If only general election manifestoes were this simple
City law firm employment law specialist Richard Taylor has made a succinct and rhyming pitch to young lawyers in his bid to be elected to a senior position with the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division.
At the risk of embarrassing young Richard, Legal Cheek did a bit of digging to provide the electorate with more information before taking a decision on his suitability for such a high-flying post.
Until recently, Taylor (pictured below) was in the employment law team at the London office of Washington DC-based Steptoe & Johnson. But despite still being promoted on the Americans’ website this afternoon, an S&J personnel official told Legal Cheek that Taylor had “moved on to another firm” last week.
However, the official would not provide further details and Taylor’s LinkedIn page lists his current role as “gardening”. Nonetheless, the Steptoe official did confirm that Taylor was bidding for a JLD role.
Taylor bagged himself a first in law from Liverpool University in 2008, picking up an award along the way for having the highest grade in land law. That alone should see off any competition in the current election.
It was then off to Nottingham Law School for the Legal Practice Course before a training contract at the Manchester office of global firm Pinsent Masons.
On qualification, Taylor didn’t hang about at Pinsent, instead shooting off to City firm Slaughter and May, proving that the old school tie brigade will occasionally look beyond Oxbridge for its recruits.
But Taylor only spent a little more than a year in Bunhill Row before taking the Yankee dollar — moving to Steptoe in November 2013.
The JLD was created eight years ago, when its predecessors — the Young Solicitors Group and the Trainee Solicitors Group — merged.
It claims to have 70,000 members. But then all one has to do to qualify is be a current or former Legal Practice Course student, a trainee solicitor, or a qualified solicitor of up to five years’ experience.
H/t @RichardBLaw