I am often asked how and why I got involved in school governorship and exactly what it is about. The answer is simple: I was a parent. But having started from that point I have realised quite how tremendous the volunteer army in this country is and how proud I have been to become a part of it. As a lawyer I come ready-equipped with some of the skills required to be an effective governor: an ability to sit through meetings, sift through the chat for the pertinent points, and help to guide strategy much as one would with a client or a business interest. The difference? I am not being paid, and therefore enjoy this in an entirely different way. Those amongst us who really enjoy being a school governorship feel humbled and privileged to be able to affect these children's futures, and take everything we do in that context with the utmost of seriousness, being able to remember having been children ourselves.
In addition the role of a governor is that of "critical friend" - to scrutinise and still support the Head, the rest of the School and the Chair of the Governing Body to help deliver the best results possible for the children (the whole point of the exercise of course). All kinds of lawyers, be they barristers, legal executives, solicitors or those working in house, are required to pick the holes in the "other side" and their arguments. What better practise for scrutiny then, of statistics, policies and results, than to have been a lawyer.
All governing bodies run in different ways, but examples of committees including premises (that's for the property lawyers), personnel (think employment and data protection) and curriculum (think compliance). I have taken a turn at sitting on pretty much every type of committee now and would hope that I have had at least some small skill to bring to the table on every occasion.
Following my own experience, I was unsurprised to see that the bods at the Law Society have had a similar epiphany and in fact set up a scheme called Allies which aims to have a "lawyer in every school". (See http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/aboutlawsociety/corporateresponsibility/allies.page) As I am not a member of the Law Society at present, I guess I should not be surprised not have heard of this sooner, but I wonder if they are doing enough to promote it? It seems to me to be common sense to have, as schools become more and more like businesses (I'm not saying I agree with that politically in any way, mind), a lawyer and an accountant on board. This is particularly worthwhile as the services delivered by local authorities are dwindling, being outsourced, and often being over-charged for.
If you work in the law and have an interest in shaping the world of the future I would urge you to consider contacting your local authority, who will be able to discuss vacancies with you, or the School Governor's One Stop Shop, at http://www.sgoss.org.uk/ who recruit tirelessly for volunteers and place them in schools with vacancies. You probably have a lot more to give than you think.
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