I have made no specific plans, but I expect that I will have lots more time to pursue my hobbies of walking in the Dales and Lakes, birdwatching, not to mention longer holiday opportunities.

When I first started as an articled clerk in 1962 I had very little idea of what a solicitor actually did.   I imagined, no doubt from the image of lawyers in films and on TV that the role involved helping people to understand and solve all sorts of problems, but with a flamboyance on the screen, which never resembled the actual challenges and hard work of the profession.   No doubt I was encouraged by parents’ views of a decent career.

I can look back with nostalgia at landmarks which are now taken for granted, the replacement of shorthand by tape recorders, the first photocopiers, STD ( that is automated phone systems), intercoms, electric typewriters, pagers, computers, mobile phones. 

I cannot claim any achievements except a measure of longevity.   I have vivid recollections as a young lawyer of attending assizes held long ago at Lancaster Castle where the judge pronounced the last death sentence in England, attendance on a client in the condemned cell and subsequently hearing the news of the reprieve.

I will be very pleased to escape from the daily battles with automated governmental systems that are creating a lot of the problems for clients and for lawyers

I have always imagined that everyone else’s job was easier than mine, even though this cannot be true.   I quite fancied being an estate agent.

I will miss friendships formed with clients, with members of the firm and members of other firms encountered daily until now.

I would suggest that there are two linked factors which aspiring young lawyers should focus on – staying ahead of new developments in technology and acquiring legal skills which will not be displaced by such technology/AI.