What year did you graduate?
2014
What is your current role?
I completed a law conversion and the LPC in order to become a solicitor. I now work as a healthcare paralegal whilst I apply for a training contract in medical law.
How did you get into your current role?
In my final year I did a medical law and ethics module, which was taught by Professor Bowman. She encouraged me to look in to medical law and I found it really interesting. I did a conversion course after graduation and placements to gain experience. Contacts I made during my placement at the Medical Defence Union helped me find my current job at a legal firm.
Can you describe a typical day?
I work on a variety of projects. This includes lots of clinical negligence claims, defending doctors and dentists from malpractice suites. We also do regulatory work supporting doctors who are being investigated by the General Medical Council.
On any given day I could be drafting instructions for a case or taking witness statements from doctors and dentists, to valuing clinical procedures.
What do you enjoy about your role?
I like that it is so varied and the work changes every day. It’s very fast paced with tight deadlines, which is a bit of an adrenaline rush. I feel like my work has real world impact and I get to use my biomed degree as an understanding of medical terminology and practice is important. It’s specialist knowledge, so it’s nice to be able to use.
What do you find challenging in your current role?
I have to be very good at working with and managing people. I work with lots of different people every day, and many of our clients are in difficult situations, at risk of losing their licenses or having to pay damages, so they can be very stressed.
What advice would you give to a current BMS student at St George’s who was keen to get in to a similar area of work as you?
Make sure you get as much work experience as you can, anywhere you can get it. Breaking in to law can be hard if you don’t know people who work in the sector (I didn’t). That makes it even more important to put yourself out there as much as possible. I even went up Tooting High Street giving CVs to law firms.
Don’t feel there’s only one route as a Biomed graduate. Your degree teachers you lots of transferable skills and there’s a huge range of jobs, careers and companies that you can use them in.
Which aspects of your degree are relevant for your current role?
I get to use my medical knowledge, but the main parts are my problem solving and analytical skills.
What would you say were the best / most challenging things about your degree?
I wasn’t a fan of practical sessions and I found anatomy and dissections hard (especially first thing on a Monday morning!).
The tutors at George’s were amazing, I met some wonderful people who were really supportive. I had the best time.
If you could go back to your time at St George’s, what would you do differently?
I wouldn’t really change much. I’d try to stress less, particularly in first year, so I could relax and enjoy. It all went so quickly!