What made you decide to become a lawyer and, once you’d made that decision, why did you choose family law?
I wanted to be an actress, a journalist or a novelist, not a lawyer at all. I got interested in law spending time with my lawyer aunt in New York during my gap year, but still went to Cambridge to read English Lit. But I found that more of a crash course than an exploration, and felt that I might as well switch to the intellectual attractions of law. After a term I realised that studying law is terribly dull, it was the last thing I wanted as a career and I didn’t apply for any law jobs. I went straight to the BBC when I graduated. But then a scholarship that I’d forgotten I’d even applied for came through to study for a masters in European law in the French-speaking university in Brussels. I remember at the time my boyfriend told me: ‘Just because you get an opportunity it doesn’t mean you have to take it.’ But the BBC was supportive and I wanted the voyage of discovery offered by this exciting international frolic. Continue reading “Private Client perspectives: Ayesha Vardag”
