Counting on success

With the election just a few days away, solicitors who are aspiring to get into parliament are on tenterhooks.

Grania Langdon-Down asks what life might hold for them after polling day

There are at least 38 solicitors trying to get into parliament at this election, in addition to the 25 sitting solicitor MPs seeking re-election (see page 23).

Their prospects are, to say the least, mixed.

Liberal Democrat candidate Nigel Boddy, for example, has something of a challenge on his hands taking on Peter Mandelson as the sitting MP for Hartlepool.

Mr Boddy, who is 42, took a while to achieve his ambition of becoming a lawyer after a 'hiccup' in his studies at 19.

He became a civil servant in the Department of Employment before taking his law exams as a mature student.

He did his training contract in Sunderland before qualifying in 1999.

He has taken annual leave from his present job with the criminal legal aid practice Nixon Mallon in Middlesbrough to campaign.

He does not find it demoralising fighting against a sitting candidate with a 21,000 majority.

'I believe Labour is going to win a second term but I also believe that because we stand for more radical policies, every vote I take off Peter Mandelson will push the government into being more caring,' he says.

Mr Boddy also did pro bono work for Magnet Kitchen workers who staged a 20-month battle to get their jobs back after their sacking in a pay dispute.

He adds: 'Being an MP is a precarious life, so even if I won this time, I would keep up my practising certificate, - you have to have a plan B.'Conservative Jonathan Djanogly faces the somewhat less onerous electoral task of standing in John Major's old seat, where the Conservatives had an 18,500 majority in 1997.

Mr Djanogly, who turns 36 just before the election, moved with his wife and two children to Huntingdon after being selected from 250 candidates eager for such a safe seat.

A corporate finance partner with City firm SJ Berwin - recent work involved Guardian IT's acquisition of Norwegian IT company Allegro, and Schroder Venture Life Sciences and others' financing of the genetic company Oxagen - he plans to retain an interest in the partnership after the election.

'Clearly my parliamentary interests will be my primary concern, but I think it is also important - when people accuse politicians of being detached from real life - that I keep my feet on the ground and have access to the real world.' A former City of Westminster councillor, Mr Djanogly stood unsuccessfully at the last election in Oxford East.

'I have wanted a parliamentary career since I was 18, when I realised if you want to see change, you have to get involved.

I never found a political career an impediment to clearing the 2,000 chargeable hours mark - the trick is to be organised,' Mr Djanogly says.

It should also be a case of second time lucky for Labour candidate Ian Lucas who is having his second shot at becoming an MP, this time in the traditional Labour seat of Wrexham, where the majority in 1997 was 11,500.Mr Lucas, 40, is a partner at Stevens Lucas in Oswestry, where he specialises in personal injury and small business partnerships.

He acted for Trevor Rees-Jones, the Princess of Wales' bodyguard, after the Paris crash.

'If I am successful, I am going to retire from practice but remain as a consultant on the firm's notepaper.

I don't think you can do the two jobs.

Politics has been my hobby for many years and now I have the opportunity to do my hobby as my job,' he says.

'I don't think I will miss the law, to be honest.

The days of the high street practitioner - what I wanted to do - are gone now in favour of much more specialisation, even in small towns.

However, a lot of skills I learnt in dealing with clients will be useful in dealing with constituents, because I know where to go to get answers,' Mr Lucas adds.More on a knife edge is Liberal Democrat Emily Gasson, who only needs a 2.5% swing to take North Dorset from the Conservatives.Ms Gasson, who is 30, is on public service leave during the campaign from her post running the legal department of South Somerset Homes, one of the country's largest housing associations, where she has been responsible for conveyancing, neighbour nuisance and rent arrears - which, at times, 'tests my liberalism', she confesses.

She stood unsuccessfully at the last election in Regent's Park and Kensington North in London, while a trainee at solicitors Oliver Fisher.

After she qualified, she moved to Dorset where her family lives, and was selected for the 'target' seat of North Dorset.

She worked for two law firms, Rutter & Rutter in Somerset and Blanchards in Dorset, before joining South Somerset Homes.If she is elected, she will continue working for two months until a replacement is found and then will become a full-time politician.'Becoming an MP has been an ambition for the last six years.

At first you think "I couldn't possibly be an MP", then you discover what they are like, and you think you could do as good a job.

I have always worked in legal aid and now social housing, and it is sheer frustration at the problems policies are creating that finally got me into politics,' Ms Gasson says.

In a similar hot-seat is Conservative Neil Lyon, who is standing in Loughborough, one of the key marginal seats in the Midlands, which Labour took from the Conservatives in 1997.

Mr Lyon, 33 and a Northamptonshire county councillor, was a property litigator with Shoosmiths in Northampton until 1999, when he was selected for Loughborough and decided to move to the constituency.

Since then, he has worked as company solicitor for a property company and in a non-legal role fund raising for an independent school.It is the first time he has stood for parliament.

He has let his practising certificate lapse, and plans to be a full-time politician if successful.

If not, he may return to practice before trying again for parliament.'I have never been one of those people who are prepared just to sit in their armchair and grumble.

Politics has always been my prime goal and I don't miss the time-sheets or the billing guidelines,' Mr Lyon says.

Plaid Cymru is the party of solicitors at the moment, with both the party's president Ieuan Wyn Jones, who is standing down from Westminster to lead his party in the Welsh assembly, and its leader in the House of Commons, Elfyn Llwyd, members of the profession.

Eilian Williams is looking to join them by fighting Mr Jones' Welsh seat of Ynys Mn, which has been held by Plaid Cymru since 1982, with a 6% majority over Labour in 1997.Mr Williams, 51, was narrowly beaten when he stood in the Welsh Assembly elections.

'They were the first ones to come up and that was my preference at the time but I am now quite committed to Westminster.

There is a continuing role for Welsh MPs there, until the Assembly is given greater powers.' He is a partner in D Lloyd Hughes & Eilian S Williams in Holyhead.

The firm is merging with another local firm.

'The situation with franchising is now so onerous, you cannot continue as a two-man firm.' If elected, he will remain as a consultant.

'I think you would be in a position of conflict if you tried to do both jobs - I couldn't cross-examine constituents and call them fibbers, and expect to last long in the constituency.

'I will miss the court work but I won't miss the whole raft of changes that have come over the profession, which have left morale at an all-time low.

If you asked me would I join the legal profession if I had my time again, my answer would be no, not as it is now.'Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist