work placement We live in a demoralizing Catch 22 society where you cannot get a job without work experience, but finding work experience is practically impossible. It's a case of who you know not what you know, so those of us who do not have family members that are lawyers are unlikely to ever find work experience and subsequently we will therefore never become lawyers. Meaning those already from privileged families are protected whilst the rest of us struggle to get noticed. However that is quite enough of my left wing harangue.
I had a stroke of luck however, after applying to well over 50 firms for a work placement- all rejected and most without the courtesy to inform me so- My boyfriend's dad who is manager of an auction house had managed to get me a month's work at a solicitors in Chester as one of his regulars is a partner. I love Chester, it's historical yet vibrant, which is why i'm applying to do my Legal Practice Course there. It also meant I got to spend a month living it up in Wrexham with my boyfriend, this was a blessing as we live far apart and summer holidays normally drag laboriously.
I came to the realization that I do not want to be an Ambulance Chaser, personal injury law is incredibly jejune and dreary. It occurred to me that I wouldn't get to be Ted from scrubs, I would not be deliberating the ethics of a hospitals actions or a jehovas witness' right to martyr their children. Instead I would be dealing with reckless drivers suffering from acute whiplash who copious volumes of wonga so they don't have to work for a year. I couldn't possibly spend the rest of my life doing such monotonous work.
So instead, I've discovered an underlying passion for family law. My calling lies in divorces and child custody. Many view this as a nefarious and dastardly specialisation, it came as a surprise to my family having never gone through the trauma of a divorce myself, luckily no one in my family has ever filed for one. I'm a firm believer that many give up on marriage far too easily and unless there's been adultery or
abuse then couples should try work through their problems. A man with inferiority complex issues because his wife earns more money than him is not a legitimate reason for divorce. So why would I want to go down this career path? Is it because I like a bit of gossip and want to feel like Jeremy Kyle on a Monday morning? possibly. But the truth is that such a sensitive practice needs someone compassionate yet headstrong, and that's what I am.
So it was an invaluable learning experience, I gained far too much weight and am now the wrong side of 9stone, I blame the boyfriend for fine dining me but I cannot complain :) But it prevented me from making a huge mistake and going into the wrong practice. I've applied for training contracts in 2013 for a place as a family lawyer. I can see now why firms insist you have experience, how can you know law is the right career for you and what subject really ignites you if you haven't had first hand experience? I just wish more law students could have this chance, it's a poignant and vital opportunity for self understanding and growth that should not be denied to prospective lawyers.
I thought that in personal accident cases, only the claimant could claim for whiplash and the reckless driver couldn't because they were to blame. That said, something as unprovable as whiplash shouldn't have so many successful claims to its name.
ReplyDeleteI shadowed a solicitor for a few weeks and he told me that Family Law and Conveyancing are pretty much the only fields worth going into, as they're more interesting than anything else and they're presently free from the claimsdirect type business and their "legally trained advisors" (or call centre workers with crib sheets, if you want to use their less glamourous name).
Yep. I know.
ReplyDeleteit was a flamboyant exaggeration of how dull ambulance chasing is. I wasn't aiming for technicalities.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that the area of personal injury claims is also something that's leading towards a more Americanised civil law system, where you can sue and be sued for almost anything - whiplash is just one category of unprovable damage; I wouldn't be keen to contribute to a litigation society...from what I saw of family law it looked pretty good - while I was shadowing, I got to go to court and see my solicitor's client get lots of money and the family house off her cheating husband, which was pretty satisfying, but on the other hand, I also got to sit in on another family case that was about pretty much the same thing, but the woman was on the edge of tears for most of it - felt kind of uncomfortable in that situation, but that might just have been because, as a shadower, I couldn't really do anything useful to help.
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of work did you do in your internship? All I was allowed to do was read files and observe how the general firm machine works...
I got to interview the clients and give them advice etc. was good cause I got really stuck in. If you can't deal with a woman crying then maybe conveyancing is more your thing lol.
ReplyDeleteBut conveyancing is so dull...
ReplyDelete