If a solicitor in a Chamber Practice were a Marvel superhero, they’d have to be Captain America.
Why? Because unlike Thor, who has a big hammer, or The Hulk, who has green skin and anger issues, they must have experience and use a whole variety of different talents.
They’re also expected to turn their hand to any and all aspects of the law.
To find out more about what it means to be Marvelous, we spoke to Derek Robertson.
The Managing Partner at Stirling & Gilmour has worked as a solicitor in Scotland for more than 30 years.
What does a typical day look like?
“The basic framework is the same: correspondence, emails, seeing clients, and a small amount of court time. It’s the subjects that change frequently.
We cover mostly domestic but some commercial: buying and selling houses; the administration of estates and trusts, making sure wills are adhered to and are clear; family law, dealing with divorces, visitation rights to children, and separation of cohabiting partners; civil litigation, which is a very interesting field; accident claims; and a small amount of criminal law, mostly road traffic and summary cases at the Sheriff court.
Since we’re a rural practice, every partner has to be able to turn their hand to anything. So you can be covering every aspect of the law in any given week.”
What kinds of skills are needed?
“Communication is vital. You’re bringing clarity to the client, and you need to know what they want to achieve and what the salient details are.
This isn’t necessarily what they want to tell you, so it’s more than just listening. You need to be focused and inquisitive.
What a client thinks is important may not be what is important and vice versa. You need an enquiring mind, and can’t take things at face value.”
What advice would you offer to those starting out in the profession?
“I’d say look into work experience or training schemes at a larger firm. That’s not to say smaller rural practices won’t give you the same experience, because they will.
But the learning can be more structured at a larger practice, where a young lawyer can rotate round various departments – and gain experience in a more organised fashion.
In smaller practices, you tend to have learn on the job.
It necessitates more flexibility from the start.”