Thursday 15 January 2009

The best form of defence is attack!

Apologies for the absence of recent posts on this blog.

I mentioned a while back that I got a job as an assistant at a local supermarket. The pay is good and the hours aren't too bad. Also I need to start saving now to pay off those expensive BVC fees I will be dealing with soon.

The job is quite enjoyable really. Most of the people I work with and serve are really intersted in my prospects of a legal career. You won't believe the number of people that have told me that they will be my first customer as soon as I start practising. Whilst this is a very nice thing to hear it always makes me think of the many mountains that I still need to climb to get where I want.

Others want their legal advice sorted out immediately. I recently spent an hour and a half talking to this one guy who wants to sue this 'large company' because he wasn't satisfied with the service he got. By the way, I'm not being intentionally simplistic in this description because of client confidentiality! This is literally all that he gave me to go on and he wanted an answer. I have absolutely no idea of what sort of services this company offers or what his complaint is. An hour and a half, can you believe that?!

More interesting, though, are the people who stop me to talk about topical legal issues. I've spoken to loads of people about the recent De Menezes court case. This required me to have more knowledge about court procedure, jury cases and coroner's direction than I knew. Initially I was satisfied just to guess and use a confident tone; however, I decided that that wasn't the best way to go about things, so I've been trying to get more informed and keep ahead. The best form of defence is attack.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wotcher Lackie

Glad to see you have a concerted plan of attack with regard to the payment of BVC fees - I do hope you are going to go for a scholarship on top of this, since if you are successful it will ease your pain considerably!

Hah - its nice to see that you are drumming up custom, but dont you find that the trouble is they expect you to represent/act on their behalf for NOTHING??? Now, theres nothing wrong per se with representing people for nothing, but having sooooo many clients in return for absolutely nothing means a very big caseload and a quiet death of starvation in a small waste paper basket in the corner of chambers!

Bieng a lawyer is a bit like bieng a midwife, y'know - everyone wants your services at a truly PAINFUL time of life!! Then again, lawyers are also a bit like tarts - since we are one of the worlds oldest professions, we ALWAYS aim to please! :)

Asp said...

I've found the number of people who start talking to me about their legal issues significantly diminish since I've started my TC.

Perhaps it's the line "This sounds interesting, phone me at work and we can discuss when I'm in the right frame of mind. By the way, I charge £90 per hour" ;)

Android said...

Good to hear that your work is going well, Lackie!

Minxy, I like those metaphors!

CLG said...

Nice to know I'm not the only one taking a year out to earn some monies to pay for the BVC!

When I was working as a Barmaid, I was approached by a (supposed) self confessed jewel thief who offered to let me interview him for a Criminology presentation I had to prepare... I'm glad he hasn't subsequently asked me for any legal advice!

If you like giving out advice to people, it might be worth volunteering with the Free Representation Unit. http://www.freerepresentationunit.org.uk/

Good practice and can be a big help for the clients you represent.

Good Luck!