The battle

I decide on the way to the interview that I actually didn't want the job. I couldn't see how it would advance me professionally and was annoyed that I'd have a commute in traffic and that the salary probably wouldn't keep me in decent holidays.

I get there an hour early and decide to call a friend, who is incredibly wise and always knows exactly what I need to hear, even if I didn't know it myself. "Come on Little Lawyer, isn't this just to ride out the Armageddon?"

So I walk up the stairs to the offices and the first thing to hit me is the smell of hot food. Lunch was 4 hours ago. I sit in the small reception where there were clients waiting to be seen. They must have already been there a while. I'm seen 20 minutes late and they were still sat there.

"So Little Lawyer, I'm going to give you 30 files and by the end of the month you'll have another 20. Is that going to be a problem for you?"

This was obviously an attempt to intimidate me, so I told Mr Partner that if I wasn't intimidated on day 1 in a ridiculously busy department handling my own case load where the files were piled up on my desk when I was a trainee, why would he think that keeping me with a constant stream of work would be a problem for me.

"You do pro bono work. What's in it for you?"

"So Little Lawyer, I guess if the firm you trained with really wanted to keep you they would have made arrangements so that could have happened..."

I interrupted. I told Mr Partner that if he wanted to know why I wasn't kept on, he could ask me straight rather than insinuate all sorts of things about my capability without even knowing me. This was turning out to be more of an argument than an interview.

At the end of the interview, I left, thinking that if this place thought they were going to get blood from me they had another thing coming. I'm hardworking, conscientious, and worth every penny, but I wont be taken the piss out of when the wages don't match my new qualification.

So I thought it went really badly. I was on the defensive to the point of being rude (which isn't me at all) and must have made a really bad impression - the last thing I wanted to do. I called my recruitment consultant and gave him the bad news and was suprised to hear that they really liked me. I think I may have got the job, and all I have to do is negotiate a suitable package, but I'll know more this week.

Have I introduced you to...?

So here I am, newly unemployed. Times are tough out there, and when I finished my training contract (just like in firms up and down the country) there wasn’t any room at the inn. There was however, room for my fellow trainee, in the department I always anchored my preference for and in which fellow trainee hadn’t contemplated before it became obvious that if there was to be any vacancy, it would be there.

The best trainee won? Maybe. But I don’t think its entirely irrelevant that fellow trainee’s father is also a partner at my training firm. Bitter? Maybe a little, even if it is understandable in the current economic climate.

But is it? Is it ok for nepotism to exist in a larger than high street law firm when faced with two, equally qualified and competent candidates? Part of me thinks it is even if it is contrary to my personal interests.

Hugely successful businesses have been built on familial connections and I think clients like it. In fact, one can even extend the definition (if I may be so bold as to rewrite the dictionary), to giving a leg up to friends, or family of friends. Isn’t it what we all do? Isn’t it the point of networking? Most of us wouldn’t think twice using personal contacts, or shmoosing about a common interest to open doors – and it is what networking sites like LinkedIn are all about.

Research by Transparancy International (discussed in an article in the FT found here at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eefda9de-a84d-11de-9242-00144feabdc0.html) suggests it is one of the reasons for corporate corruption. I wouldn't go that far. I mean, wouldn’t a person with a familial tie want the family business to be a success? Wouldn’t a person who got his/her job at a friend of his father’s accountancy firm want to prove that he/she deserved the role, by working harder than may be necessary? Although the latter suggests that someone else would not be so hardworking. If such an accusation was to be pointed in my direction, I would be mightily offended, since I’m annoyingly conscientious and need to know that I have earned every penny I am (or rather was) paid.

The fashionable and wider issue, is the effect nepotism has on the diversity of the legal profession. I was going to quote some wonderfully wise words from the Master of the Rolls, but came across a rather entertaining examination of the class ceiling which appears to exist in the legal field, written by student Aryan Sharahi and edited and produced by ThePurpleRobot found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua8MiMpak98 .

Times are tough out there, so whatever gives us the edge is fair play, and I value loyalty to family and friends. Would I have an issue with nepotism if my uncle Bob was the owner of Uncle Bob LLP, or my father golfed with the Chief Exec of Commercial Ltd? I’m not sure. What I can be certain of, is that from the moment I began my (self funded) studies, to getting and completing my training contract, it was achieved with my personal charm (yep, even the checkout job at Tesco) and qualifications (ditto the Tesco job). Granted, this gives me an enormous sense of self satisfaction, but there is a problem. One can’t live (financially, emotionally and professionally) on self satisfaction alone.

This is also my guest blog post for the wonderfully brilliant legal blog by Charon QC http://charonqc.wordpress.com/