On Thursday of last week I paid the princely sum of £20 to keep myself on a list. The list is known as the Roll of Solicitors and one can only be on this list if they have passed assessments (now known as SQE – solicitors qualifying exams), have a degree in law (or another subject), completed the minimum amount of training of two years, and met the character and suitability requirements. To practice law, you must be on this list and usually as a practicing solicitor in a law firm the annual renewal will be dealt with by HR. But as a non-practicing solicitor e.g. people who have retired, work in house, and anyone else that has been a solicitor can apply to be on the Roll. When I left in 2014, I didn’t need to apply annually nor pay a fee. Then, in 2022 a review was undertaken, the first fees were taken last year.

Paul Philip, SRA chief executive, commented in August 2022 to The Law Society Gazette: ‘Since we stopped the previous keeping of the roll exercise there have been significant changes to data legislation and requirements. We now need to reintroduce a process for ensuring all data held on the roll is accurate and up-to-date. Importantly, we are working to make sure that the costs are as low as possible and that the process is straightforward.” The Gazette thought the fee might be £40-£50. It is £20- is it worth it – and why have I paid?!

I left school to go to the then University of Wales, Aberystwyth to study Law. 2 years there -and one year on the then Erasmus scheme at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. In my final year at Aber, I was interviewed for a West Country law firm in Yeovil, Somerset. It was my only interview from however many firms I applied to and I am not even sure how many firms I did apply to – but I don’t think it was many. A Martin Davis and the Head of HR whose name now completely escapes me interviewed me. My three abiding memories of that day was the question from Martin as to “why should they not employ me?” It was a question that didn’t completely floor me, but I did repeat it just to make sure I had heard correctly. I answered something along the lines of I wasn’t local but marrying someone who was already working in the area and that should mitigate any worry of me leaving the area. At lunchtime I then asked where the nearest bank was and was told that lunch was provided and that I didn’t need to pay. My response to that was, I was going to find a cashpoint so that I could pay the toll for the Severn Bridge into Wales, and my final memory was receiving a call while driving through Abergavenny, and pulling in at the graveyard to be told that I had a training contract at Battens starting in September 2004. A theme would develop of getting jobs while on journeys! I graduated from Aber in the Summer of 2003 watched on by Martin and my parents in a degree ceremony conducted entirely in Welsh – no one told me that when I applied!

From Aber I went to the University of Exeter’s Centre for Legal Practice to undertake the Legal Practice Course (LPC), a pre-requisite of a year before the training contract could commence. The LPC shortly after I left was moved from Exeter to University of Plymouth. Some research now tells me it is back at Exeter but under the guise of the University of Law and even now, the LPC will be eventually replaced by the SQE (Solicitor’s Qualifying Exams) in a transition that will apparently be complete by 2032. The LPC was a course that put theory into practice so that when the time came to step into a law office we were prepared to run cases. In core modules and electives I just about passed the course, and thankfully was then able to call myself a trainee solicitor for 2 years.

My training contract at Battens I thought would be in four seats before being offered a job. I knew that it wasn’t a foregone conclusion to be offered a full time job after it ended, but I didn’t think about it. I wasn’t looking to go into family law and Battens didn’t offer criminal law nor was I offered any option about what my four seats would be. I started in Personal Injury. The department was a whole other company and if memory serves was called something like LAW, lawyers at work – maybe. It was on an industrial estate in Yeovil, a large open plan office with about 6ish desks to each section. I remember very little, except that there were very few qualified solicitors working there. Many were legal executives and paralegals, cases were initially triaged and if there was a case to be had it was handed over to a case worker. I spoke to a lot of people over the telephone only ever meeting two clients. One of whom was a teen and lived in North London, and the other lived on a farm in Wiltshire. That client I would see again on my second seat in family. I learnt a lot about slip and trips, loss of earnings and potential loss of earnings, but I wasn’t passionate about it!

After sixth months of dress down Fridays and bacon butties on a Friday morning from the van that toured the industrial estate, I was brought back into Mansion House, the main office of the solicitors. Eventually personal injury would also come back to the fold.

