Eric Baijal is Head of Litigation at Drever and Heddle, a firm operating from offices in Thurso, Kirkwall and Fraserburgh (and another location in early course…). Just under two years ago Eric and his family relocated from Fife to Wick, Caithness. In his last post, he explained why he and his family swapped the Kingdom of Fife for the flow country of Caithness, and offers his latest insight into life and law in the land of the dark skies.

In many ways it is an excellent place to live and work (apart from the fact that it is now dark at about 2.30pm). Many of these benefits come from the fact that it is unspoiled. It is unspoiled because it is isolated. Isolation means that there are a number of challenges about operating a litigation practice from this part of the country.

The first challenge is recruitment. I have just finished interviewing for a new secretary. I would suppose that recruiting support staff is probably quite similar for us as it is for central belt firms. However, usually we have to grow our own. There are not too many legal secretaries, paralegals or cashiers around here. Qualified staff are even more scarce. One has to be honest and admit that there are not many final year law students who intend to spend their lives doing commercial litigation or corporate work in the Highlands and Islands. On arriving here, and having discovered that such work was available, this was an issue that I had to turn my mind to.

Our first recruitment drive was pretty good apart from the fact hardly anyone applied for the job. They say it only takes one, which is true, but with one or two notable exceptions the people applying for the job either viewed a move North as a way to ease into unconsciousness as they ended their legal life, or were running away from the disciplinary tribunal…

Interestingly subsequent recruitment drives have been more successful. Rural firms often hate recruitment agencies (interestingly many of them did not feel the same way about scale fees in the 70s and 80s). However, in our last recruitment round for a solicitor we were swamped by CVs; some of the candidates actually seemed human, albeit some were working in call centres and were in denial about having been rejected from what they had anticipated was the job for life. It probably should not have been a shock when candidates did not know where Thurso was, or “are quite happy to move to the Aberdeen area.” Some of the agencies were very good to deal with; others were not doing much for their candidates to say the least.

Thanks to the credit crunch we had an attractive offer to make. We were not making solicitors redundant, we had work for people to do and our salaries had suddenly become more competitive.

Perhaps I am dreaming, but I like to think that even when the credit crunch is over ambitious solicitors will still want to come and work for us in all our splendid isolation.  For rural firms building an image and reputation can be very important within the profession as well as building it outwardly. We have espoused a deliberate agenda of increasing our profile. This is not actually for any egotistical reason, rather it is about getting out into the place where candidates who can help the drive the firm forward are likely to be.

I previously mentioned the use of Web 2.0 and access to candidates is another reason for being involved in activities such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Solicitors have to believe that they are going some where they can have a credible career. Sure there needs to be substance as well as spin; but the spin helps make the sale. The proof of the pudding is in the eating-we have successfully recruited solicitors to the far North. Would we have done it without brand building? I don’t know, but we are not going to stop to find out.

Of course all of the above actually assumes that rural firms would want to recruit. It is very interesting to note how little planning for expansion goes on in rural practices, although there are some notable exceptions. Some of us have always been taught that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. However, in the Highlands that particular mantra seems to be sacrificed on the altar of get today's job done, and worry about tomorrow then.

It may be connected to this planning point, but one of the solutions to the recruitment crisis would be for smaller Highland firms to consider merging. Of course that would involve matching cultures. However, looking around rural Scotland there must be firms that would fit with each other and solve the succession crisis for solicitors who just want to get out of the door for the last time.

Our firm has been through two takeovers. It is a painful experience. I have no doubt that we have benefited from and in fact it has encouraged us to look at opportunities for further expansion.

A second challenge arising from the isolation is travel. I have no doubt that IT has made operating remotely from the major population centres much easier for me. However, in my experience no matter how good videoconferencing is, there are sometimes when there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting. What that often means in practice is flying or driving the best part of 250 miles. While the travel difficulties here perhaps cause different frustrations from the usual delays on the Fife Circle or the 1800 from Waverley to Queen Street they are real. Take one of my last flights from Edinburgh. Having circled Wick airport for half an hour we were diverted to Inverness and send up the road in a minibus; it was too windy to land. Time would fail to tell of being fog bound at Sumburgh, snowed in at Berridale and flooded at Abrichan.

Actually though, my least favourite part of the travel are the regular ferry trips across the Pentland Firth to Orkney. Anyone who saw the BBC2 documentary on crossing the firth last month will perhaps understand how rough it can get. There is just nothing like, attempting to down a full cooked breakfast before you leave Scrabster and arriving at Kirkwall Sheriff Court looking a green colour as you begin your debate or proof!

Still these are the challenges that make highland practice different and fun….