Law graduate uses personal trauma to inspire career triumph

A University of Northampton Law graduate is using family heartache as her inspiration to catapult her towards legal excellence.

Clare Wilkie, 22, from Northampton, completed the Law LLB course in 2017 and was the first in her family to attend University. She graduated with top marks and is now a trainee solicitor at Woodfines LLP in Bedfordshire.

But as Clare explains, her path to academic and professional success was fraught with personal traumas at home which inevitably had an effect on her studies before coming to University.

She said: “I was privately schooled until the age of 15, but I grew up in a normal family, knowing how hard my parents had to work to provide that schooling for me, and we sacrificed other things such as family holidays in order for them to pay for my schooling.

“At the age of 17 I suddenly had to grow up, as a few months before I took my A-level exams, my mum was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. I still took my A-levels although I felt like my life was in turmoil and subsequently my results were far from what I knew I could have achieved.

“However, my life situation also gave me a determination to achieve. I was determined to succeed in my degree to prove my ability, as I knew pursuing a career in law would be extremely difficult with the results that I had achieved in my A-levels.”

Wanting to be close to her family during her mum’s illness, Clare chose to study at the University of Northampton, but she admits as soon she took a look around she knew she had made the correct choice.

She said: “I chose University of Northampton because after visiting the open days, it had an incredible warmth and feeling of homeliness which was just what I needed. It also enabled me to live at home and commute to university, so that I could still be there for my mum.”

As Clare entered her second year, her mum had entered remission, and Clare’s grades were continually on the up as she used her studies as a way to focus her mind.

Clare added: “I was immensely proud that I had finished my second year with an average first considering the emotional stress I was dealing with, as well as physically helping to care for my mum, taking her to chemotherapy every two-to-three weeks, and so on. However, as I said before, my degree became my escape from everything else in my life, and I ultimately tried to focus on that.”

Then as she entered her final year of study, Clare was plunged into grief as her dad passed away suddenly.

“Again, my life was in utter turmoil, but even more so than ever before. I made the difficult decision to continue into third year. My grief was still so raw, but I wanted to use the difficulties in my life as motivation to complete my degree and ultimately make my dad proud.”

Against all odds, Clare still managed to complete her degree with first class honours.

“When I found out I had gained a first in my degree, and achieved the award for the highest academic performance in my year, I was so overwhelmed, and all I could do was cry knowing just how happy my dad would have been, and still is, of me.”

Her academic journey didn’t end there, as Clare went on to gain her Master’s, which served as the perfect springboard for a career in a notoriously competitive industry.

Clare said: “Since leaving the University I have undertaken a Master’s in Professional Legal Practice. I finished my Master’s earlier this summer and gained a distinction in both my Master’s and my legal practice course.

“I then started my training contract with Woodfines and I am currently in their Sandy office, working in the commercial property department.

“I am loving it, and learning so much every day. Although I do not ultimately want to qualify into commercial property, and instead want to do an area that is more people-orientated and emotionally involved, I am taking the experience with open arms and learning as much as I can.

“I hope in the next five years I will become a fully qualified solicitor, and work in an area of law that I love, and am passionate about. Happiness and feeling rewarded just by doing your job is ultimately what I want to achieve.”

For more information on Law LLB, please visit the course page.