My next seat was to be life changing. It was family under the guidance of Julian Hayes, a very well spoken man. The family department was also in an annex of the main office. It had its own entrance, 4 small offices of which Julian had his own, the others housed the other solicitors and paralegals – 2 to a room. Outside these offices were the secretaries and on my first day, I was given a computer and a desk with the secretaries. Unbeknownst to me, until much later the family team had used me as a pawn. Up until me, all the trainees had gone to one person and they wanted the person who had interviewed me, Martin, to have a trainee. By doing this, it meant that I was not well versed in matrimonial law and finances. During my first week, I had sat in on a client interview and when I came back after 30 minutes my email had been filled with invites. Those invites were for multiple court hearings that would effectively mean I was never in the office for very long. Often I would meet Martin (boss Martin or work Martin as I would refer him as – since I also had a home Martin or “my Martin) in the morning and then he would go back to his Sherborne office in the afternoon, and I would go back to the Yeovil office. All of these court hearings would set me on a particular path and one that perversely I enjoyed – it was child law specifically child protection.

I became my training principal’s shadow. Advocates meetings, client meetings – often meeting our clients in their homes, and court hearings in Magistrates Courts from Sherborne (now gone) to Bournemouth in Dorset to Bridgwater and Taunton in Somerset and a few hearings in London at the High Court.

Family hearings are conducted in private and once I became a fixture behind Martin it was accepted by everyone that I would come into court. Permission had to be asked and in our home family court in Yeovil, often there would be a nod of the head before words were spoken. Only once, in Bridgwater Court was I asked to leave and for my principal to ask permission for me to come in. It never happened again. But I remember both of us being annoyed at this magistrate for exerting her power when no one else from other magistrates to High Court Judges had asked for such a thing.

My six months ended, well kind of but not really. I was sent to the Sherborne office, a sleepy town in Dorset. It is 5 miles from Yeovil and very different. The office is a townhouse, and it came with a garden, a bath in the ladies and lead piping in the water taps. I began my third seat in private client. My supervisor called the three of us in her office “my girls”. I hated it but I never thought to ask the others whether they felt the same or indeed to tell her. In private client there were wills, old people, death, and probate with inheritance tax and capital gains tax. I was taught the skill of sewing a will, though that skill has long since gone. The travelling to court disappeared but not seeing clients in their homes. One such client I saw in Gillingham, Dorset to witness his will. Sadly, shortly after witnessing his will at his house, I was back at the house, but this time with a valuer. In valuing the car he said “the old man has driven by touch”. I thought that was a great statement for a very scratched and dented car. It certainly couldn’t be said to have been owned by one careful owner!

My Private Client days were interwoven with Family Court days. I was not going to be let out of the clutches of my training principal. I am not sure I even did six months in Private Client, but I did the minimum to pass!

My fourth seat was back in Family and so it came to pass that I became a shadow again during this time Julian also retired and a new Head of Department arrived. She was a whirlwind and while our paths didn’t cross often as I was mainly in the Sherborne office, her white cowboy boots were memorable as was her misunderstanding of the law where I was concerned. As a trainee solicitor I didn’t have Rights of Audience – the ability to appear in court as an advocate. Under whatever section of an Act I could apply for them which is what I had to do on this particular Wednesday afternoon. If it had been a directions hearing – uncontested and simply a matter of timetabling statements and other court hearings it would have been an uncontroversial decision. But my training principal was on paternity leave hence why it was Jeni making the decision and not him – and indeed why the decision even had to be made in the first place. The hearing was an Emergency Protection Order in respect of a new born baby. Ultimately I think the Local Authority were looking to remove the baby at birth from mum. I knew what I was doing – but could have done without my first appearance in court representing a thoroughly unpleasant guy who couldn’t see why the “busybody”social worker saw him as a threat. Everyone else could see the risk though if mum and baby were discharged from hospital to the family home. All the other legal representatives, who were all technically opposing my position were extremely supportive of me and while initially we thought it would be a contested hearing with evidence, we all left Yeovil Family Court with an agreement that would last until I had the chance to brief a barrister or better still until my supervisor was back!

