Legal Executive
Farrer & Co

Cheryl B

00:00:02 My name is Cheryl B. I’m a member of the Corporate Team here, and I work as a Legal Executive. Most of my day is spent in the office, I do a lot of what you call procedural – procedural work. A lot of the entrepreneurs and the single people out there now, they have brilliant ideas, and come along and say I want to set up and company, I want to sell this, but they forget that they need to do all the paperwork and the everyday things to make that possible. So that’s where people like me comes in.

00:00:34 Initially when I was at school, and I was thinking about the sort of job I wanted, I wanted to do shorthand and typing. And we had a very good teacher at Secondary School, and he encouraged all the people, even in our free lessons, we were encouraged to come along to his class if – those that want to learn the – especially the typing. I stayed at school until I was 18, and then I went out into the working world. My first job was at the Civil Service, and I started off as a Copy Typist, then worked up to Shorthand, then a PA. It was interesting, in every day you met different people.

00:01:16 When I started to do the shorthand, I then had to go and visit them in their offices to take my shorthand, and then come back and transcribe it. Sometimes you don’t see them again for the rest of the week, but they leave you to get on with the work. And that appealed to me, not having somebody standing over my shoulder, just being able to be given the work and get on with it, you know, it shows the confidence there, and I enjoyed that. My last role there was as a PA for some Scientific Advisers. The work load, although it was responsible, wasn’t a lot, and at the age I was at the time I felt I needed something, you know, a bit more invigorating or challenging.

00:01:55 From the Civil Service I did temping for about eighteen months, just to get a look around outside to see what else was there. And one of the places that I was temping at, actually asked me to stay on permanently, and that was at what was then the Watney – Truman’s Brewery down in Brick Lane.

00:02:21 Truman Brewery, I was there for five years, and then my boss left. Because I was interested in the Law, I thought here was a good opportunity to look around to see if I could get into that field. During that time I was still – I was still doing Evening Classes, and Law was something that interested me. I did Single Subject Law at college, which was a way into Law rather than going strictly to Law School or Uni. In doing that, I saw an advert for Farrers – current firm. I applied, and I came along for the interview, and then was called back for a second interview and, here I am – twenty-two years later!

00:03:02 You’re allowed to use your initiative, and they give you projects or files that you can deal with, once they know that you are capable of doing it. And that’s what helped my interest in pursuing my Legal Executive – Executive role.

00:03:27 My leisure time is spent primarily doing sports, and my particular sport is netball. And that’s followed me throughout the years from when I was at Primary School. And since I’ve been at my current firm I’ve set up a netball team here, which is going strong. I’ve done netball nearly as long as I’ve been working, or longer!

00:03:50 ENDS