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Litigator Thomas Harris tells Emily Moore about the responsibilities and rewards that come with working for an Island law firm
IN common with many teenage boys, Thomas Harris had little idea, as he approached his 16th birthday, what he wanted to do when he left school.
But, as the former Victoria College student explained, a week in Paris started to shape his ideas.
“I wasn’t the best at maths or science, so accountancy was out of the picture,” smiled the senior associate at Parslows LLP. “My uncle is a lawyer in Paris, so I spent a week shadowing him when I was 16, and that experience convinced me to apply to study law at university.”
Further cementing Thomas’s interest in the subject was an A-level in psychology which, coupled with the “drama and excitement of the legal world”, made him think that a career in criminal law might appeal.
“A lot of people have similar thoughts but not everyone ends up working in criminal law,” reflected Thomas, who has gone on to specialise in litigation and dispute resolution.
Human rights
While loving the “rewarding” nature of the role and recognising the responsibility that comes with “having the opportunity to affect someone’s life”, litigation was not the road on which Thomas originally planned to embark when he graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in law with French.
“I may have become somewhat of a cliché of a law student, but I always took an interest in human rights and I had great ambitions to go out and save the world when I left university,” he said. “I therefore studied human rights, and it probably took longer than it should have done to realise that you don’t just leave university with a law degree and step into a job saving the world.”
Thomas pursued his interest in that area, returning to university – this time in Maastricht – where he undertook a master’s degree in international law with a human-rights focus, before once again applying for roles in his dreamed-of profession.
“I found an unpaid internship with Geneva for Human Rights, an organisation that provides training courses for human-rights defenders, non-government organisations and diplomats,” he said.
“It is an ECOSOC-registered organisation, which meant the team had passes to the UN building in Geneva, and I felt very proud as an intern being able to wander round the centre’s corridors and watch the meetings.”
Private matters
After seven months in the Swiss city – and some wise advice from lawyers working in the field – Thomas decided it was time to gain some experience in the private sector. While remaining part of Geneva for Human Rights as a member of the organisation’s executive council, he returned to Jersey and found work as a paralegal in the litigation department of one of the larger local firms.
“That’s where I got the litigation bug,” he recalled. “We worked on some very interesting cases, a pattern that continued when I moved to a local litigation-only firm that specialised in corporate cases.”
After qualifying as an English solicitor and working on several corporate cases, Thomas was keen to move into the “more human side of the law”, an opportunity that Parslows LLP has given him.
“The focus for me at Parslows LLP is much more on Jersey-centric cases, representing business clients and individuals,” he said.
It is a change in emphasis the senior associate is relishing.
“Working with individuals and addressing their personal problems is very different from working with someone representing a company, so the dynamic in terms of client relationships is very different,” he reflected. “Sometimes when people contact me, they are at a crisis point in their lives and feel as though the world is falling down around them”.
All life is here
The work, as Thomas admits, covers a wide range of areas, spanning everything from personal injury and employment law to probate, contentious trusts and public-law matters.
“The beauty of litigation is you are exposed to just about everything, so in addition to understanding the law, you learn a lot about everything in life, from medicine to business,” he said.
“While you sometimes see people when they are at low points in their lives, which can make you reflect on your own life, you also see how people can rise from those low points and overcome their problems.”
Admitting it can sometimes be difficult not to take cases “too much to heart”, Thomas adds: “You do feel a great responsibility, as you are aware the decisions you make can have a significant impact on someone’s life.”
Reality check
That is why, he adds, it is important to manage clients’ expectations from the beginning.
“A lot of people expect their day in court,” he acknowledged. “Many people who are aggrieved feel they should ‘get what they are due’ but the reality is often different. Even in the best circumstances, people rarely get exactly what they think they should.
“Most claims will not go to court. While some people might assume we push to take cases to court and maximise our fees, that isn’t the case. It is our responsibility to settle cases as early and efficiently as possible, avoiding court wherever we can.”
