26 Year Dream - Finally Achieved

08 July 2003

Carole Ryan a mother and grandmother qualified 2 July 2003 as a solicitor, 26 years after she first set her heart on the idea.
Carole Ryan originally trained for and was a junior school and special needs teacher but decided in 1977 that she wanted to become a solicitor.
Carole Ryan, Assistant Solicitor with Furley Page Solicitors said: “However, due to the cost in time and money of re-training to become a solicitor and bringing up two young children I put my dream on hold for 20 years, but I never lost sight of it.”
Twenty years later in 1997 after her eldest son, Neille, had become a solicitor Carole returned to college and gained her LLB, commuting daily to London. She then embarked on gaining two years training in order to qualify as a solicitor.
Carole then completed three years as a caseworker with Canterbury Housing Advice Centre – Community Legal Services obtaining experience in Landlord and Tenant law along with Welfare Benefits legislation.
The Law Society accepted these three years as one year towards her qualification; Carole needed a second year incorporating a different area of the law. Time was running out as the second year’s training needed to be completed within a few years of finishing the Law degree.
Carole’s age seemed to be against her until a position became available at Furley Page Solicitors in July 2002 within their Personal Injury team working on miners’ cases for Vibration White Finger and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Furley Page Partner, Neille Ryan said: “It made perfect sense to employ my mother. I needed the assistance and mum needed the experience. I knew that mum was more than capable of carrying out the work.”
During the last year Carole has worked on all aspects of Personal Injury cases and on Probate work. In January 2003 after a vacancy became available in the Personal Injury team Carole applied for the position and was successful.
Carole added: “It has been a long 26 years but it was certainly worth the effort and the wait and I am excited to be starting my new career with my own case load. I am so grateful to my son Neille and husband Kit without whom I could never have achieved my goal.”
Carole’s son Neille added: “The roles have been reversed and I am tremendously proud of my mother. It goes to show that anything can be achieved with desire and dedication, and she successfully passed each and every hurdle.”

Carole will now be working for Partner and Head of Furley Page’s Personal Injury Department, Michael Longmore.
In conclusion Michael said: “We are delighted with Carole’s achievements and pleased that she has chosen to continue her career with us. With her various experiences of life, and her teaching background Carole is able to add a new depth of experience to the team, when dealing with complicated personal injury claims and how injuries may affect someone’s future, especially for children.”

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