Solicitors armed with skills for a brief at the frontline

PAULA ROHAN DISCOVERS THAT LAW AND THE TERRITORIAL ARMY CAN BE MUTUALLY COMPLEMENTARY

During the First World War, as Colonel William Mackenzie Smith set off to command the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons in France, he left behind not just his family but a civilian job as a partner in Sheffield law firm Wake Smith.

He later returned safely and ultimately took up an entirely different leadership role - President of the Law Society.

Some 90 years on, solicitors across Britain are preparing themselves for a call-up from the Territorial Army (TA) to travel to the Gulf.

The TA frowns on its soldiers discussing the current political tensions, but observing the importance of confidentiality is not the only similarity between the Army and a career in the law.

James Partridge, partner at Tonbridge-based Thomson Snell & Passmore and a colonel in the TA, insists that a day job as a solicitor actually complements Army life well.

'I think my legal training helps in that it teaches you to think analytically, which is vital in solving military as well as other problems,' he says.

'You also need a great deal of persuasion in order to get things done in the TA.'

Ashley Wilkin, a partner at Reading firm Boyes Turner and a former major in the TA, agrees.

'A legal solution takes into account the equivalent of SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,' he says.

'After considering all these issues, the solution or plan is then decided upon.

An army leader also has to consider the same issues before deciding on his plan - it would be fatal to decide upon a plan without such consideration.'

Conversely, experiences in the Army can make you a better lawyer, says Mr Partridge: 'I have learned a great deal from the army - perhaps most in the fields of leadership and management and the art of acting decisively - in which my generation of solicitors received little or no training.'

Other benefits include comradeship, intense challenges and an increased level of fitness.

However, it is fair to say that serving in the TA is not all fun and games.

Terry Baldwin, a partner with Milton Keynes-based Fennemores, who served as a rifleman in the Royal Green Jackets from 1978 to 1981, says solicitors have to be prepared to get down and dirty as conditions are often far from pleasant.

'Sitting in a wet hole for hours on end and running over ploughed fields with two tonnes of wet kit on your back is probably little different now to the experiences of soldiers in the Napoleonic and other wars,' he says.

Indeed, for Wake Smith, memories of TA life hark back over several wars, as joining the TA has become something of a tradition since Colonel Mackenzie Smith returned from battle.

Partner Jonathan Hunt, whose father was also a partner in the firm and commanded a light air defence regiment, retired from the TA in 1995 but is still honorary colonel of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, which has recently been mobilised for the first time since the Second World War.

He maintains that more young solicitors should join up.

'[The TA] does an extremely important job in our society and provides a remarkably sound education in leadership management and organisation which are vital to any lawyer,' he says.

'It also provides the friendships of a lifetime and teaches one about folk.' Those who want to take on the challenge will find that the TA is aware of the pressures solicitors face in their day job.

'In the end, clients always come first and this is understood by the TA,' says Mr Partridge.

'In fact, for most TA soldiers, TA activity takes place at weekends or in the evenings and so does not impinge too much on work - although it does on family life.'

In fact, despite the common skills necessary to practise law and soldiering, perhaps what is most attractive to the TA's solicitor members is the chance to escape into a totally different role for a few hours.

Mr Partridge says he once considered quitting his day job for the Army - but 'only for about 30 seconds'.

Mr Wilkin feels the same way about his time in the TA.

He recalls: 'Joining the TA battalion of The Queen's Regiment - England's most senior infantry regiment - meant that I had the best of both worlds, partly spending my life immersed in the physical aspects of soldiering and the remainder of my life fulfilling the role of the smooth, clean professional lawyer.'