Jonathan

“My name is Jonathan Andrews and I’m an associate Reed Smith, a city law firm. I was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum at age nine. My family were very supportive and didn’t see it as me lacking anything but simply having a different way of doing things and thinking. That was part of what gave me the confidence to be able to reach far and focus on my achievements. I found it interesting that there was a lot of talk about support from law firms, but there wasn’t anybody talking about being autistic in law. It felt like there was a lack of representation there.

In terms of actually getting into the legal profession itself, it was quite a long process. I had parents who were very supportive of me but certainly weren’t wealthy or well-connected. It wasn’t like I had the ability to get great contacts or assume that I could walk into a role. I worked very hard at my comprehensive school, Darrick Wood, got good A-Levels and was the highest-achieving boy in my year; I managed to get into King’s College London because of that.

I began to become aware of different opportunities that were available to me and I applied. English was my favourite subject at school and I really enjoyed my English degree – even managing to have an essay published in a journal – but I was always aware that the academic market in English wasn’t the easiest to get into, or one offering the greatest chances to make a practical difference.

I looked into open days, taster days and internships etc, as the best events to get in front of law firms. I remember the first few times it wasn’t something I was used to, and given my background I was quite anxious about it. But I decided that I could get used to it. I developed resilience and immersed myself in it.

It took me 9-months to get my training contract. I just had to keep pushing at it, basically, and believing that I could do it. There are others who might take longer and more years to do it. I was lucky in that I managed to do it just at the end of the year I applied (they start their recruitment in September and finish it in August), and I think part of this success was because I kept pushing and didn’t give up and didn’t assume that I wouldn’t be able to do it because of my background. I just thought that the right time hadn’t come yet, so I kept pushing and pushing.

Now, it’s been really fantastic because I’ve had a great experience at Reed Smith. During my training contract I had 2 seats in media (including a secondment) and now I’m actually qualified in the media team, which was my first choice there. It’s a top-rated firm for media, and there’s no question of me not being hired because of my background because I’ve been up against – throughout the process – people from more privileged backgrounds, and managed to get the job and get my associate role. I’ve got it on merit, basically, because I was the best person for the role.”