Alex Wade
Posted:
28/11/2011
Was in:
Solicitor specialising in media law, especially libel, VP Legal Affairs, sports and media rights company, London
Now in:
| Arts and Media |
| Creative Writing |
Went about it:
I now live in the far west of Cornwall and write for a living. However, I continue to work as a 'night lawyer' from time to time for The Times. Since the age of 13, I'd always wanted to be a writer. I read American and English Literature at university and subsequently drifted into law somewhat unthinkingly. It was no accident that I gravitated to libel law - I loved, and still enjoy, its linguistic exactitude.
However, it was also, to those who knew me well, no surprise that I would eventually exit full-time law. This happened in two stages - the first, involuntarily, when I was dismissed for gross misconduct having rearranged a restaurant at a work function while working for a Cheltenham law firm. I was in the midst of some domestic mayhem, all of which was my own fault, and snapped one night, thanks to excessive booze, which was a frequent problem in those days. So 'stage one' of leaving the law saw me scuttle back to London, live in a bedsit and appear to have thrown away both my career and marriage. However, I got my act together, largely through taking up boxing. I was fortunate to retrieve my marriage and then my legal career, first with a leading City firm and then in-house in a sports and media company.
However, I knew, in my heart of hearts, that law wasn't for me. At least, not its nine to five, full-time practice. So 'stage two' came when I resolved, on a trip to climb Mt Blanc, that if I made it to the top I'd quit once back in Chamonix. I did, vowing never to return to a law office (even as a client) and to do my best to achieve my dream of writing for a living. By then I'd written a novel, which led to me being represented by a literary agent, and I'd also got one or two freelance pieces away. But I was also boxing five or six times a week, and my agent saw mileage in a book chronicling how I'd gone from a gross misconduct dismissal to back in the law to writing, all thanks to the controlled violence of boxing. The result was my first book,"Wrecking Machine: A Tale of Real Fights and White Collars".