I have a masters in film and used to run my own company making low-budget productions, but there was no money in it. A friend’s mother ran a small criminal law firm which back in 2000 dealt with the case of Afghans who hijacked a plane and forced it to land in Britain. That really piqued my interest.

My training contract was excellent for developing a deep, nuanced understanding of criminal law, which I always knew I wanted to practise.

Lateral thinking makes you a good lawyer. And the capacity for creativity. They say lawyers are interpreters, but that can be true more broadly than is supposed.

Obscenity is my speciality. The most difficult aspect has been not getting emotionally involved. People like Simon Walsh are heroes for standing up for what they believe in. I am a better lawyer now for having dealt with offences like interfering with a fungus (picking mushrooms) in a royal park. A waste of the legal system’s time. Just like a significant proportion of the sexual cases I undertake, which concern consensual adult material.

Many other lawyers I come across are ‘small c’ conservative. That makes it difficult to espouse a more liberal view of the law. People who discover I’m a lawyer loosen up a bit once they understand I do legal aid work. That’s why they buy me drinks.

The hardest type of client I deal with is the alleged sex offender viewing indecent material. They are usually in denial, manipulative and lacking in insight. The rise of the higher-court advocate has been hugely significant for the profession. HJA now does 80% of its advocacy in-house. We are beginning to see the fusion of the two professions.

The bigger firms need to specialise, but there will always be a place for the high street practice. I am scared for high street practitioners, but they are absolutely necessary.

People who have ‘paralegalled’ don’t seem to be considered worthy of becoming qualified solicitors. That is insidious. Other staff and clients would probably say of me that I have a good beard. I am seen as unconventional, which is possibly management-speak for obdurate. But I am also ‘user-friendly’ and have good client care skills.

If you want to be a lawyer but are not sure what to do, be a corporate lawyer. If you have a calling – a vocation – be a legal aid lawyer.