It takes guts to achieve your goal, then change your mind.

Six months ago, I wanted to be a construction lawyer. After 7 years in the industry as a contract administrator client side, and with a builder, I was hell bent that once I got my law degree I’d be an awesome construction lawyer...because I know how we build.

I had three main beefs with the laws affecting our industry’s economy:

1)     The impractical lip service ‘limitation of liability’ game that we call our safety regime;

2)     The gross misuse of government money passed off as stringent red-tape procurement in government, notwithstanding the ever-present Old Boys Club;

3)     The ridiculous insurance premiums that subcontractors and builders are paying due to the blatant harassment tactics of ambulance chasing solicitors.

When I started working for a construction law firm as a very junior Law Clerk at the start of the year, I was beside myself with excitement. I was so enthusiastic, I’m pretty sure I was one of those really annoying new people that tries way too hard. But the longer I spent in an office away from my industry peers, the more disheartened I became. I spent all of my time in front of a computer, and almost no time on the phone – the exact opposite of my role as a CA where the phone calls started  at 6am and a good chunk of the day was spent in my ute.

When clients visited the firm, I was so interested in where their projects were and what the build was that I’d walk through the city on case errands later in the day and detour past their jobs to check them out. Lets face it - our industry isn't a job - its a way of life.

The single hardest part of being a white collar professional was seeing clients in isolation to their world. They would come in with a particular legal matter and I would watch and learn while they were provided extremely good advice for 1-2 hours, then they would leave.

The reality of legal advice is that unless you’re engaging a lawyer to handle a matter on your behalf, a lot can get lost in translation. Let’s face it, builders and lawyers don’t speak the same language. I’m not saying builders and lawyers are poor communicators, I’m saying they are looking at the same drawing with vastly different scales.

Builders need to know operationally exactly what they need to do when they get back to their office to fix their problem. Step 1, step 2…problem solved…next task. Lawyers don’t talk in absolutes – in fact they’re trained not to. The law is like a game of snakes and ladders, and it depends where you land at any given turn to foresee the path you’ll take next.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched industry people receive legal advice, and could predict exactly what they were going to do operationally to shoot themselves in the foot the moment they got back to their office. I found myself not only following clients to the door when they left, but down in the lift, and then all the way to their cab. One day it dawned on me... I missed building things! And although I was helping my industry in a way by becoming a lawyer, I had left my industry to do so. I knew there had to be a better way.

Risk mitigation sounds like a catch phrase created by insurance brokers. But it’s really just staying out of trouble, avoiding disputes, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. I’ve had a LOT of people tell me that it’s a shame I won’t be using my law degree. Let me be the first to tell the world at large, people who have law degrees can’t even cross the road without using it. 

So I've graduated Law, and in the next few weeks I'll be eligible for admission as a Solicitor in the State of QLD, if that's what I want. But its not.

Instead, I have started my own business. So I have to be clear about this: I’m not a lawyer, and I can’t give legal advice. But what I can do is bring professional business services to small businesses in the construction industry who may not otherwise justify a fulltime staff member as an overhead. I'm an affordable consultant, I'm fast and effective, and I'm your people. 

Instead of becoming a lawyer and waiting for you at a firm, I come to your place of business to make sure you never end up needing a lawyer in the first place.

Watch this space…more to come about Tricks of Your Trade.