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Life after the Law: the Magnificent Seven

January 13, 2009

Is there life after the law? Fortunately, the following people show that lawyers can live happy and fulfilled lives even when they’re not contemplating timesheets, billable hours and, in more than a few cases just now, redundancy.

1. Tom Holt, author.

The goateed Mr Holt is a regular blogger for the innovative and enjoyable legal site www.lawandmore.co.uk. He readily admits that he is unlamented by m’learned friends from his former life as a solicitor. “Thirteen years ago, I did my bit for the legal profession by leaving it, thereby at a stroke raising the standards of efficiency, competence, commitment and drive in the provision of legal services in the south west of England by a fistful of percentage points,” says Holt. The author of You Don’t Have To be Evil To Work Here, But It Helps, among many other tomes, adds that “They were glad to see the back of me – but not nearly as glad as I was to go.”

2.  Tim Kevan, author.

Yet another lawyer-turned-writer, Kevan does not have a goatee but does have an enviably harmonious work/life balance. He recently jettisoned a career as a successful London personal injury barrister in favour of coastal life, moving to North Devon to pursue his passion for surfing. He is the author of Why Lawyers Should Surf and has a novel out with Bloomsbury later this year.

3. Brian Moore, rugby player, manicurist and commentator/columnist.

Memery Crystal’s loss was, for many years, the England rugby union team’s gain, as Moore nipped off for training and international tours to win a total of 64 caps as a hooker.  He subsequently trained as a manicurist and now works as a commentator for the BBC. He also pens a column on wine for The Sun. (Photo: 5Live on Flickr.)

4. Bob Mortimer, comedian.

Who among us does not admire the smaller half of genuinely funny (as opposed to Ross/Brand funny) comedic duo Reeves & Mortimer? Bob Mortimer only goes yet further up in our estimation when we learn that he was once a solicitor with Southwark Council.

5. Barack Obama, American President.

Becoming the leader of a country is pretty good going for any lawyer. Incoming American President Obama shares this distinction with Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Nicholas Sarkozy, among others. Nice work but only a very few can get it.

6. Alex Wade, beach bum.

Wade was once a lawyer with Carter-Ruck. He was also Richard Desmond’s head of legal affairs, a vice-president (legal affairs) of a major sports rights company and a fearless litigator with Wiggin. However, his life foundered some 10 years ago, upon which he wrote a book called Wrecking Machine, which he followed with another, called Surf Nation. He was last spotted on a beach in Barbados, where he was heard to say: “I am returning to the UK to stand for PM. After all, if Clarkson can do it, so can I.”

7. Oona O’Connell, Playboy Model.

Pundits say there is more chance of Clarkson saying that cars are evil than there is of Wade leaving his Caribbean idyll, not least because islands, rather than Houses of Parliament, tend to attract the likes of lawyer-turned-model Oona O’Connell. The “fabulously glamorous young lawyer” has graced the pages of Playboy, but is she really a role model for lawyers who fear the chop in 2009?

We’re not sure, though O’Connell is not the only lawyer to have stunned her colleagues by her cheery disinhibition. We’re thinking, of course, of Susan Selles, member of the Florida Bar Association and star, some ten years ago, of adult film Jurist Erotic.

Is Selles still, we wonder, a “lawyer by day – sex goddess by night”? We can only hope so, for if she is, there is hope for all of us.