May 8, 2014

A week in the world of Aston Bond

This post was written by: Aston Bond Law Firm

Having spent a week at Aston Bond, I have nothing but praise for the firm. Aston Bond state that they are a law firm that is “traditional, yet different,” and that is exactly how I would describe the firm. Whilst maintaining the traditional high standards expected in the legal world, Aston Bond’s employees approach clients, each other and anyone else they come into contact with, with an approachable, friendly and down-to-earth manner.

On the Monday morning, my first day with Aston Bond, I was given the papers for a new urgent instruction, received that morning, to read in advance of a client meeting later that day. The client required representation at a hearing at Central London County Court on the Friday.

During the meeting, I learnt not only about the client and their need for help, but watching the Aston Bond solicitor in action epitomised the variety of skills utilised to get all the necessary information from the client.

Amongst other research and drafting based legal work, I followed this case through for the entire week, helping to draft the skeleton argument, using the Court bundle to prepare for the hearing and researching legal cases in this area of law to help provide a footing for our arguments.

We represented the said client in Court on the Friday, my final day with Aston Bond, and this experience is something I will never forget. Having attended Court on previous occasions, I had expectations of how the hearing would run, what the judge would be like and possibly even how the case may be ruled. However, this hearing was definitely not what I expected.

Interestingly, both parties were represented by solicitor advocates. It became clear very quickly that the judge reacted differently to my expectations. Instead of allowing each party to make their case and listening to both, the judge took an interventionist approach. He looked through the bundle asking each party specific, closed, questions. It appeared that he did not want to hear the persuasive cases of each party, but purely the facts regarding specific matters in order to make his decision on the case. Of course this was difficult for both solicitors, who could not use surrounding circumstances to persuade the judge that their client was not in the wrong, but ensured the judge’s views were objective and not clouded in any way.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Aston Bond and gained a lot of insight into the legal world. Following a case through from first instructions to hearing provided me with the opportunity to see all the various factors that are considered in every single legal case and confirmed for me that litigation is the area of law I want to pursue.

 

Chelsea Meade