Welcome to the next instalment of our blog series where we explain why AG Integrate is the perfect match for our consultant, Andy Curtis.
We’ve been placing hundreds of interim lawyers, legal ops, compliance, risk, governance, company secretarial and other specialists into in-house roles at the world’s best brands since 2015.
But there's a difference when working with AG Integrate, because where your next interim legal consultant or legal role is concerned, for us getting it almost right is 100% wrong.
Who is the star of this Blog Series?
In this series, we interviewed Andy Curtis, an experienced senior lawyer who is providing invaluable support to our long-standing client in the transport sector.
What motivated you to pursue a career in legal freelancing?
Having been made redundant from my previous Head of Legal job, I considered all the opportunities open to me, both permanent and temporary. My personal circumstances played a major part in this. I’m totally blind and, therefore, I’m not able to easily relocate from Yorkshire, which seriously limits the number of suitable opportunities open to me.
I could see that freelancing would enable me predominantly to work remotely, thereby solving one of my big problems, but I was concerned that whilst the potential feast or famine nature might work for me, it might not work for the support worker without whom I cannot do my job - we come as a team.
However, the market conditions and the very few potential jobs meant that I had to put such thoughts to the back of my mind and take the plunge and see if consulting had legs for me, and so far, despite my initial reticence, it’s working really well.
What led you to decide to join AG Integrate?
I worked at AG for 9 years as part of the commercial, competition, and litigation teams, having trained and qualified at the AG Leeds office. Having kept in touch with former colleagues and with the Firm itself through its alumni program, it seemed like the natural step to see if we could rekindle the flame.
This is your first engagement with AG Integrate, how would you describe your overall onboarding experience, from the first point of contact to beginning your assignment with the client?
Being welcomed into the AG Integrate fold was painless. An initial call, followed by a glowing reference from one of the litigation partners with whom I had previously worked, and I was in. After that, the process of being informed of potential assignments and the interview process for each one was very smooth, if not always successful.
However, once I’d secured an assignment, things started to get a little more complex, due entirely to my situation. As a blind solicitor, I need specialist software and the assistance of a support worker, all of which is provided at no cost to anyone other than the taxpayer, through Access To Work (ATW), part of the Department of Work and Pensions. While ATW was a lot quicker than I feared it would be in approving the support package to which I would have access, it did take a while longer to work through the complexities of which of the entities involved in this arrangement would employ my support worker. In the end, the recruitment agency through which my support worker was found agreed to undertake the role, thereby providing a simple ‘plug in and play’ solution for future assignments.
I have found through my life since losing my sight aged 21 that there isn’t much that I cannot do if given the chance, but inevitably this is dependent upon numerous other parties as well – for instance, the arduous task of helping me position my face in a circle on the screen of my iPhone to prove I’m a ‘real person’ as part of the ID checks, a test which I eventually passed! Whilst the above process was undoubtedly very stressful at times, the result is worth it. I’ve found a variety of people who have opened their minds and worked with me to find creative solutions to enable me to do what I’m very good at and prove that this model can work for me.
