Giving back to our community is a key part of life here at BH&O, and where we can, we like to offer opportunities to aspirational young lawyers. We have a strict +18 policy, due to the sensitive nature of the work that we do and the confidentiality requirements that come with it, but on occasions, we try to offer some experience to young people trying to break into the fiercely competitive world of law.
Recently, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sarah Morgan, an international development professional specialising in child protection exploring a career change in Family Law, for the month. Sarah wrote the following account of her time with us.
I recently had the privilege of gaining work experience at Boardman, Hawkins & Osborne LLP in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, where I explored the world of specialist family law.
I had never set foot in a family law firm or a family court before and so this was all new territory for me, but as soon as I started, I was thrown into the deep end (in a good way!), sitting in on client meetings, supporting the team to update case files and research guidance for new cases. Being able to sit in on family court hearings was particularly interesting, seeing the ‘real life’ cases playing out in front of me (and learning court etiquette!)
I learnt so much about the many specialist areas BH&O works in, such as different types of child arrangement orders, including kinship care, fostering and special guardianship and financial settlements for divorce cases.
During my month with the team, I witnessed not only the expert approaches the team uses at BH&O, but also the genuine level of care, humility, and empathy shown to their clients, particularly those facing the most challenging times for their family. When children are involved, the team strive to ensure the best interests of the child are central to the cases they support – a determinant which has been so important to me in my child protection career so one I was happy to see in the work at BH&O.
And work aside, the BH&O team are a group of kind, fun and incredibly committed people, who are a pleasure to be around in the workspace.
The time has given me lots of food for thought on options to pursue my ambitions to work in family law, which I am really grateful for the BH&O team for providing me with.