This post was originally featured on North of the Stupid Line, and has been amended to suit Deaf Blawg.

I qualified as a solicitor today, the culmination of nine years of hard work.

At the tender age of 14, I made the decision that I wanted to become a lawyer. A careers adviser at the time said that I couldn’t become a lawyer because it would be too difficult as I was Deaf. That was probably the best thing he could have ever said to me, as it just made me more determined to succeed.

During A Levels, I applied to the customary six universities, but the A Level European History teacher put me off applying to do a Law degree, as her son was a Cambridge University graduate and he couldn’t get a training contract. If that was true, then what chance did I have? This led me to apply to read History instead of Law.

After the first term at University of Wales Swansea during the 1998/1999 academic year, I began to have second thoughts about the History degree (although I was enjoying it), and made enquiries as to whether I could switch courses. The answer was affirmative, but there was a catch; I’d have to start the first year of the Law degree in the academic year 1999/2000, pushing me behind. The parents weren’t too thrilled with the idea, and I didn’t like the idea of having to work from January to August in the meantime. I decided to stick with my History degree, having obtained advice from the university’s Careers Centre, who informed me that I could do a conversion course after my degree, known as the Common Professional Examination or Postgraduate Diploma in Law, for a year. This course is specifically for non-law graduates.

So, having completed my History degree, I applied for a place on the CPE at the University of the West of England, Bristol, which was accepted. The CPE was the hardest thing I’ve ever done – it was non-stop studying for a full academic year, bearing in mind that it’s the equivalent of a three-year Law degree crammed into one year. I managed to pass it, and enrolled on the Legal Practice Course or Diploma in Legal Practice at Cardiff University.

Then came the difficult part, securing a training contract. I applied for over 150 training contracts since 2001, and despite having about 11 interviews, wasn’t offered one. I started work at the Royal Association for Deaf People in June 2003, the week after I completed the LPC, as an Advice Worker, and eventually was able to arrange a secondment to South West London Law Centres to do an 18-month training contract, beginning on 28 November 2005. Wanting to specialise in Employment Law, I arranged an additional secondment to Hugh James Solicitors for the last five months of the training contract, which ended this week.

So, I’ve now reached my goal – I’m a qualified solicitor, due to be admitted to the roll on 1 June 2007.

So, what’s next? After having worked in the public sector for four years, the aim is to obtain a position as an Employment Solicitor in private practice, in the South Wales or South West area. I’d like to get a few years’ experience under my belt, and perhaps get promoted to Associate or Partner level, and then set up my own law firm with some mates.

This post was originally featured on North of the Stupid Line, and has been amended to suit Deaf Blawg.

You will be interested to know that I am just under 4 weeks away from qualifying as a solicitor. For the past 4 months, I have been on secondment from the Royal Association for Deaf People to Hugh James Solicitors in Cardiff, completing an Employment seat. I am due to qualify on 27 May 2007, with the aim of becoming an Employment Solicitor.

Thus, I am looking for a Newly Qualified position as an Employment Solicitor/Lawyer in the Cardiff and Bristol area, and would be prepared to commute as far as Swansea, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Bath.

I don’t like the way they recruit solicitors. Most law firms recruit using recruitment agencies, and there are literally hundreds of them specialising in legal recruitment. Advertisements are usually anonymous, so you don’t know which firms you’re applying to. If a law firm is advertising through multiple agencies, you don’t know whether you’re applying for the same position in the same firm.

When a seemingly new position that I’m interested in pops up in my searches, I apply, and then I hear nothing. Communication is non-existent. If I apply for a job through a recruitment agency that I haven’t had contact with before, they usually ring me up the next day enthusiastic about my potential, get a few details and send me a letter in the post asking for a copy of my passport for ID purposes. I do as requested, and then hear nothing from them.

There are a number of positions I am particularly keen on, but I don’t hear anything, and as I don’t know the name of the firm, I can’t contact them to check whether they’ve received my application. How do we really know that the recruiters are actually submitting our CVs? It scares me to think that I could be missing out on opportunities.

To be honest, I’m quite disappointed with how the job search is going. I was confident that it would be easier to get a job as a Newly Qualified than it was to get a training contract, but it seems I may have been wrong. I put down my lack of success to the following:

• The market for Newly Qualified Employment Solicitors is quite quiet in the South West and Wales region at the moment;
• My CV is too eclectic, as I’m employed by RAD but seconded to South West London Law Centres, and sub-seconded to Hugh James Solicitors;
• Lack of experience in private practice – however, I will have had five months’ experience when I qualify;
• I’m Deaf – is this same old adage still a barrier?

I really don’t know how to handle this. I guess I’ve just got to plow ahead and hope that my luck will come in one day soon.

The training contract deadline period for application has now passed for another year. It appears that I have been unsuccessful again this year in securing a training contract, which means that if I am successful next year, I am looking at a 2007 start.

I thought it would be useful to give an overview of this year’s applications and rejections and non responses. So here goes, “a year in the life of a rejected candidate”.
Read the rest of this entry »

Deaf Lawyers UK will get eight minutes of fame on Saturday 16 October 2004’s issue of See Hear, 12.30pm, BBC2. Tune in to see Rob, John, Shobha and Marije in the flesh!

As a BSL user, I am trying to achieve my dream to become a barrister. The words I have used above is trying to achieve where you can my point that I have not achieved yet. What I feel is now, all I see trying to achieve is forever and never-ending.

I always have wanted to become a barrister. I told people I want to study a law degree. Many people said I am not good enough because deaf people cannot do it. How can deaf people talk in the court room? No, they said. It is impossible, they says. I broke down feel so down – low self esteem. I ignore their instruction or advice. I applied some universities anyway.

During studying a law degree at the University of Wolverhampton, I was fortune to able to share with other students to pay for interpreters costs. They have interpreter agency at the university which all students can use their Disability Student Allowance to pay to the University and they can divide the money to pay for 3 or 4 interpreters. I obtained a law degree with a lot of difficulties. People tell me I cannot achieve a law degree. Well I do.
Read the rest of this entry »