Legal Executive
Farrer & Co

Carole H

00:00:03 I’m Carole H and I’m a Legal Executive at a firm of solicitors in London. A Legal Executive is the same as a Solicitor, so you’re a qualified lawyer, but you actually work in one area of specialism, whereas a Solicitor trains in all areas, and then specialises at the end of their training contract. I do it right at the beginning. So I feel quite comfortable in – in my area of Law. I specialise in private client law, which is for individuals, so not for big corporate organisations. You can range from doing Trust work, to probate work, making wills for what happens to their Estate after they’ve died, so that sort of thing.

00:00:50 When I was at school I never really knew what I wanted to do. I think when I was around 14, 15, if I had the opportunity to have stayed on at my school to do A-Levels I would have done that, but my school didn’t – didn’t have a Sixth Form, so I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t sure at that time what I wanted to do, but I’d had a very good History teacher who – we used to act out certain events like the election, there was a role-playing kind of lessons, which we enjoyed. And I was always interested in the legal side, but I was thinking of going into banks – banking area.

00:01:35 And I did some work experience actually in a bank, and also in a law firm, and I did enjoy the work I did in the law firm. But I didn’t really want to go to University – or it wasn’t really an option for me at the time. But when I was actually started working, I found there was another way than the conventional going to University and, you know, receiving a training contract. I could do – I could actually do it while working, studying the legal area and becoming a lawyer that way. So, for me, it worked.

00:02:05 The work experience did make me decide to go on to do Legal Secretary’s Certificate was – it’s probably the key point. And then obviously I started working, when I qualified, in the Magistrates’ Court, which was really interesting, as a Court Clerk Assistant. I was interested and quite excited by some of the cases. I must admit there was one individual that come up, and half-way through the case he decided to try to run for it. Jumped over the actual box and tried to run out of court, which I only thought people in films did, I didn’t think anyone in reality would do that. So that was quite an interesting day. He did get out of the room, but he was chased along the corridor. And brought back.

00:02:54 I went to some Agencies when I first come up to London, and there was obviously a few jobs that were around at the time. And I went for a few interviews. And I come to the current firm I’m in and I felt – it felt like I fitted in, I enjoyed it, so – and they offered met the job straightaway and I started.

00:03:20 I think the work I’m doing now is really exciting. It’s more the high profile clients we’re dealing with. You know, people that you would see in the papers every day, so that is an exciting part of the job. Probably in five to ten years’ time, I would hope I’m doing more of the same, building my knowledge, and feel that I can do things more on my own without being – having to go to the Partner and saying – is this right? Feel that – be more confident in my abilities.

00:03:45 ENDS