Friends mentioned to me that they had taken their son to an open day at university and that one of the longest queues was at the desk where a law lecturer and student sat – all those young, optimistic students thinking about doing a law degree and dreaming of the life they would have
It got me thinking about why I chose to do a law degree. All those years ago, what did the dream of being a lawyer look like?
Well in the 1980s, LA Law was very popular. Thursday evenings on ITV at nine o’clock, the theme tune would blast out, and I watched the lawyers in their plush surroundings with interesting cases. Perfect clothes and top of the range cars. Fine food and drink. Falling in love with other beautiful and well groomed lawyers.
We knew that this was set in America but it was an inspiration. I have never worked in a city centre firm, but have spent my career in high street firms. I have never worked in a firm where the receptionist brings you a glass of water in a bottle which has the firm’s name on the bottle. I am lucky if my mug doesn’t have a chip in it!
And it makes me think about where we end up – from that first day studying law at university to the desk we now sit behind. Did we all expect to be conveyancing solicitors? Did we make a conscious decision that conveyancing was the area of work we wanted to specialise in? or did it just happen?
This is true for every lawyer – how did a criminal advocate become the lawyer who got up in the middle of the night and went to the local police station in his role as a duly solicitor ? I know that I never wanted to do that type of work. I did part of my training in the matrimonial department but after watching a couple argue about who should have the dog, I knew that was not the type of work for me – I did not like the arguing!
Which may be why I have succeeded as a conveyancer in that everyone does seem to want the same thing at the end of the transaction.
But where could our choices all those years ago have taken us? and however we look at those students, lining up to sign up to a law degree , and the dreams and aspirations they have , we were all those students once.
We still must have those dreams in us somewhere…. Is it too late to make them come true?
This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.