My father was a farmer but I didn’t fancy a career in agriculture. The beauty of a law degree is that it then takes you on a well-defined path.

My training contract was with the legal department at Nottinghamshire County Council. I was articled to John Hayes, who had a distinguished career in local government. He had high standards and was an excellent principal. My experience in industry particularly helped me with business planning, marketing and staff development. These matters were never covered in a traditional training contract.

I believe generally solicitors speak the same language and get on well. There is a breed of pompous, arrogant barristers that have had the benefit of a private education that do not, or cannot, relate to their clients.

Because of my involvement in professional football and high-profile cases locally I am quite well known in Peterborough, and generally people are very polite and interested – except if I have acted against them. Clients who are unreasonable and do not wish to communicate with their opposition are the hardest sort. They often tell me ‘it’s a matter of principle’.

I have dealt with some very high-profile murders and cases involving membership of the IRA. I am impressed by the intellect of some criminal barristers and their grasp of voluminous evidence and complex legal situations.

There is a lack of respect in society at all levels and clients turn up to court not in a suit but in baseball caps, jeans and trainers. I have always been a huge supporter of training and developing our most important resource – our staff. Helped by Investors in People and Lexcel all of our fee-earning staff have trained with the firm.

Today there are threats from alternative business structures, threats from changes in public funded work, threats from the Jackson reforms in civil litigation, threats from changes in technology and commoditisation of services.

The legal profession will be fine if its members adopt a commercial approach and embrace change and technology. A solicitor starting a career now should probably get a job in the City working on commercial conveyancing. It’s where the money is.

Roger Terrell is principal of Terrells Solicitors and the author of An Unusual Brief: The Life and Times of a High Street Lawyer, available on his website.