Video 9.2 An in-house solicitor

I’m one of the first in my family who went to universityand I had no plans to go to universitybecause I didn’t have any role models around mebut it was a lady who came to our schooland she talked about her lifeand the difference she was making as a black woman lawyerand she really inspired me. I was really impressedand I turned round and I said I think that’s what I want to do—I want to become a lawyer.

The route that I took was the traditional route: I went to university and after the law degree I did the Law Society finals, which is what they were called then, and then I did a training contract in local government in the London Borough of Harrow. And after qualifying, I got my first jobas a qualified lawyer in Fenland District Council.

At the moment, because I am the High Speed 2 project solicitor and project managerfor this council—Chiltern District Council—and South Berks District Councilso I’m representing two authorities on this national infrastructure project. So a typical day can vary from putting the evidence togetherfrom liaising with experts, briefing the community representatives and the councillors, and then just working with my teamto see what are the next steps we need to take.

The only opportunities for people who are affectedis to engage in the parliamentary process, which is to make representations to the promoterabout the impact of the route that they’ve chosen. So a lot of my work and our team’swork is scrutinising the route that’s proposed through the areas that we represent, and then putting together evidence to persuade the promoterthat they need to make certain changes.

My role has been to roll out workshops in the community to explainwhat the parliamentary process is, how they can represent themselves, what kind of evidence they need, and how we as local authorities can help them. In measuring the successes that we’ve hadthrough this process, in how much mitigation have we been able to secure: for example, the Buckinghamshire authorities have managed to secure a 2.6 kilometreextended tunnel which nobody else along the route has been able to secure. So that’s a massive win and that is regarded as very, very valuable. And these successes are the measure of value for moneyand has it been worth it and how much have we protectedthe area and the residents from what’s happening.

Personally for me, I found the whole experience really, really valuable. I’ve been working on it for the last five yearsand I think working with the community, with the members, building up those relationships with my clients internallybut also with the community out therehas been really rewarding and I think it’s been really, really valuable.