Well, the three months since joining Devonshires have certainly flown by! It’s been an incredibly exciting and challenging time for me.
I have been a Local Authority Solicitor for many years with a number of different authorities and certainly didn’t expect that I will be moving into private practice at this stage in my career, but I am certainly very pleased that I made the move.
I have really enjoyed the challenge of increasing my knowledge of the many different types of tenancies and appreciating the private practice nuances of client relationships.
It’s also been an adjustment having so many different clients and not having a good working relationship with one local court. At the time, I certainly didn’t appreciate the benefits of knowing the voices and names of most of the staff at the local court. I thought West Yorkshire courts were hard to get through to but that is nothing in comparison to the London courts!
I started my career as a Legal Executive and then decided to cross-qualify as a Solicitor. However, starting the LPC when my son was eight months old was not part of my original plan. That year was a bit of a blur but despite everything I enjoyed my time back being a student again. I do enjoy learning and 10 years later I decided to do a Masters at Leeds University, thankfully by this time both my children were at school so there was slightly less juggling required.
I relocated from Dorset to Yorkshire in 2006 due to my husband working for Jet2 who moved their head office to Leeds and I love life here. I do still miss the beach, not so much in the summer when it’s very busy but I love a winter beach walk. I’m a campervan fan so our weekend trips often involve a journey to the coast, although I don’t think I could have found anywhere so far from the coast when moving!
I had been largely home-based since Covid and whilst I appreciated not having a two-hour daily commute, I didn’t miss the M62 and its inevitable traffic jams. However, I did miss my colleagues and interaction with them. Long-term working from home was just too sedentary and I’m really enjoying being in the office two days a week and have been cycling in over the lovely summer. I’m not so sure how much I will enjoy cycling through a Yorkshire winter though, but time will tell!
It has been so much better seeing and getting to know colleagues in person and especially as a new starter, I really appreciated having someone on hand to answer my inevitable IT questions. A big thank you to both the London and Leeds teams for all their help so far and for making me so welcome.
For more information, please contact Sara Mondon.
