SWEM: Tell me more about yourself.
SH: I remember in High School that I wanted to be a Doctor - a neurosurgeon to be specific. I started studying science but very quickly realized that I was far too squeamish. I don’t remember exactly when, but I started watching a lot of Law and Order episodes, and reading John Grisham novels, and decided that I wanted to be an Attorney instead. I guess it was meant to be though.
While I was studying for the Bar, my grand mum found a notebook where I wrote out what I wanted to do with my life. When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I had written that I wanted to be the “world’s best judge”. I wish we could still find the notebook. I’d love to see what else seven year old Saelese had to say.
After studying in London for six years, I graduated with a LLB, a Post Graduate Diploma and a LLM. I had started working at the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in London. As a national scholar, I was bonded to work for the government for five (5) years. I hoped to stay, but was told that I needed to fulfill my service in Trinidad. I returned, only to be told that there were no positions or placements available within the public service. I worked privately for some time, teaching Land and Intellectual Property Law and training under a senior Attorney until I was placed by the Government. I worked at the Ministry of the Attorney General and then at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs in order to complete my service. As my friends say, somehow along the way despite saying that I’d never do those things, I got married and started a family.
Last year I decided that I really did not enjoy being an employee. It did not fit in with my life goals. So I decided to go into private practice. As with most new businesses, it’s been a bit of a ride. I love it most days and want to scream on others, but overall I think it gets me closer to that point of self- actualization than working in the public service ever could.
SWEM: What do you love about your business?
SH: Some days the best part of the job is that my chair rolls and swivels. (smiles).
On a more serious note though, I love being able to come up with solutions for people’s problems and issues. I’ve had clients that have come to me and they know exactly what the law says on certain points, and can quote sections word for word while I only vaguely know what they’re referring to. But what I do in those cases is take an objective look at the situation, and apply the law and my experience to provide ways to resolve their matters. Finding an answer and seeing the client’s eyes light up is a high for me.
SWEM: What are some of the challenges associated with this field?
SH: Law is a high pressure environment. I think lawyers are both overpaid and underpaid for what they do. When a client comes in and then you tell them the cost to do a letter on their behalf, they get sticker shock. I went a few years ago for someone to handle a matter for me. When they told me the price, I had a mild heart attack. What isn’t appreciated or accounted for, though, is that a good attorney will take half an hour to draft the letter, leave it, think about it through lunch, go back and spend an hour mulling on every word, doing some revisions, going to bed thinking whether you should have used “appropriate” rather than “suitable” in the last sentence. Waking up in the middle of the night, spending another half an hour reviewing it, and still ponder on every word the next morning before sending it off. The fact is that in most cases you’re not fairly and appropriately compensated for that.
Another thing that I’ve been struggling with that isn’t particularly law related, but is more a factor relevant to being an entrepreneur in Trinidad and Tobago, is that I feel a lot of pressure and fear related and closely intertwined with success. Over the past year in particular, I’ve heard a sense of desperation and hardship from people that simply wasn’t there before. I’ve had two personal security breaches that I’ve been affected by in the past month and have heard of many others that have affected people in my close circle. Crime is a major deterrent in the way that I operate my business. It’s definitely at the point where I certainly don’t feel comfortable celebrating my successes, and almost at the point where I feel like I don’t even want to be successful, because any measure of actual or perceived success brings on attention and focus from persons who want what you have.
SWEM: How does that make you feel?
SH: I definitely don’t feel that I am living up to my full potential and my personal safety is a major factor in that