My journey to Minster – A Croydonian in Yorkshire

Alex Mount, paralegal at Minster, shares his journey from Croydon to Yorkshire as he pursues a career in law. 

The members of staff that I’ve had the pleasure of crossing paths with so far might have picked up on my South London accent. I am indeed a Croydon boy, born and raised. Leading many to question how I’ve ended up here. As well as myself, as I take in the beautiful rolling Yorkshire countryside on my commute down the A61.

I’m currently finishing my second year of a 4-year part time law degree at Birkbeck. After attending a virtual vacation scheme, I realised this wasn’t going to give me the exposure to the day-to-day workings of a law firm that I needed. Unable to find any in person work experience in London, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to come up and do work experience with Minster in March. This was thanks to a Riz Mughal, who I’m sure many of my current colleagues will remember fondly from his time at Minster. I reached out to Riz hoping he’d be able to offer the hands-on experience of the legal profession that I had been looking for, and I couldn’t have asked for more out of my week.

From turning up in the office fully suited and booted for my first day, Riz had forgotten to mention to me about the relaxed office dress code, the first thing that struck me was the Yorkshire hospitality. Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful, making it easy for me to decide to apply for a paralegal role at the company by the end of the week. Whether it’s been suggestions of things to do while I’m up here (The Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Coal Mining Museum have been highlights so far), or people taking the time to explain the intricacies of the business and legal procedures to me, I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome.

The week itself consisted of firstly being able to sit with the onboarding team and getting to witness the care that clients are offered on their initial phone call. I was fortunate enough to observe how clients claims then advance through the various teams in the business, and how cases develop to give our clients the best possible outcome from what can be a life changing event. This is where I witnessed the teamwork that occurs within the office and got to see how my colleagues collaborated to offer their clients the best possible service. Whether this be in team meetings discussing legal issues surrounding cases or sharing updates on important changes and progress within our industry to help each other in their cases.

It wasn’t just the people though that bought me to Minster, career progression is important to me and there is a strong belief at Minster in promoting from within and developing employees. I can see this as I have colleagues who had been assisted with apprenticeships and training contracts in the LPC, CILEx and the new SQE route to becoming a qualified solicitor, all of whom have been promoted from within the company and are following a pathway that I hope to become part of once I’ve completed my degree.

I’d like to thank everyone for being so welcoming so far, with special shout outs to the team Cronus members that have taken time out of their busy days to help me understand the Minster way. Also, to everyone who’s been involved in my induction.

Finally, to try and repay the days out suggestions, if you are ever looking for something to do in Croydon, I recommend the Croydon Airport Museum and you can’t go wrong with a trip to BoxPark!