Criminal law solicitors advise and appear in court on behalf of accused persons, dealing with the complete range of offences from minor motoring misdemeanours to more serious crimes, including murder. They deal with the full spectrum of the criminal justice system, from the initial police station interview to the final contested hearing before the court.

Alison Muir is a partner at regional firm Metcalfe Copeman & Pettefar. She read geography at the University of London, and then undertook the CPE and Law Society Finals at The College of Law in Guildford.

Alison discusses her training contract experience at Metcalfe Copeman & Pettefar: “I was involved mainly in conveyancing and property work, and to a lesser degree I helped out in the commercial and family departments. As the office trainee, I also assisted all the fee earners when required. I now specialise solely in criminal law, which I never studied as a trainee. I think it’s not until you start your training contract that you see the reality of being a lawyer. However good your lecturers are, they can’t bring it life to the same extent. I never imagined that I’d end up as an advocate, but that’s just where I found my strengths to be.”

Alison has an impressive number of strings to her bow – head of the criminal department, managing partner of the firm’s King’s Lynn office and vice-chairman of the Regional Duty Solicitor Committee. She talks us through a typical day: “As my career has progressed, I have found that I am increasingly undertaking more administration and less legal work. I get to the office between 7:15am and 7:30am. I open the post and check it through before allocating it to each individual fee earner, check my emails, prepare my files for the day's court and have diary meetings with members of my department. I then attend court and the police station, or appointments as the case may be, hopefully returning to the office in time to say goodbye to everybody else. I then prepare cases for the next day, am often on call for the police station through the night, deal with emails, and dictate the day's work and post. Occasionally, I might even get some sleep!”

As for recent work, Alison gives us a flavour of the issues she deals with: “I’ve just come back from Huntingdon in relation to a case of possession with intent to supply cocaine and ecstasy. I have several rape cases on and I have a murder response this afternoon. Those are the main offences I deal with: drugs, rape and assault. I’m in court this afternoon for a client who was chasing people down the road with a machete – he’s one of my regulars! I also do some white collar fraud work, and Environment Agency and Department for Work and Pensions prosecutions as well. There’s a fair mix of things; if it comes through the door and it’s a magistrates’ court matter, we deal with it.”

Regional lawyering suits Alison well for a number of reasons: “You may sacrifice some of the financial rewards of a career in the City, but there is a quality of life that you can’t beat. Also, because you’re local you know the police officers, the prosecutors and most of the clients! Often, everybody is heading in the same direction, which is much more pleasant than I imagine it is in a big city. You just wouldn’t get the same personal approach. And you do get to have a bit of a life (and doing crime, it really is only a bit of a life!).”

Alison discusses the high points of her career so far: “I was delighted to have been promoted to partnership aged 29 and, at the age of 36, was the first female equity partner in the firm's history. I have recruited a number of quality criminal lawyers to my department and am proud to run one of the biggest criminal law departments in the region. I would not have been able to do that without the support of my colleagues.”

Ups and downs are all part of the job, explains Alison: “Probably the most enjoyable part of my career is that I have been able to develop my skills to the extent that I feel confident in my job, that I can deal with a high volume of cases with a great deal of aplomb and that I have gained the respect of a large number of professionals with whom I have regular contact. The least enjoyable part of my career has to be the late nights, holidays and weekends spent at the police station. I also feel that solicitors get very bad publicity and everyone assumes that we are all fat cat lawyers, when the vast majority of my peers are hardworking professionals who put their clients first and do not receive the recognition or the salary that they deserve.”

The reality of the legal aid landscape is that you have to be “devoted to your work, rather than motivated by money. So many people are resigning or firms are giving up on crime altogether. However, those that remain are standing firm – it’s not just about your career, it’s about the fact that the most vulnerable people in society will be further disadvantaged by there being no free access to legal representation”. As a result, Alison recommends taking a long hard look at whether a career in criminal law is the thing for you. She tells it like it is: “We are poorly paid for long hours and the job can be antisocial in terms of being away from home a lot. Unless you are prepared to tolerate criticism in the press, then it is not an area of law that I would encourage any young lawyer to enter. Saying that, I have the opportunity of mixing with some very personable people, I have a great deal of job satisfaction and my life is never dull.”

Alison receives many applications for training contracts and she assures us that she reads them all. Her top tips include the following: “What is sadly apparent from a lot is that they have not taken the time to spell my name or the firm's name correctly and those applications which do not have the basic information accurate are not considered. Also, check the firm's website. Our website has a lot of helpful information for trainees about the recruitment process and it is good to know that an applicant has taken the trouble to read information about the firm beforehand. For those applicants who are selected for interview, one or two have taken the trouble to contact our current trainees to find out a little bit more about the training contract and working for the firm, which goes in their favour. Also, do not be deterred by lack of interviews, be persistent. Always ask for feedback on your performance at interview as it will be invaluable in future applications.”

Alison finishes with some advice on how to be a successful criminal lawyer: “You need to be extremely hard working and conscientious, not afraid to stand up for your client's rights and be able to withstand pressure. You need to be fast thinking, particularly on your feet in court. However, you must also be compassionate and learn to be able to deal with every stratum of society, from your clients who may not be able to read and write, to some of the finest barristers in the country. You must always be fair and open in order to gain respect from your peers.”