Fiona Baker

“I started my legal career at a small firm in Edgware, working for their mortgage repossession team whilst studying for Institute of Legal Executives qualification. I knew I wanted to work in the legal sector but felt I wasn’t really getting the training where I was, so I decided to join  Matthew Arnold & Baldwin as a Conveyancing Secretary within their Residential Property Team. I have recently moved to work with Karin Holt in the New Homes Team, which is a new team set up to focus mainly on conveyancing work for the new homes sector.  

The firm encouraged me to continue with my ILEX studies. The qualification was in two parts; the first which took two years gave me a general grounding in the law. I then spent a further two years studying  my chosen specialist areas, which  included all the property-based subjects, contract and equity and trusts.  When I qualified in 2001 I had already been working for four years and learning on the job, which meant that as soon as I had qualified I was able to start taking on work in my own right. Although I would like to continue my studies and qualify as a solicitor I have a very heavy caseload, which means I do not have a great deal of spare time for my studies and as it is now more than five years since I qualified and I would need to resit all my previous subjects. Also I am not sure continuing with my studies would make any difference to my day to day work and careerwise I have recently been  promoted to an Associate within the firm. 

 I enjoy the mix of different people and the different types of work I deal with in my current role. I am also a bit strange in that I love ploughing through huge bundles of paperwork and learning more about the sites; it’s more challenging. I also enjoy enfranchisement work; it’s technical, it’s ever-changing and it’s an exciting and growing area.

I like working for a large firm without having to travel to London. I also like the fact that we practice as experts in a subject rather than in a multitude of disciplines and that we have enough of those experts to fill all of our clients’ needs.”