That client however would become the easiest client to represent – he was sent to Dartmoor Prison and that necessitated a “home” visit. In May 2006, work Martin and I visited him and while going to Dartmoor prison was an epic journey in itself, the return journey was to be even more memorable. Dartmoor Prison was bleak even on this sunny day in May. The granite walls were not glinting and I just remember that I was glad I wasn’t doing the trip regularly. It was in the middle of nowhere. But after the visit and on the way back to Yeovil, we stopped for sustenance at a beautiful location in Devon. It was there I was told that Battens would accept me as a qualified solicitor into the Family Department. For someone who had been adamant (from even my work experience at a law firm in Carrickfergus) that I wouldn’t do family law – I was now eating my words! Never say never!

I was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in September 2006 and on advice of work Martin, home Martin and my parents and I all went to the Law Society in London to be admitted formally in a ceremony. The photo is still hanging on the wall of my parent’s home but my certificate is with me in China.

Despite attempts, I was not into matrimonial law and because I didn’t like it, I avoided it as best I could. I really did specialise in child protection and in 2010 I further qualified as a Children’s Panel Solicitor. This meant that I was allowed to represent children through their CAFCASS Guardian. In 2012 I qualified as a Resolution Mediator.

Where possible, I conducted my own hearings, rarely briefing barristers but on one occasions I represented a mum in court while other parties were represented by QCs (now KC – King’s Counsel). When I did brief barristers on complex matters I tried to always sit behind and learn more. I was even sitting behind up until a couple of weeks prior to Eleanor being born.

I have seen parents unable to separate from their violent partners or unable to put their children before their dogs, I have seen broken bones and brain trauma in immobile babies, babies born with foetal alcohol syndrome or addicted to drugs, children who have been neglected, sexually abused, physically abused and emotionally abused. I have read psychiatric reports, psychological reports, detailed reports into X-rays and bruising (you can’t date a bruise from its colour) and I have organised paying the eye watering invoices of these experts and also ensured that clients have made the journey to London or wherever to meet those experts.

I have also seen mums who, after child number eight, made changes and kept her child from being removed and adopted. I have seen grandparents step in and look after grandchildren protecting them and giving stable and loving environments to thrive in, I have seen foster parents provide immediate safety for children, I have seen adoptive families work hard to ensure a forever family and I have also seen adoptive placements not work. I have also seen parents fight hard and work with the system and have happy endings for everyone.

It was a rewarding job with the child always at the centre. I worked with a fantastic bunch of solicitors, barristers, social workers and guardians. We were collaborative and while we didn’t always agree with the positions we were putting forward, we all supported each other because we saw and heard some horrific things. It was a tight community and sometimes difficult to penetrate if strangers entered our home courts.

I have been to Dartmoor and Portland Prisons, been to secure units for teenagers and appeared in courts in Truro, Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton, Bridgwater, Bath, Bristol, Weston Super Mare, Swansea, Yeovil, Sherborne, Dorchester, Blandford Forum, Wareham, Bournemouth and Poole, Salisbury, Epsom, Guildford and Staines and had cases in the High Court and the Court of Appeal in London. Many of the cases stayed in the Family Proceedings Court, and if they were more complicated, then they went up to the County Court to the District Judge and then up to the High Court – those cases weren’t frequent but they were by far the most interesting and demanding.

The Judges and Magistrates were fair and on asking to see the judge in Taunton to tell him I was leaving and that it had been a privilege to appear before him, His Honour told me I had been a good quality advocate doing the best for my clients.

I could do a blog on my legal life, and maybe one day I will – but for now, I think it shows that paying my £20 to stay on the Roll is recognition for me of the hard work I put in to this career.

Do I miss it? Sometimes. It is the people and variety I miss – but I don’t miss the billing and accounting for each 6 minute increments nor do I miss the Legal Aid and being paid a fraction of what our time was worth.