Balancing act

Law firms are increasingly employing elite sportsmen for the various skills they can bring to practice.

Yet juggling legal and sporting commitments can be daunting, reports Suzy Bender

When most solicitors get home from work, they kick off their shoes, pour a drink and settle into an armchair.

But there are some lawyers whose idea of relaxation is to run a marathon, row for an Olympic gold medal, or long jump far enough to become the AAA champion.

These people are different from the rest of us.

But nonetheless they, and the firms they work for, consider taking their sport to the highest level complements their legal careers.

Because what they learn from their sport can be carried over to the workplace.

Manchester-based Addleshaw Booth & Co lawyer Ann Danson qualified in 1997 and now specialises in trust and tax in the firm's private client department.

At the Commonwealth Games in her home city next month, long-jump champion Ann will be competing for England.

She explains how training for what will be the biggest event of her life was made to fit in with her legal work: 'My employers are one of the sponsors of the games.

They have been very good about giving me time off to train, particularly in this last year.

They have let me reduce my hours, so I can train in the morning rather than after a hard day at work and see my coach more often.

Then I can relax more in the evenings, which can be as important as the training.'

There is a long and distinguished history of solicitors splitting their time with sport.

One notable trailblazer was Harold Hardman, who won an Olympic gold medal for the UK's football team in 1908, played for Everton in two FA Cup finals, and then as chairman of Manchester United steered the club into European competition against Football League opposition in 1956, all while in practice.

A more recent big name is that of former England hooker Brian Moore, who managed to combine the two in the days when rugby was an amateur sport.

Having been at City firm Edward Lewis - which dissolved in 2000 for reasons unrelated to him - Mr Moore left the law to work on a telecoms project for musician and businessman Sir Bob Geldof and the Carphone Warehouse.

An insurance litigation and sports law specialist, he has recently returned to practice as a partner at London firm Memery Crystal, although he continues to work as a BBC commentator at the Six Nations tournament.

Mr Moore says that his background has given him a definite advantage when dealing with sports clients.

'When they explain something that is relating to sport, clients know that I understand not only the playing and training sides but also the political aspect because in lots of disciplinary or contract cases, especially when they involve governing bodies, there is a huge political element.

'Quite often people can take entrenched positions, but if you can speak to the right people in the right manner at the right time then you can get a lot of things done that would not get done by having stand-off correspondence.'

He says that his name opens doors to people who are otherwise antagonistic towards lawyers.

'Even if they don't know you personally, they will probably take your calls and have a chat to you whereas they might be more on the defensive with another lawyer.

This is very useful in my field of litigation, where it can be very difficult to get hold of witness and expert evidence.

Sometimes I think they give me a bit more than they might with someone else.'

Even within the firm, he says being a sportsman helps break down barriers, as colleagues watch you play, follow your progress, and make your sport a topic of conversation.

'Another gain is in attracting new clients,' he adds.

'It is quite difficult to identify why you get a piece of business.

But if you have potential clients who like sport, then it makes meetings flow more easily.

You might start off just talking about sport and chewing things around.

As a result, clients with problems might like the feel of the firm and you are more likely to get the work.'

It has become increasingly apparent to employers that solicitors who have also reached the highest level in sport have self-discipline and are extremely well-organised.

They have to be to juggle the demands of a training schedule with their legal careers.

Roger Finbow, the recruitment and training partner at City giant Ashurst Morris Crisp, says his firm now has an active policy of employing elite sportsmen and sportswomen who also have the necessary intellectual skills.

'The reason we have this policy is because they have transferable skills which are particularly apposite to the legal profession.

Even down to the discipline of what they can eat and when they can eat it.

'You may say that lawyers can eat what they like and when they like, but actually if you are going through an all-night meeting, having the right sort of diet becomes important.'

So, Ashurst Morris Crisp has taken the view that there is always a place for people who may be still very much committed to their sport.

Mr Finbow gives some examples: 'Louis Attrill, who was a member of Great Britain's gold medal-winning men's eight rowing team at the Sydney Olympics, starts his training contract with us in September.

One of our assistant solicitors, Ian Warner, is a Paralympic sledge hockey player [this sport is equivalent to ice hockey but on sledges].

