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Meet Giles Ward

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Alexander Paling

Find out about the life of Giles Ward - Senior Partner at Milners Solicitors - Leeds, Harrogate and Pontefract

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Giles Ward SENIOR PARTNER – COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
Qualification as a Solicitor ? There are many routes to qualifying as a Solicitor including the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Solicitor Apprenticeships and the traditional, degree qualification route ? The degree route is still the most common route to qualification as a solicitor but you don’t necessarily need a law degree ? After your degree your generation will need to complete the Super Exam but nobody really knows what that entails yet ? It’s currently an expensive process with ?9000 + per year tuition fees at university and the Legal Practice Course (which is being replaced by the Super Exam) costing between ?10,000 - ?15,000 ? Following your success in the Super Exam you need to complete two years of on the job training.
Law – Pop Culture v Reality ? Law in Film and Literature is usually portrayed as high stakes and glamourous whether it’s Harvey Specter’s rock star lifestyle in Suits, George Clooney in Michael Clayton or Atticus Finch in To Kill and Mockingbird ? Unfortunately law is often not so exciting or life changing, just ask our trainee who is dealing with cases involving things like food poisoning and garden patios plus non-legal work like helping me with this presentation ? It is fair to say that law can be a slow burner, changing the world is possible but overnight success is unlikely ? There is a lot of work involved at all levels of the job, in and out of the office and plenty of late nights ? Working on serious and complex cases often means that work comes home with you ? All in all the law is a very hard partner to have
The Journey to Partnership ? To progress to Partner in a law firm usually takes upwards of 10 years ? The progression looks something like this: Trainee Solicitor → Solicitor → Salaried Partner → Equity Partner ? The responsibility increases at each stage but so do the rewards ? The biggest step is probably from Salaried Partner to Equity Partner because as an Equity Partner your own money is invested in the business ? This means that you share in the financial success of the firm but also in its failures and is not a step to be taken lightly ? Additionally, not all law firms are Partnerships like Milners, they can also be Limited Companies with Directors and Shareholders
Work Ethic, Clients and Litigation ? Law is hard work, at the start of your career you might have twenty-five things to do and no idea how to do them all in one day ? As you get more experienced, your autonomy increases and ideally you will establish your own base of clients which will follow you even if you move to a different firm ? Litigation can be a high pressure area of law with difficult deadlines and serious consequences for the parties involved. ? Despite the pressure it can be a very rewarding way to make your living because you are affecting the lives of people and businesses with every case ? Multitasking is key, there are many competing demands on your time such as billing targets, costs, SRA compliance, business development and file management, not to mention winning claims ? Most importantly, in litigation, every day is a school day!
IICSA and the Blood Inquiry ? I have been lucky enough to be part of two, huge, ongoing, public inquiries in my career: IICSA and the Infected Blood Inquiry ? IICSA has been running since 2014 and was started by then Home Secretary, Theresa May, she also started the Infected Blood Inquiry which is gathering pace and will see me in London for most of 2019 and 2020 ? IICSA involved me and my team moving away from our traditional commercial litigation practice and gaining knowledge on the area of Child Abuse and the consequences of such abuse. ? Our strand which is one of twelve involving the English Benedictine Community has not concluded as the scope of the investigation is very ambitious ? The Infected Blood Inquiry opened in late 2018 with me and my team working on soundbites accusing those public officials who knowingly passed on infected blood of murder and has a very different feel to regular court work
Are there any questions?

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Meet Giles Ward

  • 1. Giles Ward SENIOR PARTNER – COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
  • 2. Qualification as a Solicitor ? There are many routes to qualifying as a Solicitor including the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Solicitor Apprenticeships and the traditional, degree qualification route ? The degree route is still the most common route to qualification as a solicitor but you don’t necessarily need a law degree ? After your degree your generation will need to complete the Super Exam but nobody really knows what that entails yet ? It’s currently an expensive process with ?9000 + per year tuition fees at university and the Legal Practice Course (which is being replaced by the Super Exam) costing between ?10,000 - ?15,000 ? Following your success in the Super Exam you need to complete two years of on the job training.
  • 3. Law – Pop Culture v Reality ? Law in Film and Literature is usually portrayed as high stakes and glamourous whether it’s Harvey Specter’s rock star lifestyle in Suits, George Clooney in Michael Clayton or Atticus Finch in To Kill and Mockingbird ? Unfortunately law is often not so exciting or life changing, just ask our trainee who is dealing with cases involving things like food poisoning and garden patios plus non-legal work like helping me with this presentation ? It is fair to say that law can be a slow burner, changing the world is possible but overnight success is unlikely ? There is a lot of work involved at all levels of the job, in and out of the office and plenty of late nights ? Working on serious and complex cases often means that work comes home with you ? All in all the law is a very hard partner to have
  • 4. The Journey to Partnership ? To progress to Partner in a law firm usually takes upwards of 10 years ? The progression looks something like this: Trainee Solicitor → Solicitor → Salaried Partner → Equity Partner ? The responsibility increases at each stage but so do the rewards ? The biggest step is probably from Salaried Partner to Equity Partner because as an Equity Partner your own money is invested in the business ? This means that you share in the financial success of the firm but also in its failures and is not a step to be taken lightly ? Additionally, not all law firms are Partnerships like Milners, they can also be Limited Companies with Directors and Shareholders
  • 5. Work Ethic, Clients and Litigation ? Law is hard work, at the start of your career you might have twenty-five things to do and no idea how to do them all in one day ? As you get more experienced, your autonomy increases and ideally you will establish your own base of clients which will follow you even if you move to a different firm ? Litigation can be a high pressure area of law with difficult deadlines and serious consequences for the parties involved. ? Despite the pressure it can be a very rewarding way to make your living because you are affecting the lives of people and businesses with every case ? Multitasking is key, there are many competing demands on your time such as billing targets, costs, SRA compliance, business development and file management, not to mention winning claims ? Most importantly, in litigation, every day is a school day!
  • 6. IICSA and the Blood Inquiry ? I have been lucky enough to be part of two, huge, ongoing, public inquiries in my career: IICSA and the Infected Blood Inquiry ? IICSA has been running since 2014 and was started by then Home Secretary, Theresa May, she also started the Infected Blood Inquiry which is gathering pace and will see me in London for most of 2019 and 2020 ? IICSA involved me and my team moving away from our traditional commercial litigation practice and gaining knowledge on the area of Child Abuse and the consequences of such abuse. ? Our strand which is one of twelve involving the English Benedictine Community has not concluded as the scope of the investigation is very ambitious ? The Infected Blood Inquiry opened in late 2018 with me and my team working on soundbites accusing those public officials who knowingly passed on infected blood of murder and has a very different feel to regular court work
  • 7. Are there any questions?