myCILEx
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Nadine Ronan discusses residential property, dressage, and having sole responsibility for Anthea Turner’s horses.
About the author
Nadine Ronan is a legal assistant at Hart Brown Solicitors, Surrey.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I started riding at the age of six, and my love of horses, together with an ambition to pursue a career as an event rider, meant that by my teens I was training as a live-in working pupil with Jane Holderness-Roddam , the first female to represent Britain in the sport of horse trials (eventing) at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. I worked for Jane Holderness-Roddam in Wiltshire as a working pupil while undergoing intensive training for competing in the sport of eventing. I then progressed to attend Warwickshire Agricultural College to study for a BTec National Diploma in equine studies.
Having successfully obtained the diploma, I sought more experience with a different trainer and so relocated from Essex to Surrey to work for Robert Lemieux, a Canadian event rider. I also worked in a local professional show-jumping yard in Elstead so as to improve this phase in the sport. I then progressed to acquiring Go West (aka Archie) in 1998, which was at the time only six years old. My time was spent between working at the show-jumping yard and competing in affiliated eventing, and in autumn 2000 culminated in my completing my first novice international level three-day event at Weston Park in Staffordshire, with Archie.
In 2003, I acquired my next horse, Our Way (aka Frank), a then five-year old to do advanced eventing, but he preferred the dressage phase to the jumping phases of eventing, and so my attention turned to pure dressage training. In September 2006, I achieved a credible placing of sixth at the British dressage national championships at elementary restricted level.
Q: How did you get from there to where you are today?
A: In 2006, after a successful placing at the nationals, it became clear just how difficult a professional career with horses would be, and this, coupled with a lack of any real security within the industry, led me to change career direction entirely. I decided to follow the path to becoming a Chartered Legal Executive via parttime self-study at Guildford College. While the studying commenced part-time in the evenings, I found employment at the Godalming branch of Sainsbury’s supermarket, where a customer service role quickly progressed to me being promoted to personal assistant to the store manager. I was also looking after horses for celebrities like Anthea Turner at this time.
However, the need to work within a law firm then led to my working for a couple of local law firms before joining Hart Brown in September 2013 as a legal secretary to the head of the department within residential property. My successful graduation from Guildford College, in November 2014, with the CILEx Level 6 Professional Higher Diploma in Law and Practice then led to my promotion, involving working on some client residential sale files under the supervision David Knapp, a partner and the head of the department.
Q: What lessons has your career so far taught you?
A: The flexibility of studying part time with CILEx has enabled me to follow a route that would otherwise have proved very diÿcult to follow due to my vast previous experience within the equine industry and the need to earn while I learnt. I would advise anyone wishing to pursue a career within law to consider the CILEx route, as the programme allows for the further studying of the core modules to becoming a solicitor and a couple of my colleagues have since qualified as solicitors having come through the CILEx route.
I would say never give up on achieving your ambitions, be that in the work environment or in a personal nature, and every experience teaches you something, either to learn what not to do again in a situation or what was worthy of being repeated.
Q: What does the future hold?
A: I have recently decided to return to Guildford College on alternate Saturday mornings to study for the Level 6 conveyancing module, with the exam to be sat in June 2016. I have recently commenced work on some residential sale files under David’s close supervision at Hart Brown, and hope to qualify as a Chartered Legal Executive in the next couple of years.
Four nights a week are still devoted to training my advanced level dressage horse. In September 2014, I acquired a three-month-old filly called Bella, which I hope will eventually take over from Frank and whom I aspire to train to Grand Prix level.