'Joining us in September on his training contract we have Chris Holmes, a partially sighted swimmer, whom I believe has taken part in three different Paralympic Games.

Also about to join us is hockey player and Olympic "hopeful" Katy Roberts, who has already worked for us as a paralegal.'

But it is not always easy for law firms to accommodate athletes, as Leeds-based sole practitioner Veronique Marot testifies.

She won the London marathon in 1989 when she was at Addleshaw Booth & Co and broke the British record with her time of 2hrs 25mins 56secs.

In fact, her record stood for 13 years and was only broken by Paula Radcliffe at this year's London marathon.

She was allowed time off for training and her firm happily allowed her to go to Tokyo for the World Championships in 1991.

However, it was more of a problem when she was selected for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and needed three months off to train.

She felt that she had no option but to choose between her job and her running, and went for her job.

But Ms Marot still emphasises the importance of talented athletes getting established in an alternative career while they are young.

She says: 'Remember, you are always at the mercy of injury.

Even footballers in the Premiership can be injured, one moment earning 20,000 a week and the next earning nothing.'

Would it not be easier for athletes to give up work and concentrate fully on their sport while they are training at the highest level? Ms Marot disagrees: 'I don't think I would have run any faster or done any better if I had been a full-time athlete.

I know I would have just frittered the extra time away.

'I think I would have lost touch with the real world.

You can lose a sense of perspective, of priority, and it is much harder later to slot back into working life.

By working at least some of the time you don't end up with an insular attitude with nothing else in life except your sporting activity.'

James Gabb, a solicitor with the Cheltenham-based practice Rickerby Watterson, agrees.

He took up kick-boxing about ten years ago after starting with kung fu.

They are similar but there is less tradition in kick-boxing.

And he was a trainee solicitor with his present firm when he won silver in his weight category at the 2000 world championships.

At the time of the tournament, he would train seven days a week, twice a day; an hour in the morning with one or two hours at night.

Even if there are sometimes difficulties, he maintains it is well worth trying to balance sport and a career.

But he insists that if you cannot fit in the sport, then your career and study have to take priority.

Jonny Searle was in the winning Oxford Boat Race crews of 1988, 1989 and 1990.

He was at law school in 1992 when he won an Olympic gold medal in the coxed pairs event at Barcelona.

And on qualifying at Ashurst Morris Crisp, he continued to train and compete, with the firm giving him time off for training.

He left the firm earlier this year and is an in-house lawyer with the broadcasting company Viasat.

He explains that he has become involved with the Olympic and Paralympic Employment Network (OPEN).

'This scheme is of benefit to sporting employees as they get the option to prepare for the time when they stop their sport.

And employers can benefit from having an employee with a profile which can be used in marketing.

More importantly, employers benefit as sportspeople expect high standards from themselves.

They are goal-orientated and focused.'

Mr Searle says that rowers sit down at the start of each week and ask themselves: 'What five things can I do this week to make me a better rower?' He adds: 'You can apply that same test as a lawyer.

And any sportsman learns to deal with criticism from his coach in a constructive way.

You know that can help you improve.

'Now, I exercise every day; either I cycle to work and back, or go to the gym after work, or go for a row on the weekends.

This year, for the first time, I ran in the London marathon.'

His time was three hours and eight minutes; he says he will try again because he wants to break three hours.

'I do this because it is important to have some kind of balance in your life.

I never wanted to be a full-time rower but equally, now I am a lawyer, I still want to continue some sport.

Whatever you do shouldn't dominate your life to the exclusion of everything else.'

According to Mr Searle, high-profile sportspeople can be used to market their law firms.

Is that so? Mr Finbow says: 'The answer to that is almost certainly yes.

However, we tend not to do that unless the person concerned is very willing to do so.

They have enough on their plate without feeling they have to appear at our marketing events.

'Jonny Searle was always keen to do what he could to reciprocate for our forbearance during his training.

But we would not employ someone for the purpose of marketing the firm.'

Mr Finbow says there is something in it for his firm through the talents of the sportspeople recruited, 'far beyond the status the firm gets through being attached to their name'.

But then again, what firm would turn down the chance of a gold medal-winning employee and all the positive connotations that would bring?

Suzy Bender is a freelance journalist