North of the Stupid Line

As many of you will know, I qualify as a solicitor today. Today is the culmination of nine years of hard work, and I thought it would be nice to tell you how I got here.

At the tender age of 14, I made the decision that I wanted to become a lawyer. A careers adviser at the time said that I couldn’t become a lawyer because it would be too difficult as I was Deaf. That was probably the best thing he could have ever said to me, as it just made me more determined to succeed.

During A Levels, I applied to the customary six universities, but the A Level European History teacher put me off applying to do a Law degree, as her son was a Cambridge University graduate and he couldn’t get a training contract. If that was true, then what chance did I have? This led me to apply to read History instead of Law.

After the first term at University of Wales Swansea during the 1998/1999 academic year, I began to have second thoughts about the History degree (although I was enjoying it), and made enquiries as to whether I could switch courses. The answer was affirmative, but there was a catch; I’d have to start the first year of the Law degree in the academic year 1999/2000, pushing me behind. The parents weren’t too thrilled with the idea, and I didn’t like the idea of having to work from January to August in the meantime. I decided to stick with my History degree, having obtained advice from the university’s Careers Centre, who informed me that I could do a conversion course after my degree, known as the Common Professional Examination or Postgraduate Diploma in Law, for a year. This course is specifically for non-law graduates.

So, having completed my History degree, I applied for a place on the CPE at the University of the West of England, Bristol, which was accepted. The CPE was the hardest thing I’ve ever done – it was non-stop studying for a full academic year, bearing in mind that it’s the equivalent of of a three-year Law degree crammed into one year. I managed to pass it, and enrolled on the Legal Practice Course or Diploma in Legal Practice at Cardiff University.

Then came the difficult part, securing a training contract. I applied for over 150 training contracts since 2001, and despite having about 11 interviews, wasn’t offered one. I started work at the Royal Association for Deaf People in June 2003, the week after I completed the LPC, as an Advice Worker, and eventually was able to arrange a secondment to South West London Law Centres to do an 18-month training contract, beginning on 28 November 2005. Wanting to specialise in Employment Law, I arranged an additional secondment to Hugh James Solicitors for the last five months of the training contract, which ended this week.

So, I’ve now reached my goal – I’m a qualified solicitor, due to be admitted to the roll on 1 June 2007.

So, what’s next? After having worked in the public sector for four years, the aim is to obtain a position as an Employment Solicitor in private practice, in the South Wales or South West area. I’d like to get a few years’ experience under my belt, and perhaps get promoted to Associate or Partner level, and then set up my own law firm with some mates.

Yesterday was the last day of my secondment to Hugh James Solicitors, and I qualify as a solicitor tomorrow. The last 5 months at Hugh James have been immensely valuable. I have the confidence to go out there as a qualified solicitor and advise on employment law matters, including advocacy at Employment Tribunals. I can also advise on welfare benefit and housing matters, as well as immigration issues. Some of the highlights of working at Hugh James have included:

• Attended professional conduct and suitability hearings;
• Compiled ET1s, ET3s;
• Drafted lists of documents, letters of advice, notification of disciplinary hearings and suspensions, grievances, sex, disability and race questionnaires, instructions to counsel;
• Produced training materials; and
• Drafted policies, contracts of employment, procedures, guidance notes, and articles for publication;

You may wonder what I’m doing next. Basically, I will be returning to the Royal Association for Deaf People full-time, continuing my role as a Casework Supervisor, but also developing RAD’s Legal Services, and taking on fee-earning work.

It’s that time of my life again, where I search for jobs, apply and hear nothing.

I’m looking for a Newly Qualified position as an Employment Solicitor/Lawyer in the Cardiff and Bristol area, and would be prepared to commute as far as Swansea, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Bath, as I am due to qualify on 27 May 2007.

I don’t like the way they recruit solicitors. Most law firms recruit using recruitment agencies, and there are literally hundreds of them specialising in legal recruitment. Advertisements are usually anonymous, so you don’t know which firms you’re applying to. If a law firm is advertising through multiple agencies, you don’t know whether you’re applying for the same position in the same firm.

When a seemingly new position that I’m interested in pops up in my searches, I apply, and then I hear nothing. Communication is non-existent. If I apply for a job through a recruitment agency that I haven’t had contact with before, they usually ring me up the next day enthusiastic about my potential, get a few details and send me a letter in the post asking for a copy of my passport for ID purposes. I do as requested, and then hear nothing from them.

There are a number of positions I am particularly keen on, but I don’t hear anything, and as I don’t know the name of the firm, I can’t contact them to check whether they’ve received my application. How do we really know that the recruiters are actually submitting our CVs? It scares me to think that I could be missing out on opportunities.

I really don’t know how to handle this. I guess I’ve just got to plow ahead and hope that my luck will come in one day soon.

I’ve been at Hugh James Solicitors for almost three months now, which means that I’m almost two months away from qualifying as a solicitor.

It really struck home recently on how near I am to qualifying, as I received a letter from the Solicitors Regulation Authority at, which is independent of the Law Society, asking me to complete a CRB application form, so that I may be admitted to the roll of solicitors. It has to be completed 6-8 weeks prior to my intended admission date, which will be 28 May 2007.

Getting to this stage has taken me six years, two of those were taken up with hard studies at UWE and Cardiff, and then I became an Advice Worker at RAD, a role that continued until 28 November 2005, which was when I started my secondment/training contract at South West London Law Centres. Strictly speaking, I have two roles at RAD. As well as being a trainee solicitor, I’m also a casework supervisor, supervising the casework of six members of staff, as well as four members of staff at deafPLUS. This basically entails the provision of information about various issues, advising advisers on how to deal with difficult clients or situations, and conducting regular file reviews of cases, to assess whether the advice being provided is comprehensive and of sufficient quality.

However, as I wanted more experience in employment law, I arranged a further secondment to Hugh James Solicitors, in their Employment and HR Services department in Cardiff. I have learnt a lot in the short time I have been there, and with each day, I’m more confident about working in private practice as an Employment Solicitor.

My aim is to secure a job as an Employment Solicitor post May 2007, in a private practice firm in either Cardiff or Bristol. I have been put forward for a number of posts, and I am still waiting to hear whether I will be offered an interview. So watch this space.

All in all, it’s quite an exciting period of my life, in that I don’t know what’s going to happen to me this year. Will I continue working for RAD as a qualified solicitor? Will I be leaving RAD and become fully immersed into the private sector? Where will I be working?

Some of you will know that I have started my Professional Skills Course (PSC), completion of which is a prerequisite to becoming a qualified solicitor. Nick Turner, my principal solicitor, wanted me to do it sooner rather than later, hence why I’m doing it at the moment.

I have already completed two modules:

• Client Care and Professional Standards; and
• Financial and Business Skills.

Financial and Business Skills required that I sat a one and a half hour exam consisting of multiple choice questions and two case studies, which I did on 19 June 2006. I received a letter today informing me that I passed it, so I’m pleased.

I’m starting the Advocacy & Communication Skills module next Tuesday, and I’ve got a one-day elective in Litigation Drafting Skills next Monday, in Cardiff. My final elective, How to Conduct Unfair Dismissal Proceedings, will take place on 13 November 2006, in Birmingham.

The course in London has been taking place at Regent’s College. It’s dead posh there, unlike Crosskeys College and the other colleges in South Wales I could have gone to to do my A Levels. Surrounded by Regent’s Park, it is a really pleasant place to walk to from Baker Street station, with lakes, fresh air and stillness, as opposed to the busy pace of city life.