Alison Fitch brings Obiter’s series on first days in the law up to 1988, when she started as an office junior. Her duties were, ahem, varied: ‘Everything was delivered by hand in those days so I’d walk miles, added to that picking Chelsea buns up for the office from the local bakers. My most important role by far, though, was at the weekends, when aware of a client being in custody I’d be dashing down to the local police station armed with a pack of ten cigs and the newspaper. I remember on one occasion a launched chilli con carne heading my way which I nicely ducked – only for the guy to apologise as he thought I was a copper.’
‘These days the nearest we get to clients is via videolink,’ she notes. ‘Starting on the bottom rung was indeed the best education I could have received and all this for just £45 a week!’
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