Personal injury (PI) law deals with compensation for accidents and diseases. This area of law is flourishing in light of the recognition of new types of physical and mental illness. The subject matter varies considerably and can range from controversial, high-profile disaster cases to road traffic accidents to health and safety cases involving what one lawyer describes as “trippers, slippers and whiplash”. A related, specialised practice area of PI law is clinical negligence, which involves injuries suffered during medical procedures.

Shabana Ali is a solicitor at Atherton Godfrey, a Doncaster firm founded in 1979. She completed a law degree at the University of Leicester, followed by the LPC at the University of Birmingham. It was during law school that she found herself drawn to PI. She says: “The whole history of negligence and PI interested me – how over the last 50 to 60 years PI has changed and developed.” She then chose to work as a paralegal for a couple of years. She explains why: “I found it quite difficult to secure a training contract at first. I also thought I’d gain as much practical experience as I could, which would help me in the long run. I joined Atherton Godfrey in 2002 and started working in the PI department as a fee earner. A year later I secured a training contract.”

Shabana says: “The route I took worked for me, as during university I had not gained a lot of practical work experience. Upon leaving university I didn’t really know what to expect from working in a law firm and was quite nervous. After starting work as a paralegal, I gained in confidence and learnt a lot, which set me up for my training contract.”

At university, Shabana did not feel encouraged to start applying for training contracts early, and stresses that it is hard to do so “because you haven’t seen or experienced much of life. So, it is important to try and gain all the work experience you can get; it shows you are keen and willing, and will introduce you to the working environment”. She adds: “If you don’t start early, you may struggle and have difficulty securing a training contract. This can become quite disheartening and you start to wonder ‘is this the career for me?’. My advice is to keep trying and never give up.” With this in mind, the highlight of Shabana’s career was qualifying as a solicitor. “I made it in the end!” she says happily.

And now that she’s fully qualified, Shabana has taken on much more responsibility. She handles over 90 cases, including several that are high value and complex: “At the beginning of my career, as I didn’t have the experience in handling high-value cases, I didn’t undertake this kind of work. As I have gained experience and confidence, I have taken on more complex issues and now deal with cases without constant supervision.”

Dealing with 90 cases sounds awfully intensive. Shabana agrees: “You do have to use your own initiative. You have to be organised and prioritise work, as in a typical day you will find yourself drafting, writing letters, reviewing files, preparing court applications and preparing court documents, all with strict time constraints. In among all this you will be taking initial instructions from new clients and researching areas of law. Even though I am qualified, I am always learning and always being challenged with each task I undertake. PI is a constantly changing area; there are so many new cases every day.”

Despite the heavy workload, Shabana’s passion for PI sees her through. She explains: “I feel strongly about the area. It’s not just about the money – it’s also about helping people and trying to find solutions for them. You get serious cases where people have had medical problems which have had a huge impact on their lives. I find it stimulating to help clients work through that and find solutions. Each individual case is different and you apply different areas of law to each. You have to enjoy talking to people and be positive.”

Shabana advises that passion is very important if you want to work in PI. “You have to enjoy client contact,” she adds, “because there is a lot of it. Often it’s in difficult situations – if the client’s irate, you have to be able to placate them. If the client’s had serious injuries, you have to be sensitive. You need to be confident and be good at communicating.”

Shabana looks back on her career path to PI: “If I did it again, I’d start earlier. I’d find out what firms interested me, whether it’s large City, medium-sized or small niche, and I’d target them specifically by researching them, contacting them and trying to get some work experience – it’s all useful. You’d be surprised how many firms do want to help people get into the law. I’d go to more open days. I’d also try and get paralegal work, maybe in the holidays. I found doing the LPC was completely different to practising law.”

Proud she qualified and made it into the area she has lots of passion for, Shabana enjoys keeping up to date with a constantly changing industry. She says: “It’s become more media focused in the last few years. Because of the so-called compensation culture, things are changing with regards to how cases are being handled. I’m now secretary of the regional group of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, and am actively involved in bringing together PI lawyers to update them with information on PI law and practice.”