“Be the kind of lawyer your clients want to go to the pub with”

In the latest episode of Brief Encounters, we speak with lawyer, content creator and public speaker Henry Nelson-Case.

Henry is open and honest about the challenges facing aspiring solicitors on their journey into law. His undergraduate law degree exposed him to the competitive nature of the legal industry early on.

Henry is a big believer in doing your research and applying to not only the biggest, shiniest law firms, but a firm that’s right for you.

We discuss the difficult feeling of being rejected from vacation schemes and training contract applications, and how to use it to become more resilient.

Henry is a huge advocate of asking for feedback, even if you’re rejected at an early stage of the application process. If you catch the recruiter on a good day, you could get lucky and bag some useful tips for future applications.

One thing that surprised Henry is how commercial and ‘businessy’ law is in practice. He, like many new lawyers, found it tricky to shift his mindset from the academic learning of university to thinking about everything from a commercial standpoint.

We also talk about the importance of being yourself at work. Early on in his training contract, Henry was told that he seemed quiet, and therefore not hungry or ambitious enough. Henry soon realised that he was shooting himself in the foot by not being his true self at work.

Anxiety in the legal workplace is something that isn’t discussed enough, and this is something Henry experienced firsthand. He talked about his experience on social media and was flooded by responses from people who felt the same way.

This got Henry thinking that if people were more open about these feelings, and if law firms were more accommodating, then maybe fewer people would have breakdowns and leave the profession.

After a prolonged period juggling his job as a lawyer and his content creation work, Henry was approaching burnout; he realised he had been neglecting his health and other aspects of his personal life. This is when he made the decision to stop practising law full-time and focus more on his other content and his social media presence.

Law is a demanding profession, so Henry’s advice is to ensure that you’re making time for your other interests and passions. Balance is key to longevity in a demanding career.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.