At the Bar - Only two options - banking or insurance

Suzanne Starbuck goes back to the 1960s with Michael Buckley, partner at Waltons & Morse

IT’S a small world. And even smaller if you’re Michael Buckley. Enjoying a very palatable white wine in Lay & Wheeler’s wine bar in EC3, London, not only are we just round the corner from Michael’s office at Waltons & Morse, we’re also a stone’s throw away from where his career really began at the Youth Employment Bureau in Cannon Street.

Michael did not tread the usual path into maritime law. Hailing from an east London working-class family, there was no well-connected father or uncle to call upon. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to do when he left school in 1959. “As a sixteen-year old leaving grammar school, you were usually given only two options - banking or insurance. I wasn’t much good at maths, so I chose insurance. Besides, it sounded mildly more interesting than banking,” says Michael.

Sadly, life at the Sun Life Assurance Society did not prove to be an exhilarating experience and, when “bored to tears” one afternoon, on the pretext of visiting the dentist, he headed to Cannon Street for some career advice. Perry Mason and the attraction of saving an innocent man from the hangman’s noose had encouraged an interest in becoming a solicitor. But, forced to accept that there was no realistic possibility of obtaining articles immediately, Michael was invited to apply for a clerical vacancy with Clyde & Co. Unfortunately, Clydes couldn’t see him until the following day, so Michael took an interview later that afternoon with Waltons & Co. He agreed to join as a clerk and on June 24, 1960, he received a letter confirming the arrangements. “Your wages will be £4.10.0d (four pounds and fifty pence) a week and you will receive luncheon vouchers valued 2/6d (twelve and a half pence) per day,” said the letter, the original of which Michael still has.

That was 44 years ago, and Michael is still with the same firm today. After two years as a conveyancing clerk he was given five-year articles, which he completed under the watchful eye of Robert Elborne. Dealing mainly with salvage and collision cases, these early days were probably the most exciting of his career. “I enjoyed a lot of freedom - running my own cases and taking evidence abroad even though I was barely more than a teenager,” he says. “You probably have to wait until you are thirty or so to do that nowadays. But it was a different world then.”

Michael qualified in 1967 and became a partner three years later following Robert Elborne’s departure to set up the firm which is now Elborne Mitchell. He was elected as the firm’s managing partner in 1982 but was pleased when it became possible to hand over that difficult role to a younger partner five years later. The position of senior partner, which Michael acquired in 1996, was much less demanding. Nevertheless, with a view to winding down, Michael gave up that role in 1999. Still specialising in marine insurance, collisions and salvage, he now works three days a week, juggling the rest of his time between writing a history of the firm, two homes, four children and seven grandchildren.

Michael may spend less time in the office these days but his other responsibilities continue to keep him busy, including his role as secretary to the British Maritime Law Association Salvage Committee and chairman of the Salvage Liaison Group. In addition to preparing case notes and bulletins for the firm’s website, he also pens articles on legal topics for specialist publications - evidence that he would have enjoyed being a journalist if he had his time over again. But only if he failed to fulfil his ambition to wear the Number 10 shirt for his beloved West Ham United football club.

Michael has seen many changes during his career, which began when the telephone and the telegram were the only means of prompt communication. Inevitable though it was, he regrets what he calls “the commercialisation” of the legal profession which has, in his view, contributed massively to the loss of status which the profession enjoyed when he first came into it. Rivalry between the admiralty law firms has undoubtedly become more intense as the volume of business has declined, but Michael is glad that it has been possible to retain the traditional camaraderie between the firms.

He obviously still revels in being part of the maritime fraternity, but considers himself very lucky to have been able to develop his skills during the 60s and 70s - a magical period “when there was an abundance of available work and marketing was not only unnecessary, it was regarded as unprofessional conduct”. And don’t even mention time-sheets.

As Michael says, he was just in the right place at just the right time.