Rohini Teather.
Head of Parliamentary Affairs, or rather I drink tea and coffee with MPs in Big Ben as my daughter used to say. Which is more or less an accurate idea of the role. Part of my role is running the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid which conducts independent research on Access to Justice issues and hosts meetings in Westminster with MPs, Lords and members of the sector. I also meet with Parliamentarians to brief them on various elements of the legal aid world, and to discuss concerns about the sector. To that end, I liaise with our members regularly to hear about and understand what life is like at the coal-face, which informs the work that I do.
What’s the best bit of the job?
That’s a tricky one. I get to work with some incredible people. Legal Aid wasn’t the first area of law that I worked in. In a previous incarnation, I was a derivatives lawyer working in the City and then for a well-known multi-national organisation. I came to legal aid years later, after having been a volunteer and then a trustee at a housing law charity. From the first moment, it captured my heart in a way that life in the City never had. The law is a tool and can be used for so many things, but the people that I work with use it to make other people’s lives better- everyday. And I’m still inspired by that nearly six years into the job. It’s the same with the MPs that I work with. Headlines aside, no one goes into Parliament for the money. Whatever their political affiliations, their working day is spent trying to make things better for others in some way. I can’t think of a better reason to get up and go to work each day.
Worst part of the job?
Probably the flipside of the same coin. I get to work with these incredible people but that means that I also see the impact of the job on them. How impossible it is for firms to manage on legal aid fees alone. Those clients that they have to turn away. The need for practices to subsidise their work with either private income or (in the case of NfPs) with grant funding. I see these bright, brilliant people giving up their time and energy to engage with one review and consultation after another, and I see how crushed they are when those same reviews don’t bring about the change that they need to keep going. ]
Quick fire questions…
Homeworking or office?
Office – I enjoy hanging out with the team
Coffee or kombucha?
Coffee- definitely coffee. I’ve never understood the appeal of tea.
Posh chocolate or Cadbury’s Dairy Milk?
Bit of both on the chocolate front. I’m the one in the office with the not-so-secret stash.
Last music or comedy gig attended?
I’ve been to some truly appalling things in connection to my children lately, but some favourite gigs include Stevie Wonder, Simon and Garfunkel and the ones with my girlfriends that I’ll invoke the fifth on.
Favourite lawyer (can be fictional or real)?
Can I still say Atticus Finch? I’m conscious that the sequel to “To Kill a Mockingbird” tarnished him somewhat, but he’s the reason that 8 year old me decided to read law. Still not sure how that equated to derivatives
TV programme series you have most recommended to friends?
I don’t watch a huge amount of tv, so this one’s a struggle. Can I say ‘Fleabag’? or some classic comedy like ‘Only Fools’. Much more likely to recommend a book or get carried away giving out lists of books. Does a podcast count? I love “The Rest is Politics’
Favourite person/organisation you follow on Twitter or any other social media platform?
Not a huge social media follower, but I remain an unashamed fangirl of Joanna Hardy-Susskind, Pro Jo Delahunty, Kerry Hudson, Jess Phillips, Caitlin Moran and some of the other witty, brilliant women that have crossed my career path.