00:01 My name’s Rowena Cordrey I’m a Media Law solicitor here are Farrer’s.
00:05 I qualified in September, but I also trained at Farrer’s for two years and most of my work involves working for defendants, such as newspapers and magazines. I draft letters to solicitors on the other side, I’m on the phone a lot to in house legal advisors and journalists. There’s a lot of client contact and I think that’s great. It’s just very varied and very interesting.
00:30 I wasn’t one of these people that sort of decided, you know at A Levels oh my goodness I want to be a lawyer, I had quite an odd journey in that went to Manchester University and I studied Drama and English. I did that for a year and it, it just didn’t fit I just thought this isn’t quite right. I went back to school and spoke to some of my old teachers and had sort of careers discussions with people and it seemed quite obvious to me that law was the right fit, and so from then on I went to UCL and I studied law. Once I’d finished Manchester after a year a lot of people said, you know what are you doing, that’s probably going to be a mistake and a real sort of blip on your CV, but actually what it did was made me crystallise in my mind that no, I, I know what I want I’ve made the right decision and, and I really haven’t looked back, so I don’t regret it at all but it’s certainly totally changed my career direction and, and my life plan.
01:33 My father was a, investment banker actually and he actually didn’t go to University. I think he, he went to City University or did some sort of later degree but he, he wasn’t professionally qualified early on, my mother was a housewife. There certainly wasn’t any pressure on me to be a lawyer. I was very fortunate in that I went to a good school and I had encouragement from them, but I wouldn’t say that I was pushed to do it, I think probably the pressure came from me.
02:09 I think through my career I’ve been inspired by some people, certainly when I was at UCL, I had an amazing tutor and he encouraged me and said you know you can do this and his sort of confidence in me, made me think no again I, I can do this, I just have to keep trying I’ll just keep going and, and it paid off.
02:42 My two main interests are theatre and film, I recently went to see Enron which is just an amazing play, and film, obviously whatever’s out I see. In terms of work/life balance I think it’s a difficult thing for any lawyer because you know a lot of the time you are going to have to put work first, so I try as much as I can to get that balance right, but it, it’s not easy, but it’s not easy for any lawyer.
03:09 Professionally I would like to be good at my job, I think to be respected, for someone to think that I, well for everyone to think I have integrity, preferably. I’m very proud of the job I have, I think it’s a good job, I think I’m very fortunate, I think I’m in a very interesting industry, that is cutting edge, constantly changing so I’m pretty proud of that and you know to have got the job in the first place.
03:40
Rowena Cordrey
Rowena Cordrey
My name’s Rowena Cordrey I’m a Media Law solicitor here are Farrer’s.
I qualified in September, but I also trained at Farrer’s for two years and most of my work involves working for defendants, such as newspapers and magazines. I draft letters to solicitors on the other side, I’m on the phone a lot to in house legal advisors and journalists. There’s a lot of client contact and I think that’s great. It’s just very varied and very interesting.
I wasn’t one of these people that sort of decided, you know at A Levels oh my goodness I want to be a lawyer, I had quite an odd journey in that went to Manchester University and I studied Drama and English. I did that for a year and it, it just didn’t fit I just thought this isn’t quite right. I went back to school and spoke to some of my old teachers and had sort of careers discussions with people and it seemed quite obvious to me that law was the right fit, and so from then on I went to UCL and I studied law. Once I’d finished Manchester after a year a lot of people said, you know what are you doing, that’s probably going to be a mistake and a real sort of blip on your CV, but actually what it did was made me crystallise in my mind that no, I, I know what I want I’ve made the right decision and, and I really haven’t looked back, so I don’t regret it at all but it’s certainly totally changed my career direction and, and my life plan.
My father was a, investment banker actually and he actually didn’t go to University. I think he, he went to City University or did some sort of later degree but he, he wasn’t professionally qualified early on, my mother was a housewife. There certainly wasn’t any pressure on me to be a lawyer. I was very fortunate in that I went to a good school and I had encouragement from them, but I wouldn’t say that I was pushed to do it, I think probably the pressure came from me.
I think through my career I’ve been inspired by some people, certainly when I was at UCL, I had an amazing tutor and he encouraged me and said you know you can do this and his sort of confidence in me, made me think no again I, I can do this, I just have to keep trying I’ll just keep going and, and it paid off.
My two main interests are theatre and film, I recently went to see Enron which is just an amazing play, and film, obviously whatever’s out I see. In terms of work/life balance I think it’s a difficult thing for any lawyer because you know a lot of the time you are going to have to put work first, so I try as much as I can to get that balance right, but it, it’s not easy, but it’s not easy for any lawyer.
Professionally I would like to be good at my job, I think to be respected, for someone to think that I, well for everyone to think I have integrity, preferably. I’m very proud of the job I have, I think it’s a good job, I think I’m very fortunate, I think I’m in a very interesting industry, that is cutting edge, constantly changing so I’m pretty proud of that and you know to have got the job in the first place.
Rowena Cordrey is a Media Law Solicitor at Farrer & Co. She says "Most of my work involves working for defendants, such as newspapers and magazines. I draft letters to solicitors on the other side, I'm on the phone a lot to in house legal advisors and journalists. There's a lot of client contact and I think that's great. It's just very varied and very interesting".
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