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Live and learn

I have read this long article with interest and write as a FILEX with over 20 years experience in the law. I am often asked to give my opinion over which route is best and I always decline. My experience was ILEX; I didn't attend University and I don't have a degree. Obtaining qualification was a long and hard process. I studied and worked full time earning good fees for my law firm employers; by day a PI practitioner, by night studying Constitutional and European Law and other electives. Maybe those who have gone the degree route consider themselves to be more 'academic' and thats just great. Personally I chose not to put lawyers into boxes based on their education. I have worked alongside lawyers from many and varied backgrounds and once the job descriptions are over and done with and business cards are exchanged what matters is how they do their job. A degree may take you to a certain place in life but hard work, dedication, knowledge and enthusiasm about your work and your positive contribution take you further. Richard Ridyard says that the ILEX route doesn't give an acceptable foundation for a career in the law and that the value from working from the bottom up is later lost in the mix. I strongly disagree but I do so from a position of experience. The law is not one flat linear service; it is an ever changing complex environment providing different services to different types of consumer. The training routes into legal practice should rightly reflect this environment; let the lawyers of the future decide their route into the law.

8-Dec-2011

6:59 pm