Power of Blogging: Career Planning

Power of Blogging

Career Planning

30 years in and ‘out’ in the law

Maggie Hammond

Maggie Hammond, lawyer and academic presents a reflexive account of her career … both in and ‘out’ in the law.

How it started

I think with hindsight I had little choice but to join the legal profession and/or teach law. Many of my family were lawyers and those that were not, were working in education. All were political 1 . Some were lawyers and teachers – like me now. I grew up in a family where criminal law, crime and justice were discussed a lot. I was ‘accused’ of having developed an ‘overindulged sense of right and wrong’. They were right. I was in youth CND and the anti-league. I wanted to change the world.

Childhood in law

I used to read and discuss briefs, prepare cross examination questions, and take notes in court. School holidays involved a lot of sitting around in courthouses, going on errands with or for the court police sergeant, and sometimes serving tea to counsel in their private tearoom. I watched both my parents in court and many of their friends and colleagues. For these reasons, and many others, I wanted nothing other than to join the legal profession of which I knew too much. I knew I was different and would not have been accepted. Maybe not ‘bright’ enough and certainly not conventional enough to do well.

Activism

In my gap year (early 80s), before a modern history degree, I lived at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (for many cold months) to stop nuclear proliferation. My first degree followed, and involvement in student politics. We campaigned for NUS (the National Union of Students) to have a National Women’s Officer (the first was Julie Grant, who went on to be a barrister). It was part of what we called at the time ‘liberation’ or ‘single issue’ politics. I spoke on lesbian and gay 2 issues at the National Conference in front of thousands. The NUS held the first conferences for ‘single issue’ groups. I attended the women’s conference and lesbian and gay conference. I organised International Women’s Day events and a lesbian and a gay student activist conference at my institution. I became its first elected women’s officer. I was a pioneer.

Backlash

Then clause 28 hit as well as the AIDs crisis. Things started to change for our fledgling lesbian and gay community 3 . I was told there was a risk my grant (from my local authority) might be in breach of ‘the clause’, which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship. I was ‘out and proud’. My intended careers (police, army or PE teacher) were fraught with risk on discovery, and I knew I could not ‘pass’ as straight. They were scary times and what ‘could’ I do next?

Pride

After my degree, I moved to London for work (the late 80s) in the hope that I might find work, despite my sexuality. There were difficult times for our community, with huge discussions around being ‘out’ or ‘outed’ at work (there was no employment protection for lesbians and gay men) and the risks or obligation to ‘challenge’ by ‘public displays of affection’ (also known as ‘holding hands’). I joined Lesbian and Gay Pride to be part of it. I became the first woman Chair and the first woman to lead the march through London (twice). I was less scared to be more of me, but not completely open at all times to everyone. For many of us, we were back to living different lives. ‘Lies by omission’ as we used to call it, or self-protection, by keeping work, home (and for many) their ‘pretended’ families in different places or hidden.

First career

I used the skills I had learnt as a student union officer to get a job at South Bank Polytechnic as it was (London South Bank University or LSBU as it is now). The job was as its first advice worker. While there, I took a professional qualification in advice work. My fees were paid. The course was law. I got a distinction. It wasn’t easy, but it was how my brain seemed to work well. It was somehow familiar – even though it was not a crime. Oddly it was housing (landlord and tenant) and all the statutory regimes that really fired me up. It was like all my brain was working, like it had been at the end of my degree. It felt like things were coming together.

Conversion

On advice, I converted my degree into a law degree part time over 2 years (CPE) while working full time at LSBU. I took a second job, as a warden in halls of residence, to help cover the costs, reduce travel time, make me stay in and work and help me save up for a deposit for a home of my own. I grew the Student Advice Bureau in the student union and was seconded to the University, where I became an Assistant Registrar and assistant to the Secretary and Clerk to the Governors. I was not convinced I would be accepted into the legal profession or into a trainee position in private practice. Again, on advice, I started the part time LPC (Legal Practice Course) while working at South Bank University. I worked on many interesting ‘legal’ projects with solicitors. I was beginning to believe I could do it – that I was clever and could be ‘acceptable’ enough to join the profession and become a solicitor.

Trainee

I got a final promotion in higher education to become the Head of Student Services. Brimming with self-confidence, I left my first career and a great job at LSBU to become the oldest trainee solicitor in the city (Taylor Johnson Garratt (‘TJG’).) The contrast between organisations was mind blowing. There was free tea and coffee. We had administrative support. I had use of 2 secretaries. There were whole firm parties. At one Christmas party, I led my fellow trainees in dressing as the 1966 England football team for a 1960s themed ball at the Savoy. I was trying to fit in and not.

Change

It was also the mid-1990s and AIDs in our community. I lost friends and wanted to make things better. I became the secretary of Pink Angels – a charity which raised money for AIDS charities through lesbian and gay venues in Islington (now largely closed). I was ‘out’ at work in my firm, and this was a challenge. I did and do look like the lesbian ‘we had all been warned about’ and they hated my shoes. Nonetheless, I asked, and the partners allowed our print room to help with Pink Angels publicity. This was brave, commendable, and given the times unexpected. I was incredibly well trained at TJG. I had changed because of being at TJG and emerged as a newly qualified solicitor.

Self-employment

After 7 years in private practice as a property lawyer and licencing advocate (at Lewis Silkin and Winkworth Sherwood), I left to set up my own business (in-house lawyer and freelance advocate) to fit in with childcare and create some balance. I also started teaching the LPC in the evening at South Bank University. I had kept in contact with the staff, and this got me my ‘in’. I had always enjoyed ‘teaching’ colleagues in private practice. I had admired some of the staff who taught me at university. I wanted to be good at it. I wanted to be as good as them. I wanted to be able to speak with no notes, like my grandad had done at political rallies years before. Yet again, it felt like coming home. Like this is what I was meant to learn to do next.

LSBU

After spells of teaching elsewhere and further studies (my LLM), setting up another business, I decided to begin my Professional Doctorate at Portsmouth University. This did not work with my part time in-house lawyering. There were not enough parts of my part-time left. I looked for a full-time teaching post to compliment my doctoral studies. I joined London South Bank University in 2016 as a full-time lecturer in law.

Reflection

So, it all comes full circle sometimes. I am a lawyer who teaches in higher education. Looking back on the above I feel both exhausted and proud. I am concerned I took so little time to acknowledge my own achievements. I do want to acknowledge my maternal grandma, who gave me her name, and collected all my business cards with huge pride to ‘keep up’ with my ‘great successes’. I am lucky to have had people at work who encouraged me to do more than I thought I could – thank you Lynn Gander. I am pleased I was able to give up on rejecting law, to follow my ‘natural’ instincts, become comfortable with being me, and use all of my collected experiences to get to where I am now. My ‘overindulged sense of right and wrong’ has helped me to help others and to change a bit of the world. To end where we started, with crime. Some good advice from Donna Tartt. She says: ‘…it's a curiously uniform message, accepted from high to low: when in doubt, what to do? How do we know what’s right for us? Every shrink, every career counsellor, every Disney princess knows the answer: “Be yourself.” “Follow your heart.”’ ■

Maggie Hammond

London South Bank University

1. Jim Hammond, my paternal grandfather. A miner’s leader and Communist. – Jim Hammond (trade unionist) – Wikipedia – Treading Orwell's road to Wigan | The Orwell Foundation 2. We did not use the current term ‘LGBTQ +’ 3. It was a new phase in the community of men and women organising together

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