Almost there.

Very. very nearly there! Eric started studying law in 1996. As the girls were not much more than babies at the time and I was also at Uni Eric started his course part-time. It was a long plod to graduation but he finally got there and he was awarded his LLB(Hons) at a grand ceremony at Canterbury cathedral in 2001. At this point we had decided to emigrate and so he gave up his place at the College of Law in London and concentrated on moving and getting to grips with NZ’s requirements. He was advised that he needed to go to Uni for another year here, THEN do 6 exams in their core subjects THEN he could do his post grad course, referred to as Professionals. So, off to Uni and 4 new courses, passed, no problem. Then he hit problems. He studied hard but was unable to pass the 6 exams, well 5 of them. What the legal education council failed to tell was A. the 6 exams were over only 2 days, that there was no choice of questions and that they provided no guidance for study, course work etc, just access (which you paid for) to past papers. The exams were also about $330/subject, and B. that Eric could have done 4 of the courses in that year at Uni and bypassed the exam! After 18 months of trying to get through these exams (and seeing lots of other overseas lawyers and law students coming back time after time), he decided to go back to Uni and re-do the courses from scratch (all subjects he had already passed in the UK). And surprise surprise, when he was there he bumped into some of those same people he had been writing the previous exams with him. That’s what he did last year, full time, whilst still working as Matamata’s Animal Control Officer. Thank you to the local council for being so flexible with his hours. It was a year of Eric spending part of his days at Uni and part at work. Of course he passed everything and finally got onto the Professionals course in January. So now Eric has 3 exams this week (one done yesterday and he is fairly happy with that one, well not totally convinced he has failed which is how he usually comes out of an exam!) one today and a viva voce (what I would call a viver) tomorrow. He has lodged his intention to apply for admission to the bar and has got Kit, a Hamilton solicitor/tutor to move his admission. We called in on Kit yesterday to get him to sign a needed form and he pointed Eric to a barrister in Rotorua who is looking for a new staff member. Sitting in Kit’s office with talk of wigs, gowns and possible jobs it all sounded suddenly very real. The adjustment of Eric from perpetual law student to lawyer/barrister is one I am really looking forward to. It has been an incredibly long struggle; lack of earnings, Eric fretting over exams and assignment due dates and the incredible amount of time that he has studied and just missed out on family life has been, at times, very hard on us all. Not least the effort Eric has had to put in to this when his motivation has been rock bottom. He has, in effect, done a law degree twice over now, all but one module. Hopefully now that is at an end and he can start reaping the benefits of his hard work. Don’t worry, I’m not under any illusion that things will be cruisey from here but at least from long hours etc he will hopefully reap rewards. And please God he gets a job soon. If they get the exams marked pronto he could be admitted on 16th June, if not it may be October. Fingers crossed.