Southern horizons

How does working in London – or elsewhere in England & Wales – compare to the Scottish scene? Is it a smart move for junior lawyers? How much of a gamble is it? As the Law Society of Scotland rolls out a programme of training and networking events for members in London and the north of England, seven of them describe their career paths to the Journal.

It is clear, for one thing, that the possibilities are not confined to corporate or other readily transferable skills, though that does help make the transition more seamless. Just ask Naomi Pryde, the Society’s Council member for England & Wales (and willing to offer advice as such). She did not let a foreign system thwart her ambition: “I am a litigation lawyer, and that is one of the hardest areas to make the move within as the systems and rules are completely different. My contemporaries who specialise in employment or corporate law found the move much easier. But it can be done, and, in my experience at least, it’s more than worth it.”

“Obviously expertise in some areas of law is more ‘portable’ than in others,” remarks Carolyn Thurston Smith, a policy adviser at the Law Society of England & Wales, “but it is fairly easy to work out if there is scope to do the work you like in the place you want to go.”

Even those with an apparently smooth transition may find themselves doing something different. Sarah Chilton, an employment lawyer at niche practice Fox, found her skills transported easily, but then branched into a new area, partnership law, which has provided “exciting and varied work”.

London, of course, is not the only destination. Family lawyer Fiona Kendall moved to Leeds, in her partner’s home county of Yorkshire, to pursue her desire to practise cross-border divorce work. Having already dual qualified and developed her specialism before moving south made the move much smoother.

First steps

The quality of Scots legal training is an asset, as more than one respondent commented. “In my experience, Scots law-qualified solicitors are held in very high regard throughout the world,” observes Emma Leckie, a corporate solicitor with EY. Similarly, Cecilia Parker Aranha, whose public service career has taken her currently to the Competition & Markets Authority: “Scots-qualified lawyers have a really good reputation and can hit the ground running, which helps.”

Söla Paterson-Marke, who qualified and practised at DLA Piper before embarking on an LLM abroad, flags up that work is not the only consideration, especially at the initial stage: “It may sound basic, but accommodation can be such a key factor to one’s enjoyment of a place, and it’s important to sort that out in advance so that you can hit the ground running.” He adds, however: “Make sure to get involved in work straightaway – apart from anything else, it means you don’t have time to think about being homesick!”

Seven years on, Parker Aranha remains “disgruntled” at her long commute, and also flags up the location aspect: “Choosing where you will live is probably the most important decision you’ll make because it can have such a big impact on your commute, your social life and your budget.”

Leckie, who already had close friends in London, comments: “I imagine that if you were moving to a new firm and didn’t know anyone, it could be daunting, but London is such a lively and vibrant city that you get to know people fairly quickly. There is also a large pool of Scottish solicitors here, so you certainly wouldn’t feel alone or unsupported.”

Pryde assures us that the Society is trying to ensure that people making the move feel supported, by organising networks and regular drinks to help them develop contacts and avoid loneliness.

Testing the market

On jobhunting, Leckie comments: “The market is competitive and the calibre of candidates is high. I think that if you work hard and have a positive and determined attitude, that is certainly a strong starting point.”

“Strong but competitive” probably sums up the London jobs market. Pryde, who used recommended recruitment consultants to find a position, considers that “It is easier to get a job or to move within roles when you are ‘on the ground’, but I would never advise anyone to leave a permanent job to move to London (or anywhere) without having a job to go to.”

Paterson-Marke observes: “If the market is buoyant in London it can seem as though there are endless opportunities, but when it’s down, it’s really down.”

As for qualifying in England & Wales, most of our panel have done so, albeit before the current Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) raised the bar, as Pryde has found: “I sincerely regret not having done it [under the former scheme], as I understand from my peers who did, that it was a far simpler (and substantially cheaper) process than it is now! The QLTS has proven to be substantially more work than I originally expected, and what with the demands of working in a busy department and being a Council member, unfortunately I have not had the time to commit to studying and to completing the exams. My new year’s resolution for 2016, however, is to complete the exams and dual qualify.”

Leckie adds: “I am not required to re-qualify but I think it is a valuable thing to do. I intend to sit the tests next year. I think the process has become more difficult in recent years, but most of my friends and colleagues who have taken the test recently have passed first time round.”

The winding road up

A point that comes over strongly is not to nurture too many preset ideas about your career path. As Chilton puts it: “Don’t be scared to leave your comfort zone and explore new and different challenges. Life is a long journey and you don’t need to stay on the same path the whole time, nor do you need to reach your destination via the shortest route possible. You can gain a lot by taking different paths to those you thought you’d take at the beginning!”

Parker Aranha agrees: “A key tip is, seize the opportunities as they come along. The times I’ve progressed most in my career have been when, for whatever reason, I’ve had to step up, often because of the absence of a manager. It can be really scary, but those are the times I’ve really learned to trust my own judgment and make hard decisions.” Her “zigzag” moves up the Civil Service structure have, she explains, “given me a really great breadth of experience, and also the confidence that I can transfer my skills from one area to another, even if it’s a totally new area of law”.

Describing her own progression as “the scenic route”, Thurston Smith’s top piece of advice to those starting out is: “You don’t have to do, or even decide, everything ‘right now’. Of course some people know exactly where they are headed from the start, but I have also met many people who have taken their own scenic routes with all sorts of stopovers along the way that they never even knew existed. I think, perhaps, the trick is to have a rough destination in mind and then follow the path that looks most interesting to take you there.”

Paterson-Marke also stresses the importance of taking opportunities: “It is not immediately apparent where something might lead. International pro bono initiatives are worthwhile to the beneficiaries and can help gain exposure to foreign lawyers. Writing short articles on areas that are of interest and posting them on LinkedIn is also a great way of interacting with people in other jurisdictions.”

