To Do Board
Two weeks until the Alternative Hair Show at the Royal Albert Hall. Other things going on in town: Lucy Liu is showing her collection of artwork on London. I came across the review/article in the Evening Standard. It got me thinking about day jobs. When I worked in magazines, everyone would ask what you did artistically. The "what do you really do?" question would always beg for an interesting answer. Even today, I find myself telling people that I am working on a novel -- as if I have to justify my existence.
Now, I am a lawyer by trade, by craft - actually what my first degree trained me for - I am a writer. While, my dream is to one day buy a cottage in some idyllic village in Southern England and write novels in my own room overlooking rolling hills, the truth is, it’s hard as hell to get a job in the UK as a lawyer, or anything else. According to articles on BBC News, unemployment is expected to rise beyond the 2.51 million mark announced in September. Bleak news. Other stories focus on the struggle between hiring UK nationals versus other EU citizens, but it’s hard to find anything on employment of US nationals.
There is hope. There is the QLTT (Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test), which in theory allows US lawyers to be qualified in to practice in England.
[Info: http://www.qltt.com/]. There is training and an exam location in Miami, so with the exception of the Oxford week, I could get qualified in the U.S. That doesn’t exactly mean a hop skip and a jump to wearing a wig [actually it qualifies US lawyers to be solicitors] but it is a first step. So, I downloaded the brochure and it got tacked up to my “To Do” board.
Just thinking about it is kind of exciting.
Now, I am a lawyer by trade, by craft - actually what my first degree trained me for - I am a writer. While, my dream is to one day buy a cottage in some idyllic village in Southern England and write novels in my own room overlooking rolling hills, the truth is, it’s hard as hell to get a job in the UK as a lawyer, or anything else. According to articles on BBC News, unemployment is expected to rise beyond the 2.51 million mark announced in September. Bleak news. Other stories focus on the struggle between hiring UK nationals versus other EU citizens, but it’s hard to find anything on employment of US nationals.
There is hope. There is the QLTT (Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test), which in theory allows US lawyers to be qualified in to practice in England.
[Info: http://www.qltt.com/]. There is training and an exam location in Miami, so with the exception of the Oxford week, I could get qualified in the U.S. That doesn’t exactly mean a hop skip and a jump to wearing a wig [actually it qualifies US lawyers to be solicitors] but it is a first step. So, I downloaded the brochure and it got tacked up to my “To Do” board.
Just thinking about it is kind of exciting.