lawyer Archives - Inspiring Portfolio Careers

This is a two part guest blog by Alex Wade. This is part one.

Alex is a writer and his principal interests are law, sport (especially football, surfing and boxing), literature and travel, as well as general features, football and poker match reports and book reviews. Many years ago, when he was a media lawyer, Alex worked for leading libel firm Carter-Ruck before becoming now-Express Group proprietor Richard Desmond’s first Head of Legal Affairs. Subsequently Alex’s unreconstructed tendencies got the better of him. His life went off the rails but boxing played a large part in his rehabilitation. This story is chronicled in Wrecking Machine, a Sunday Times sports book of the week. Alex has travelled extensively and written about New York, Albania and Kazakhstan; Barbados, Ireland and Andalucía; Captain Cook country, Mexico and Francis Ford Coppola’s retreats in Belize and Guatemala. He lives in west Cornwall with his partner Caroline and his two sons.

The rest of this blog is in Alex’s own words.

What are the components of your portfolio career e.g. study, paid freelance work, part time job, volunteering etc.)

It’s pretty much all paid freelance work, with a bit of volunteering. I work as a lawyer, freelance journalist, writer, occasional guest lecturer – and try and find time to be one of the trustees of environmental action charity Surfers Against Sewage.

How did your portfolio career come about?

By accident! I’m 50 now but back in my early 30s went off the rails for a year or so. Let’s just say that the conventional practice of law wasn’t for me. I also had a few demons to exorcise. Fortunately, they leave me alone these days.

How has your portfolio career changed over time?

Back in my early 30s, I made a decision to do what I’d always wanted to do – write for a living. I kept my hand in with the law, working as a night lawyer for the UK broadsheets, and banged on editors’ doors – luckily loud enough for a few of them to give me work. Back then I also wrote law reports – difficult, complex and not well paid – and wrote a lot for the legal trade press (more fun and better paid). I don’t do either of these things anymore. I’m also no longer involved in selling sports TV rights. I used to do this on behalf of someone in the industry, very much on a wing and a prayer. I’d travel to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, find the main broadcaster and try and sell in the rights to the FA Premier League, F1, boxing matches etc. Sometimes I’d be successful. Whether I was or not, I’d also go and travel wherever I was. This enabled me to get travel pieces away in the nationals, about places few people were visiting. It was a great way of building up by-line visibility. I don’t work in sports rights anymore, and don’t do so much travel writing these days either – it’s a loss leader.

When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ – what do you reply?

Good question! Depends who’s asking. Usually I say ‘writer’ first – that’s what means the most to me.

To what extent did your portfolio career happen by chance/luck and to what extent was it planned?

By accident/chance!

More about Alex Wade

Personal web site:

www.alexwade.com

Alex Wade’s first novel, Flack’s Last Shift, is published by Blue Mark Books (£14.99).

www.flackslastshift.com

Alex’s Editorial Services business:

www.frugalspeech.com

LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-wade-5322724

Follow Alex Wade on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/surfnation1

More about portfolio careers:

Download our free report Discover Portfolio Careers

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/who-has-portfolio-careers/

Webinar about portfolio careers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF29AGuRIVw&app=desktop

Find out what your transferable skills are, download our free Skills report:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/what-is-a-portfolio-career/

Download our free report Pain Free Career change from this page:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

Check out our web site Inspiring Portfolio Careers:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

This is part 3 of a 3 part guest blog by Nicky Richmond.

Nicky combines being a joint managing partner for Brecher with being a restaurant critic, and is a property and property finance lawyer with over 25 years’ experience. She is The Food Judge and writes a regular column for The Lawyer magazine. As a Foodie myself as you can see from our food themed LLClub web site, I am inspired!

In case you missed them, here are the links to part 1 & 2.

Part 1:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/an-edible-portfolio-career-1/

Part 2
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/the-food-judge-nicky-richmond-2/

The rest of this blog are in Nicky’s own words.

Who or what helps you to manage your portfolio career?

No-one helps me to manage my portfolio career, but having a supportive group of partners in my firm who appreciate the good publicity that can come with raising the profile of any individual partner whether by way of restaurant reviews, opinion pieces or being involved with charities.
Not having to go through endless layers of bureaucracy to get my pieces approved is also a help and being an owner of the business means that I have more leeway than lawyers in larger firms where they may not feel entirely comfortable with a lawyer actually having an opinion.

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?

In terms of law, through the conventional channels, attending industry events and writing in the legal and professional press. For the restaurant side, Twitter has been a great source of networking and contacts.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?

The Food Judge is my brand for the food blog. In general, my approach is straightforward advice with a sense of humour, whether it be legal/restaurant/charity work

What skills/experience/qualities would you say lawyers possess which makes them well suited to having a portfolio career?

Lawyers can work to a deadline, they are task driven, self-motivated, and having an outside life, in my view, makes them better lawyers

What advice would you give to give to someone considering a portfolio career?

Choose to spend your time on something you love and which makes you feel good about yourself

Your top 5 tips about portfolio careers from having one yourself?

1. Don’t be scared of trying something new
2. Put your head above the parapet – it doesn’t matter if it fails
3. Don’t expect instant success
4. Ask for help
5. Believe in yourself

Also – don’t wait until you have been in the law 25 years, like me, try something new. I look back and regret all that time I spent in the office at weekends or until silly hours of the night. There are times when that is unavoidable but if I’m honest with myself, I am allowed the job to take over and if I had had other interests/commitments earlier on, I may not have committed so much time to it and I would have had a more balanced and no doubt more enjoyable life.

Very few law firms will tell you that you are working too hard – you need to decide what is too much and how much you are prepared to give to the day job, they certainly won’t decide for you.

Allow yourself to do something for yourself that you enjoy.

More about Nicky Richmond

Nicky Richmond, Joint Managing Partner, Brecher:
http://www.brecher.co.uk/people/nicky-richmond/

The Food Judge – never knowingly underfed.
http://thefoodjudge.com/

Blog – Not Entirely Legal
http://strictlylegal.me/author/nickyrichmond/

More about portfolio careers:

Could a portfolio career give you the variety you seek? Download our free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’ and find out:
http://www.llclub.org/discover-portfolio-careers/

Alex Wade’s portfolio career – guest blog part 1

The Food Judge guest blog part 3