There to stay?

Are they in England for good? Yes, says Pryde: “I originally came down for the experience and to see what it was like, but now I think I’m here for the foreseeable future (sorry, Mum!)”. Kendall, in Leeds for nine years and now a partner and head of family law, also looks set to stay. Parker Aranha and her husband have “no immediate plans to leave”, given that she sees London as providing “great opportunities at this stage in my career”.

Chilton has no plans otherwise, but as someone who “can’t sit still for long”, is non-committal: “Having already made two moves which I couldn’t have predicted, I’m not going to try to look into my crystal ball.”

Leckie, while currently happy living and working in the capital, may yet make the most of being in an international firm: “I certainly wouldn’t rule out spending some time working in another EY office, perhaps in New York or Asia.” She adds: “There may come a point when I want to return to Scotland, but I’m hoping that the additional experience and skills I will have gained from working elsewhere in the UK or abroad will be looked upon favourably.”

Paterson-Marke, now studying at Stanford Law School, California, also seeks “an international element” to whatever may follow. His advice to others considering the move: “If you try it and don’t like it, you can always return, but if you don’t try it you’ll never know…”

Challenge, rewards, horizons

“Have a go” just about sums up the overall advice. “Moving to London, elsewhere in the UK or even abroad, may seem intimidating or daunting at first, but you shouldn’t let that stop you,” Leckie states.

Chilton urges: “If you want to but are hesitating, do it! It’s not for everyone but if it’s something you want to do, I don’t think you settle until you’ve at least given it a chance.”

Parker Aranha advises: “You have to do your research and plan as best you can, but ultimately, you just have to make the leap.” She makes one further point: “I found many people start and end the working day later than was the norm in Scotland (and others come in very early indeed to beat rush hour).”

For Kendall, life as a Scots lawyer not in London “can be a little lonely”, but she maintains her network (and legal knowledge) with regular trips back to Scotland. “I do think that practice in both jurisdictions can be improved by our shared knowledge,” she comments, but “you have to be prepared to put in a bit of effort in order to make it work, particularly if you want to maintain a dual qualification”.

Her concluding advice is: “Assume that it will be hard work but that the rewards will be commensurate with the effort put in. Expect to have your horizons widened.”

Going places

The paths our seven southern members took to their present positions

Sarah Chilton

Senior associate at employment practice Fox, Chilton trained and initially practised in employment law at Balfour+Manson, before moving in 2009 to Murray Beith Murray to help establish its employment and litigation department, a role that provided valuable management experience. Appointed head of employment in 2013, she decided however that “with itchy feet and a desire to find (slightly) better weather”, it was time to move south. A friend put her in touch with Fox, which has been “a great move”, taking her into the new area of partnership law – one that “has been challenging and rewarding, and life in London outside of work has not disappointed either!”

Emma Leckie

After training with Biggart Baillie/DWF, Leckie was offered a place in its London corporate team. A year later she decided on a move to the new UK legal team of EY (formerly Ernst & Young), “because of the wealth of opportunities and EY’s global reach and reputation” – a private practice position despite a common misconception that she works in-house. “London is a truly international city and there are so many career options available. I wanted to work with a wide range of clients and colleagues from throughout the world,” she comments.

Fiona Kendall

Kendall developed a cross-border divorce practice for five years in Scotland with Maclay Murray & Spens and then Morton Fraser, qualifying in England in the process, before moving to Leeds in order “to develop my English expertise by having hands-on experience”. (The move also suited her Yorkshire-born partner.) Her experience made it fairly easy to find a post, and nine years later she is head of family law at city firm Clarion, where her caseload is still roughly equally split between English and Scottish cases, along with advice as to the comparative merits of divorce in each jurisdiction.

Söla Paterson-Marke

Young lawyer member on the Law Society of Scotland’s Council, Paterson-Marke “caught the London bug” during a year as a management consultant before his training with DLA Piper – a training which involved international work, including six months in Sydney. After working post-qualified in London for three years, he is undertaking an LLM in law, science and technology at Stanford Law School, California. What next? “It’s very early days in my Stanford career and so I’m still weighing up all of the opportunities that are out there. Whatever I do, there’ll hopefully be an international element to it.”

Naomi Pryde

Council member for solicitors in England & Wales, litigator Pryde moved from Tods Murray to London firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin, four and a half years after qualifying (“I had been advised that if I was going to do it, I should do it before I was too many years post-qualified”). That turned out to be good timing for her, and having practised in court without the assistance of counsel gives her an advantage over English colleagues, as does her broader range of experience and the flexibility that goes with it. “If you have any questions or would like to have a chat about the move, I am more than happy to be contacted,” she offers.

Cecilia Parker Aranha

Describing Parker Aranha as a career civil servant does not do her justice. A project director with the Competition & Markets Authority for the past year, she followed her LLB and Diploma with an MSc in social policy, a Scottish Executive traineeship, then work with, successively, the Office of the Advocate General on devolution issues, the DWP on benefit appeals, public service litigation on a “working holiday” in Canada where she met her husband, and food standards law in Scotland. Two further years at the DWP, this time in London, were followed by a further change of scene to Ofgem and a broad range of work that led to her most recent transfer into a consumer protection role.

Carolyn Thurston Smith

Thurston Smith trained with Dundas & Wilson in Edinburgh, where some international exposure prompted her to take a secondment to the UK Law Societies’ Joint Brussels Office. This gave her a taste for law reform and legal policy, resulting in further Brussels work and then a move to London, covering the UK side of EU legal issues for the Law Society of England & Wales. A recent major project was the Society’s report on the impact of EU membership on the legal profession, and her project-based role continues. “There are two sets of people you will always encounter while travelling: lawyers and Scots,” she comments, “and among them are quite a number of travelling Scots lawyers.”