10 Features The RGS Gazette Issue 12 July 2024 Features I Fought the Law and I Won Mr. Phillips recounts his journey as a lawyer and teacher "So, Sir, Law or Maths?" asked Yuvi at the end of double Maths one Friday. I looked at him and paused. I never quite know how to answer that question. He continued: "You've been teaching us Maths since September, sir. Do you enjoy it? Or will you leave us and go back to being a lawyer?" Was there just a hint of hope in Yuvi's voice, I wondered? Might my students actually want me to return to the law?! "Yuvi," I began, not really knowing where this was going. "I... I... I promise I will tell you another time." Why did I, in my midforties, leave a wellpaid and comfortable job as a lawyer, where everyone respected me and my work was always interesting, where pens never exploded and nobody ever had to be told to tuck their shirt in, to retrain as a Maths teacher? The questions sometimes vary. "Surely, Sir, you never actually needed to use trigonometry or simplify surds or solve quadratics when you were a lawyer?" asked 9T2, as if to start negotiating lesson contents with me. "Sir, are you actually an undercover agent, or some kind of fugitive from justice?" theorised 10B3. "What does it mean, sir, to fight the law and then to win?" demanded 7SJ. I worked as a lawyer for twenty years, in a number of different roles and for several firms. I specialised in structured finance, capital markets, and financial regulation of one kind or another. I had to work very long hours at the start of my career, but eventually I gained expertise in my field and was better able to control my work. I could choose my own projects and focus on things that I liked. I was lucky: my work was stimulating, varied and I always got on well with my colleagues. So far, so good. Time feels exponential, not linear: as you get older, the years go by quicker and quicker. It is easy to stick with what you know, go to the same office each day, read emails, answer the telephone, sit in meetings, draft documents, research and consider the law, write articles, and drink too much coffee. But the years turn into decades and one day, if you are not careful, you will look into the mirror and see a man who is getting old. I could never quite shake the suspicion that there might be other jobs that I would enjoy too. A new challenge would be good for me, rejuvenate me. At the back of my mind, I knew I missed Maths. I had never thrown away my old Alevel Maths handwritten notes, 100s of pages of pure maths key points and examples were in a box in the loft. I dug them out, and for the first time in 25 years, I properly looked at them. Could I still solve a differential equation? What about a hyperbolic function? Or worst of all, a dreaded vector proof, using lambda and mu? I bought a textbook, then a calculator. I started taking breaks from the law to do Maths at work. The ratio of time spent doing Maths to that doing law gradually shifted in favour of Maths. I got into the habit of frantically covering up my maths every time a colleague came into my office so that they wouldn't see that I was doing the binomial expansion. I was hooked. Could I find a way to do maths all day? "Maths, fortunately, always stays the same and never gets old." It turned out to be very easy to be accepted on a teacher training programme: a brief application form, an interview, and a lesson to teach. Nobody seemed to mind that I was a bit older. Maths, fortunately, always stays the same and never gets old. I did not think too much about it I just wanted to try my best at being a teacher, to remember what it felt like to be a teenager. I resigned from my law firm immediately. Yuvi, let me try to answer your questions very directly. Yes, it has indeed been a pleasure and a privilege to teach Year 8 and to get to know so many of you. In fact, I have enjoyed it much more than I thought. No, I am not planning on leaving RGS, I have certain projects here that I want to keep on track! I have already chosen Law for the last twenty years, but I think I will now choose Maths for the next twenty. But don't worry, we only have another couple of weeks of double Maths on Fridays in Room 37 with me: Summer is coming soon for all of us! There are roughly 160,000 practicing solicitors in England (2024)
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