Part 3
It was around December that a friend of mine asked for a bit
of help. He’d gone through a very tricky break up and had been struggling with
depression and drinking. In a nutshell he’d gone on safari from his senses and
had wound up in court facing 3 charges of harassing his ex. He felt like he
wasn’t able to cope with it all on his own and was scared of missing something
or forgetting to ask some question, so could I come along with him and help
out?
Now I’ve known this man for years and to be honest it was
hard to believe that he was capable of doing anything like this. He’s always
been the best kind of friend, a bit of a lad but capable of extraordinary acts
of kindness and good. Very selfless. So we started going to court together, his
lawyer was a friend of his (this guy knows literally everyone) and to be honest
he was brilliant. What surprised me though was how quickly I felt I grasped the
concepts and more than a few times the lawyer did a bit of a double take after
I said something. I was really bowled over by how much I enjoyed it. After
every court session we’d debrief with a coffee and my friend kept saying that
he thought I’d be really good at this.
Now unbeknownst to him, Law was one of the things I’d been
talking to my partner about. It came back to the volunteering thing: the idea
of helping people is something I think I’d derive a lot of satisfaction for.
Also the after doing some research into courses that were available the
structure of a part time degree was really appealing to me. It left us with the
flexibility of being able to move if needed and a clear layout of time that I
can work with going forward.
So after much more thought and making sure that this is
something that I feel is sustainable I did it. I signed up to an Open
University degree in Law. The blueprint going forward is to take this year just
as part time study and rest, then (health depending) in year 2 I can look to
extend that to part time study and some volunteering. The problem comes when I
finish the course.
Upon completion of the course I will have something called a
QLD (Qualifying Law Degree) that’s only the first step. After that I need to
complete the legal practice course (LPC) if I wish to become a solicitor and
after that it would be onto the Bar Professional Training Course if I wanted to
become a barrister. My dad asked me if that’s what I wanted to do, become a
barrister. The honest answer is I don’t know. At the moment I’m taking this one
step and after that I’ll just follow my feet. If it leads all the way to the Bar
then I’m sure that will be one hell of a journey but if not it shows people
(and myself) that I am capable of achieving still, that my illness isn’t the
giant full stop it seems to be. At worst it gives me a chance of avoiding that
first day of looking for full time work and trawling the supermarkets.
My course begins on the 1st of February with a
unit of Social Sciences before the Law stuff starts in October. As part of the
course they recommend keeping a learning journal and I thought that this might
be a good forum for it, I’ve enjoyed working on this blog and it gives me an
excuse not to abandon it completely; who knows, I may still muck about with
some 3d or photography stuff as well.
So that’s pretty much it, the last 3 months boiled down to
2000 words or so. I wonder how many more I’ll need in the next 5 years!
Ben Many of our ancestors were involved in law, seem to run in the family at the present moment I am involved in reminding our local Council they have a Duty of Care to the former council tenants affected by the housing transfer. If you can see below for the Carpenter wrote the book on law and is worth researching this member of our family.
ReplyDeleteJohn the elder Carpenter, also son of Richard, was born Abt. 1361/2 in London, Middlesex, England. Richard had TWO sons named JOHN. Be Careful this it 'the Younger' JOHN. [1]
Biography
John Carpenter, I (abt. 1372 - 1442), was the noted Town Clerk of London. He was elected as Town Clerk to the city of London during the reigns of King Henry V & King Henry VI. He was the author of the first book of English Common Law[1] called "Liber Albus" (the White Book). He was a member of the English Parliament from London in 1425. He is also recognized as the founder of the City of London School for boys.
Statue of John Carpenter (1372-1442) which stands in a prominent position on a plinth high up on the wall of the City of London School's glassed ceiling atrium standing over the door to the balcony of the Great Hall. In this position 'He' also 'sees' the full splendour of St. Paul's Cathedral Dome. He resided in the Parish of St. Peter, Cornhill, London, England and was buried in the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, Middlesex, England, where his wife Katherine was later interred.
He is frequently distinguished in historical documents as "John Carpenter, the younger," "John Carpenter, Junior," and as "John Carpenter, Jenkin." Jenkin or Jenken is a diminutive of the name John.
John Carpenter was one of three historical John Carpenters who were prominent during the 1400s. Both are mentioned in John Carpenter's 1442 will. One was his brother, John Carpenter, the elder, who received much property from his younger brother.
John Carpenter was the uncle to the other John Carpenter who was the Warden of St. Anthony's Hospital, Rector of St. Mary Magdalen's and finally known as the Bishop of Worcester. Bishop John Carpenter was willed, by the subject of this article, "that book on architecture which Master William Cleve gave me." Cleve was King's Chaplain and clerk of the works, and carried out building at the Palace of Westminster and the Tower.
Early life & ancestry Thomas Brewer in his 1856 book on John Carpenter found no significant record of his life until his election as the Town Clerk or Common Clerk of the City of London on April 20, 1417, at about age 45. The exemption mentioned on page 14 suggests that John Carpenter had been in the City of London's service "from the time of his youth." It is assumed that he was apprenticed to John Marchaunt, his predecessor as Town Clerk. Based on Liber Albus (see below) and other works, he was familiar with the law