'Monumental impact' of Young Programme

By Collette Paterson

I'm a hardened Glasgow-Edinburgh commuter. As such, I've been forced to stand reading my Journal on more occasions than I care to recall, and have sought refuge in the luggage hold once or twice. I hate to think of it as dead time and, if required, I could stand flamingo-style in the aisle, balance my lap top on one knee, and type. The biggest lesson I have learned on the commute is that the carriages are positively crammed full of lawyers. They also spend the 52 minutes wisely, and it's not long before chatter turns to law, lawyers and law firms. Given that, in between commutes, I spend my working life engaging with the law, and the fact that two of my siblings will become diploma students this year, I sometimes feel lawyers are omnipresent.
     You can, therefore, imagine my surprise when I found myself out of my legal cocoon when a colleague and I represented the Law Society at the Young Scotland and Young All-Ireland Programme earlier this month. Among the myriad of other professionals, there wasn't a practising lawyer in sight.
     Run by the Institute of Contemporary Scotland, these programmes seek to encourage intellectual development and engage people in the 'bigger picture' at the start of their careers. The programme did just that. Each delegate was required to present a six-minute paper that often, but not always, was traced back to our working lives. After taking the issue of access to higher education to task, I was enthralled by others' views on women's rights in Islamic societies; a culturally diverse Ireland; the conservation implications of the global food crisis; and religious education. In the large group setting we discussed such issues as the use of torture, the state of education, gun control and Zimbabwe, and as one of five members of Team A (or as we liked to think, the 'A-Team') we presented to the rest of the group on the subjects Burma, death, and democracy. Intellectual debate flowed, and emotions were stirred more than once.
     As I set off for the event, I guiltily felt that I had swanned off on a course for the best part of a week, leaving colleagues in the lurch, but I knew the reality; an incredibly intense programme lay ahead, with some seminars lasting well into the evening. By the end, the chair's view was that, unlike past groups, we were initially quite a hesitant bunch. But as pleasantries blurred into stimulating debate and this blurred into informal getting-to-know-you nights, we grew in confidence. By day four we had emerged fervent in our views, in an atmosphere of respect and mutual trust.
     What turned out to be a lawyerless week felt strange to me for that very reason, but the programme does in fact attract several lawyers each year and the course my colleague and I attended was the exception to the rule.
Both the private practice and in-house legal sectors have been represented, as has the Faculty of Advocates, and there is certainly a place for new lawyers to share their professional and personal perspectives on this programme. More to the point, there's much to be learned from the experiences of those who work in other professional areas.
     No experience has ever had such a monumental impact on my attitude towards the world in which we are live. It was an intense learning environment that required stamina and co-operation, and it was a privilege.
     A solemn group departed on the Saturday morning, because lasting bonds had been forged, something that even the best networking event might never achieve. Indebted to my own employer for sensing the benefits I could reap from attending, my plea to those who train and employ young lawyers is this: rally your trainees and your newly qualified solicitors, and select one or two for this biannual event. They will come back to you as a slightly modified package – intellectually invigorated and boasting a wider outlook in the context of their legal career. They will also have a certain joie de vivre.

This article appeared in The Scotsman on 23 June 2008. Collette Paterson is the new laywers' co-ordinator for the Law Society of Scotland.

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