Rowland Byass meets lawyers who have swapped the routine of civilian law careers for the Armed Forces.

While many areas of the army have shrunk since the end of the Cold War, the Army Legal Services (ALS) has undergone considerable growth in recent years.

Since the mid-1990s its numbers have more than doubled, from just over 40 to 100 practising solicitors and barristers.

'We live in an increasingly litigious world - that applies in the services as it does in civilian life,' explains Lieutenant Colonel James Stythe, staff officer grade 1 to the director of the ALS, General Gordon Risius CB.

General Risius's roles also include advising the Army Board and Ministry of Defence and heading the Army Prosecuting Authority.

Another major factor in the increase are changes in the courts-martial system as a result of the Armed Forces Act 1996, requiring more prosecutors.

The army has also been devoting personnel and resources to preparation for the Human Rights Act and the Armed Forces Discipline Act 2000, both of which came into force recently.

The Armed Forces Act incorporates the Human Rights Act into the forces' internal discipline system, introducing a right of appeal for soldiers charged with lower level offences as well as a custodial review process.

Before joining the ALS, Colonel Stythe worked as a solicitor in the Crown Prosecution Service.

Unlike its naval counterpart, the ALS recruits only qualified solicitors and barristers.

After a screening interview, candidates attend a three-day series of academic and practical tests designed to assess their all-round abilities.

In most respects these are the same as those undergone by other prospective officers, including teamwork exercises which involve transporting heavy objects with a minimum of equipment.

'Most lawyers will never have even dreamt of doing tasks like these', says Colonel Stythe.

'It proves quite an interesting test for them.' After a short course on military basics such as saluting, candidates then go to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, where they undergo a four-week course of rigorous military training alongside other professionally qualified officer candidates such as doctors, dentists, vets and members of the clergy.

'It's otherwise known as a tarts and vicars course', he jokes.

What kind of people make good army lawyers? 'People interested in the travel opportunities the job entails.

People who don't see themselves behind the same desk for their entire career doing the same job.

You can't expect to earn a vast fortune - we don't earn more than any other officers in the army.

Often they are quite sporty - the army provides the opportunity to do outdoor activities that would cost a fortune in civilian life.' Unlike the increasing trend towards specialisation in the rest of the profession, army lawyers have a varied diet of work.

Last year Colonel Stythe acted as legal advisor to General Sir Mike Jackson, commander of British forces in Kosovo, in the negotiations that followed the war there.

He was also involved in setting up the internationally-administered government structure in Kosovo following the withdrawal of Serbian forces.

With perhaps a degree of understatement, he describes his job there - the setting up of a functioning government and judiciary while attempting to prevent Serbs and Kosovan Albanians from killing each other - as 'some of the most interesting work I've done'.

About 30% of ALS work comprises its role as the army's equivalent of the CPS, reviewing and acting in disciplinary courts-martial cases.

The remainder of their work involves acting in an advisory role to the army.

This might include advising on boards of inquiry into training accidents, on internal complaints by servicemen and women, lower-level summary discipline cases or criminal injury compensation, as well as on operational matters both in the UK and overseas.

The ALS is a branch of the Adjutant-General Corps, which also incorporates the uniformed military police and other administrative divisions.

It is based on a windswept hill near Andover, close to the large military training area of Salisbury Plain.

Despite the isolation, its lawyers seem happy to be working there, undisturbed except for the occasional nearby tank manoeuvres or fighter planes screaming overhead.

Major Nigel Heppenstall arrived at his current job with the ALS after a three-year stint as an officer in the Parachute Regiment.

'I decided that it would be useful in the long-term to become a lawyer,' he says.

After taking the CPE and the legal practice course, he did a three-year training contract at a high street law firm, re-joining the army two years ago.

He has recently returned from Georgia (in the former USSR), where he operated an investigation group for the UN on ceasefire violations; currently, he has become involved in training for the Human Rights Act.

This has taken him to the Falkland Islands, Bosnia, Gibraltar and Brunei.

'It was quite an exciting time', he says.

He now advises operational units on the law regarding armed conflict and rules of engagement.

All this makes quite a change from the type of work he did while in training.

'With the UN, I was chairing inter-governmental meetings and conferences, which was certainly different to doing somebody's divorce.

I don't think anything can prepare you for some of the challenges that you meet here.

A lot of the work is politically sensitive; for example, when you're dealing with the rules of engagement, it impacts on to policy matters at quite a high level.'

Major Heppanstall says he enjoys his professional life.

And a legal career in the Army is to a greater extent a more challenging life than it is for a civilian lawyer, even one working long hours in a high-pressure environment.

'In the Army you generally work with some very pleasant people, and my work as a lawyer is pretty interesting.

I'd say I get the best of both worlds.'