‘I had the opportunity to live my dream, kicking people for a living,’ Hassan Haider tells Legal Cheek
A former Team GB athlete has hung up his dobok and donned a suit and tie after making the switch from Taekwondo training camps to a training contract.
Hassan Haider, who took up the martial art at four and achieved a black belt by nine, has a unique career changing story, moving into law after retiring from his international sporting career.
Having become British Champion, Junior Commonwealth Champion, and winning an international gold medal before sitting his GCSEs, Haider joined the GB Academy in 2017 after gaining a place on the Tokyo Olympics Programme
“I had the opportunity to live my dream, kicking people for a living and representing my country Team GB all around the world,” Haider told Legal Cheek.
“I achieved multiple medal winning tournaments across the world gaining a place in the top 30 world ranking, he explained. “I had the opportunity to represent Great Britain at 2 World Championships, two European Championships and Grand Prix events which only the top 32 world ranked athletes compete in.”
Although his career came to an end in 2020 after narrowly missing out on a spot in Tokyo, Haider has since pivoted into law.
“I was studying a part time LLB course while training and competing and upon leaving the team my performance director at GB Taekwondo got me connected with a corporate partner at Hill Dickinson,” Haider told us.
After completing his law degree at Manchester Metropolitan University while working as a legal assistant, the martial arts expert was promoted to paralegal before bagging a training contract at Hill Dickinson‘s Manchester office.
“I began my training contract in 2024 and I look forward to seeing where my career takes me in this exciting new chapter in my life,” he said.
Haider isn’t the only lawyer to revel in the thrill of competitive sports, however. Freshfields‘ London Managing Partner, Mark Sansom, is an international racing driver in his spare time, with Squire Patton Boggs partner Wayne Barnes recently retiring from refereeing after officiating 111 international rugby matches.