If something is wrong, you do your bit to change it, says Patrick Hennessey, 27, a former army officer and a bestselling author, who is now training to be a barrister. “During my time at university [2000-2003] the world changed considerably. I started at the end of the Blair/Clinton era of a fairly peaceful, post-Cold War world and within three years we were fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Hennessey, right. joined the Army in 2004, completed his officer training at Sandhurst and then joined the Grenadier Guards. However, it was his time as a platoon commander and company operations officer in the Balkans, Africa, South-East Asia, the Falklands, Iraq — on terrifying patrol duties and guarding Iraqi detainees — and Afghanistan, fighting alongside the Afghan Army, that this young captain came into his own.

“There’s no other job where you have such life and death responsibility for the people,” says Hennessey who looked after up to 30 men. “You learn a lot about yourself too when pushed in those situations. When you take casualties your job is to keep up morale and I’m pleased to say I bought all of my guys home.”

So why the career change? “As you move up in the Army, you kind of move away from the coalface, which is what I enjoyed; the next jobs would be behind a desk. During my time in Iraq and Afghanistan there were a great many legal issues raised and I thought if I went to the Bar I might still be able to try and resolve them.”

Despite looking at retraining to become an army lawyer, Hennessey decided he wanted to be a selfemployed barrister. “That’s where the cut and thrust of legal work happens,” he says. “I had been at the forefront throughout my time as a soldier so wanted this as lawyer.”

When it came to forging his own career path, Hennessey found postgraduate study invaluable. He is doing a one-year Bar course at BPP. As Chris Brady, Dean of BPP Business School points out: “Postgraduate study is ideal for those who want to improve their skills, or for people considering a career change. Large organisations are downsizing, cutting training budgets and phasing out graduate training schemes so the onus is on the individual.”

Brady also recognises that “professional as well as academic accreditation is now a must for both their prospective and existing employees". This proved true for Hennessey, who initially worried that his time in the Army would be as a disadvantage and that the chambers would be looking for someone who had done a three-year law degree.

“As it turned out having had five years’ very different experience was an advantage; a few more life skills so to speak,” he says.

Hennessey, originally an English graduate from Oxford, completed his law conversion course and left the Army six months ago. With the help of the BPP College of Professional Studies and money from his candid memoir, The Junior Officers’ Reading Club, he was able to undertake the one-year course.

It is a challenge, he says. “As a barrister you are kind of flying by the seat of your pants as there is no guarantee of a job at the end of it.” But it is a challenge that Hennessey takes in his stride. “You have to be self-motivated and work hard and one thing the Army certainly teaches you is discipline. The prospect of spending all night cramming or 36 hours in the library is a lot less daunting when you remember that a year back you were on some three-day, non-stop stomp through Helmand province.”

All being well Hennessey will have completed his training and pupilage and be practising on his own within two years. “I would like to look at some of the things that interested me while I was in the Army — legal and illegal wars. My aim is to resolve these issues in a courtroom, rather than with a gun.”

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