My Route into Law – Tosif Bashir

Not everyone’s career path is the same.

We talk to our Trainee Solicitor Tosif Bashir about his journey and experiences that eventually led him to Gordons.

There are some people who have always wanted to be lawyers. That wasn’t me. At 16, my idea of a lawyer was Ritchie from Eastenders, and I thought a contract was what you take out when you buy a new phone.

Maths and computing had been my favourite subjects in school; There was something enjoyable about problem solving.  Two weeks into college, I had dropped Maths and decided I wanted to be a lawyer, realising that Law is basically Maths without the numbers and aided by having a great Law tutor (and a not-so-great Maths tutor).

Over the next year I planned my route into law. University aged 18, LPC at 21, training contract at 22, qualified by 24. That was the plan – linear, methodical. I chose my university based on its practical and problem-solving approach, which was a great fit for me.

I took part in all the pro-bono opportunities available and secured a place on a Vacation Scheme at a firm in Leeds in my second year, where I’d sit in their Corporate department. The Vacation Scheme took place a week before my Equity & Trusts and EU Law exams, so I would be on the Scheme during the day and revising all evening. An interview followed but the best laid plans often go astray…

I spent my final year of the LLB focusing on my degree and despite having no training contract in the bag, decided to do the LPC the following year. I was working part-time evenings and weekends during my degree and carried this on during the LPC, often doing 16-hour days. It was quite an intense year!

Upon completing the LPC, I went full time at my employer where I had been working in the Risk team and then was given the opportunity to manage my own team a year later.  In the three years prior to this whilst studying, I had applied to maybe two or three law firms, but never with any real commitment. I put this down to both enjoying my work at the time and a worry that the inevitable response would be a rejection email.

In the autumn of 2020, feeling that at the age of 23 the clock on a potential legal career was ticking, I applied for an internal position within the data protection team, which sat within their legal department. I spent the next year learning about what data protection actually is, how it works in practice and the legal implications.

A year later I decided to reignite my search for a training contract, hoping that my experience post-university would be to my advantage. The Head of Legal had offered to mentor me at that time, giving advice on which law firms to apply for, reviewing my applications, etc. The general advice that is offered to applicants is to apply for as many firms as possible to increase chances of making it through the first stage, but I decided to go the other way instead. I focused my search and applied to three firms in Leeds, receiving offers from two, one being Gordons.

I was offered a place on the Gordons Vacation Scheme and spent a week in the Property Litigation department, with a second Vacation Scheme at another firm taking place the week after.  On the Monday morning of the second Vacation Scheme, I noticed a missed call from Amy Pierechod, Gordons’ Training Principal, and called her back.  She offered me a training contract at Gordons.  I told Amy that I had just commenced another Vacation scheme, but that I was pretty sure I’d made my mind up, despite only having spent about an hour at the second firm at that point.  The rest as they say, is history!

The transition from law graduate to Trainee Solicitor is a difficult one. The path is linear until a certain point, but then for many graduates it can begin to deviate and twist in all different directions. For those who find themselves on a meandering path, I have two bits of advice: (1) The only person you are in a race with is yourself. The average age a person qualifies as a solicitor in the UK is 30, starting their training contract aged 28. This means that there is no need to worry about a ‘timer’ on a legal career; and (2) The skills you learn whilst working in different industries will be priceless when you start your legal career. Use these to your advantage. You never know when a random Excel formula will be useful.