Solicitor James Reid
At Wallace Quinn, we believe in giving our staff room to grow in their professional careers with training and support. Nobody demonstrates this better than James Reid, who joined Wallace Quinn as a sixteen year old office junior from High School and is now one of our company Directors. For our latest ‘Meet the Staff’ profile, we caught up with James to find out more.
How did you get started at Wallace Quinn?
James Reid: When I was at school I wanted to be a footballer and I probably focused a little bit too much on that and not enough on my school work. I got a serious injury playing in the school squad when I tore the cruciate ligament in my right knee. I did recover and start playing again, but soon had the exact same injury again and that put the lid on my ambition to try and become a professional player. ‘‘Could Have Done Better’ is how I would sum up my school report card, so when I was sixteen I did a deal with my dad where he said I could leave school, but only if I had a job first. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life so decided to try and get an office job to tide me over until I had a firm plan.
One of my friend’s mum worked for Wallace Quinn and she let me know the firm was looking for an office junior. I came in and met with Managing Director John Quinn who gave me a two week trial and after that offered me a job. I was filing documents, sorting out the mail and trying to be useful wherever I could.
How did you begin the journey from Office Junior to Company Director?
James Reid: When I started with the firm, all of the accounts and cashroom procedures were paper based, but it was time to modernise and I helped the Cashier move everything onto a computerised system. I did a good enough job that the Cashier started to use me to help out when things were busy, which in turn led to me covering for her when she went on holiday. When she left the company, John asked me to take over in the interim while he advertised for a replacement. However, after a few weeks of running the cashroom, John asked me if I wanted the job. It would mean me going back to school to study for professional qualifications, which I did every Tuesday and Thursday evening for two years.
You didn’t stay entirely in the cashroom though?
James Reid: Part of the course was on executries – dealing with an estate after somebody has died – which was a small part of Wallace Quinn’s business at that time. I told John about this aspect of the course, and he suggested I try developing that part of Wallace Quinn’s business. I worked hard on executries and other elements of Private Client work (Wills, Powers of Attorney, Estate Planning, etc) and the department became a much bigger part of the business.
John then suggested I should think about applying for law school and I got accepted at Strathclyde University. That was a busy time in my life as I juggled work with school and I had a young family. I was at Strathclyde three nights a week and most Saturday mornings for five years. Then another two years to do my legal diploma and two years as a trainee solicitor. By the time I was qualified I was running the Private Client department and eighteen months later John offered me a position as a Director.
How much has your experience working up from being an office junior influenced the approach Wallace Quinn take to staff development?
James Reid: I’m not sure I’ve influenced a process but rather benefited from one that’s always been part of the Wallace Quinn ethos! I had a number of doors opened for me, but I had to walk through them and do the hard work on the other side. We’ll always look for ways to support staff and we’ll always be receptive to their ideas for development. I’m now working closely with one of our trainee solicitors and I’m trying to use my experiences to help him on his journey.
What do you do when you’re not at Wallace Quinn? Do you still play football?
James Reid: I did join an amateur team called “East Port Amateurs” in my early twenties where I played left back, left wing, left midfield – basically anywhere on the left I was needed. Sometime later, I got another knee injury and decided my body was telling me to call it a day! I love spending time with my family, but I’ve one daughter at university and other in fifth year at high school studying for exams, so they’ve got other things on their mind than spending much time with me at the moment My wife and I like to take long walks with our dog, Harry the Labradoodle, and I also play golf at Carluke Golf Club.
