Katie Drummond studied the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) programme at The City Law School graduating in 2013.
What is your current role or position?
I am a lawyer in Cabinet Office Legal Advisers, which is a division of the Government Legal Department. We advise ministers and policy officials in the Cabinet Office, helping them to govern effectively, within the rule of law.
Recently I have also been involved in the creation of new primary legislation to reform the public procurement system, as well as drafting some of the secondary legislation made under it.
Which organisation do you work for?
Government Legal Department
What motivated you to pursue the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)?
I was in my late thirties and looking to change career. At the time I was a food journalist on a national newspaper, which I found stimulating, glamorous and fun, but felt I wanted to do something more intellectually stimulating.
After doing a mini pupillage in family law, I decided to try and become a barrister, so needed to 'convert' my original degree, which was in classics, to law, via the GDL.
I had heard that the course at City was particularly rigorous and well respected by chambers, so applied there. I was of course concerned that I was 'too old' to become a barrister, but I soon realised that my previous experience, far from counting against me, actually made me stand out.
In a crowd of recent graduates, many of whom were no doubt much cleverer than me but had quite identical experiences and qualifications to each other, my CV appeared to look interesting and different, enough to get me several pupillage interviews (despite only having a 2:1 in my original degree, another thing I thought would count against me).
What were you doing before studying the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)?
I graduated from university in the late 1990s, unsure of what to do next. My father was very keen for me to become a barrister, but I didn't pursue it at that time.
Instead, I went to work for Macmillan Cancer Relief in major donor fundraising, then had a belated "gap year" in Australia, where I worked at the Sydney Olympics among other things.
Returning to London, still unsure of my career path, I took up secretarial temping, eventually finding myself in the office of a luxury travel magazine, where I had the opportunity to work on all aspects of the creation and distribution of the magazine.
I stayed there for three years, and through that experience realised that I really enjoyed copy editing, so went from there to the Sunday Telegraph where I worked as a sub-editor on the magazine, eventually becoming deputy food editor as well.
Why did you choose to convert to Law? What qualifications, if any, did you pursue after the GDL?
I converted to law because I wanted a more intellectually demanding career going forward, and the possibility of better pay (though that didn't transpire, as I ended up a civil servant!).
I was determined to be a barrister rather than a solicitor, so after the GDL I did the BPTC and from there did two years as a trainee in the Government Legal Department.
The Government Legal Department treats its pupil barristers and trainee solicitors almost the same, hence the two-year training period (though the pupillage is formally finished after a year).
It does however offer its pupil barristers the opportunity of spending their 'second six' in chambers, and I was lucky enough to go to Monckton Chambers for that period.
How did you find studying in London?
I am a Londoner born and bred and was already living and working there when I started the course at City, so there were no great surprises for me in that regard.
I've always thought it would be hard to be student in busy and massive London, compared to a cosy campus university or one in a small town such as the one I attended for my first degree.
But actually, if you are a mature student doing a second degree, as I was, it doesn't really matter.
London is obviously a world-class city so the cultural and social possibilities are endless, though of course as a student you don't necessarily have that much money to enjoy them!
Nevertheless, it's a fun, exciting place to be, with a really extraordinary mix of people, and City is well placed to take advantage of everything the capital has to offer.
Why did you choose The City Law School to study the GDL?
I chose City because I was advised by a friend, who had recently converted from banking to the bar, that it was particularly well respected by chambers, and was the obvious choice if I wanted to become a barrister.
I was also impressed by the other opportunities that City offered to students, such as mooting and networking opportunities with chambers. The university seemed to have excellent links with the best sets of chambers and used them to help advance students' careers.
I'm not sure if the other law schools had (and have) the same connections, so this is possibly a unique advantage of studying at City.
Were there any challenges affecting your decision to study the GDL?
I found my year at City incredibly tough. After more than 15 years as an independent economic unit in the workforce, I was suddenly a penniless student again, having to carry all my food and drink with me all day as well as my heavy law books (there's no spare cash for coffees at Pret when you've got a mortgage to pay and no income).
I had given up a rare and well-paid job in print journalism, during a recession, for an incredibly uncertain future. I had told myself I had to get a distinction in the GDL, to 'cancel out' my slightly unimpressive 2:1 in my first degree, so I was operating under immense pressure.
The study of law did not come naturally to me, and I spent a lot of time wondering if I'd made a big mistake. Combined with that I was applying for pupillage at the same time, which was definitely one of the more stressful experiences of my life.
But having taken the plunge, I was determined not to mess up, and indeed I did manage to scrape that distinction and get a pupillage.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone considering studying the GDL?
When I did the GDL at City, it prided itself on offering something a bit different to the other law schools. There were no "manuals" with the answers laid out for you; instead students had to figure out what the law was for themselves by a combination of studying proper legal text books, reading reams of cases, and subjecting themselves to Oxbridge-style tutorials.
This is undoubtedly a more intellectually rigorous way of learning the law, but it's not easy! I'm not sure if it is the same now, but if so, prospective applicants should consider whether this style of learning suits them and whether it will - as it did in my case - make a positive impression on employers/chambers in the areas that interest them.
Another thing for prospective barristers to consider is the possibility of a pupillage and/or career at the employed Bar; it's not something people know much about, but actually a fifth of all barristers are employed (rather than the usual model of being self-employed in chambers) and there are excellent opportunities for pupillage with my employer, the Government Legal Department, as well as the Crown Prosecution Service, law firms, regulators and banks.
It's an additional route to investigate when considering what one might do after law school.