Lawyer Monthly - December 2021 Edition

As you say, you began your career as a solicitor. You trained at what is now Mayer Brown before going on to become partner at Linklaters, and then moving on to become a judge after 13 years. Am I right in believing that you wanted to become a solicitor and to work in law from your childhood from age eight? That is right, I did. I was one of those people who wanted to be a lawyer from a very young age. I did not actually want to be a solicitor, sorry; I wanted to be a barrister. I wanted to have a flowing gown and do justice -- those of you who are old enough might remember a TV show called Justice with Margaret Lockwood, who was upholding the rights of the wronged and that sort of thing. I had a very, very conventional career. I studied law and joined what is now Mayer Brown as you say. I was not at all convinced, actually, that being a solicitor was for me, and I was thinking about changing career, but instead decided to look at other firms. So, when I was six months qualified I moved to Linklaters, which was a very scary experience to begin with. The culture was very much sink or swim, though it is different now. And I had a very enjoyable, interesting, stimulating and sometimes very scary experience there. I became a partner, which was again very rewarding and interesting. But I always had a real interest in social justice and civil liberties. I pursued those interests outside my day job, and indeed when I applied for my role at Linklaters I was already on the council of Amnesty International. In my interview I explained that that sort of thing was why I became a lawyer. I was very fortunate in that I was able to balance these commitments and have a very rounded experience. And it was your role at Amnesty International which eventually led you to become a recorder and a deputy judge? Yes, it was. While I was a solicitor, the director of Amnesty asked me at some point whether I had thought about becoming a judge and I told her no -- I did not know that solicitors could. So I filed the thought away and a few years later, I began to wonder whether that might be something that I could explore. I had always been very interested in miscarriages of justice. I spent my teenage years in Guildford, which was a place of some significance in that time because the Guildford Four, who had been accused of the pub bombings there, were notoriously victims of unsafe convictions. I found that whole issue fascinating, and therefore thought, “Maybe I Good morning everyone, thanks for coming. My name is Alexandra Marks. I am going to talk to you about my route to the judiciary, and if there are solicitors here, I really want to encourage you to apply; I am going to talk a bit about that. I also want to talk a little bit about my current job, which is chief adjudicator for the Business Banking Resolution Service.