October’s issue for the Member Spotlight explores the career of our member Professor Nicholas Grier WS.
In addition to his successful legal career, Professor Grier recently became the focus of a viral video on TikTok, introducing Abertay University to the world in a very creative way. Our Director of Membership, Sarah Leask, spoke with Professor Grier about his journey and recent internet fame.
1. What/who made you consider law as a career?
I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left Oxford, where I read English literature and language, and so like many people who don’t know what else to do, I went into teaching. I was not a distinguished addition to the staff room and, after two years secondary teaching, I moved on and went to Edinburgh University to study law. I did the two-year accelerated degree for graduates. I thought I might make a better fist of law than of teaching.
2. You are currently a part-time professor of Scots Commercial Law at Abertay University. Prior to this you have held many other inspiring roles. Please tell us about your law career.
I was not an impressive law student. My main difficulty was that I knew little about how the world worked and even less about the law. I knew much about the arts, but I didn’t even know what the word “conveyancing” meant or how mortgages worked. Outside the law, I represented the university on University Challenge. We went through all the heats to the final, but were ultimately beaten by Queen’s University, Belfast.
After university, I started my traineeship with a firm in Edinburgh, Robson Maclean and Paterson WS. The firm did much work for trades unions, private clients and the Ministry of Defence, in particular the Royal Navy. From there I went to Pearsons WS, whose main client was the Forestry Commission. From Pearsons I went to Fyfe Ireland & Co WS, where I worked for Andrew Cubie WS. Despite my many failings, he was an extraordinarily decent and considerate man to work for. I made myself read the business and finance pages in the newspapers, and taught myself about economics and finance. In due course, I moved to work with another partner, Sandy Finlayson WS.
Fyfe Ireland merged with Glasgow firm Bird Semple Crawford Herron in Glasgow. In theory, this was a good idea, but the cultures did not blend. After seven years, the firm split up; it was a classic lesson in how in business sometimes culture is stronger than cash.
Then, one thing led to another, and I moved to a small merchant bank to work in their company secretarial department. Working in a bank was very different from working in a law firm. I found bankers had less of a sense of humour than lawyers. This was the time in the 1990s when shareholder value was everything, bankers liked to push the boundaries, and top bankers had big egos. The bank was focussed on the bottom line. If you weren’t making money, you were a cost.
I had not enjoyed my time in the bank. It was, as they say, “a learning experience”. It was good to be away from it. I was out of work for six months, which was hard with two small children to bring up and a mortgage to pay. My wife, Jean, was in work, so we survived, but it was not easy. Not being able to work when you are used to doing so is demoralising. It’s an experience which you can only really understand if it happens to you.
3. So how did you move into teaching full time?
In due course, I took a job at what became, ultimately, Edinburgh Napier University (“Napier”). I was appointed full time to teach business and corporate law. I discovered when I started that teach was something I felt comfortable doing, and could do well. I was doing something useful, bringing young people on, particularly at Napier, giving opportunities to people who might otherwise not have gone to university, not because they were not clever enough, but because at school they had suffered ill-health or family breakdown, or, depressingly, been bullied for wanting to work hard or for being different in some way. Sometimes these students just needed someone to give them confidence and encouragement. I was earning less than I would have in legal practice, but I was doing something worthwhile.
I realised that often at law school nobody explained the practicalities of business to those who weren’t already aware of it. So, I made, and still do make, a point of explaining the practicalities of business to my students, and to show how they are reflected in the law. Students relate well to practical examples. For example, when I teach insurance law, I use a personal experience of making a claim relating to theft of a household fixture that the insurers disputes as being moveable. A legal structure went on for some time before the insurers buckled. As ever, it’s all in the wording.
4. Tell us about the “Curse of Grier”
When I first started teaching, in tutorials my students used to ask me how I always managed to ask the question for which they hadn’t prepared an answer. I didn’t know that they had not prepared an answer, but they were right, I did always seem to ask them the one question they had not prepared. This was so common it was given a name: the Curse of Grier. Among those reading this article will be former students of mine; they will all confirm the existence of the Curse of Grier.
What is so strange is that all this is completely unconscious on my part. I asked the Department of Parapsychology at Edinburgh University if they could explain it. They could not, though they did suggest it was confirmation bias. While this is a fair point, the fact that the Curse of Grier has been operating effectively for over 30 years suggests that it is not just co-incidence: it is a weird psychic skill that I happen to have. It quickly forces students to make an effort with their work, and, in later life, they tell me that it was a lesson well learned.
Napier, along with the other new universities, was eventually allowed to offer a LLB course. By this stage I was head of the Law Department. Gradually the profession began to appreciate the practicality of the Napier law degree and the quality of our students. Several times Napier came out top in the National Student Survey for its law teaching. Our classes were small, so we knew our students and they knew us. We focused on making our students employable, for example, taking trouble to improve their written English. Soon word got out, particularly among the Diploma tutors, and then to staff partners, that the Napier law students were on-the-ball, well informed, well prepared and keen.
Meanwhile I sat on or chaired committees for the Law Society of Scotland. I advised committees of the Scottish Parliament on two Acts of the Scottish Parliament relating to bankruptcy and diligence. I wrote various law books. My book on company law has been surprisingly successful; I tried to employ more of a journalistic style of writing.
Seven years ago, I moved to a part-time professorship at Abertay University. I took the Curse of Grier with me. Abertay University has a small but successful law department, catering to much the same sort of students as Napier. Shortly after I arrived, I took over as of head of department. More recently I have stopped being head and can now concentrate on some other writing projects, mostly in the field of insolvency.
5. How did you first come to hear about the WS Society and what made you want to become a member?
Being a WS is a mark of professional status, respectability and competence. As as trainee I would be sent up to the Signet Library to find out the law. The library is still valuable, now benefiting from 21st century technology. I thought if I joined I might meet like-minded people, which I indeed did. I liked the idea of joining an organisation with its own traditions going back several hundred years. But above all I liked the building, one of the finest in Edinburgh. It is a privilege to be a member of the Society that owns it.
6. What would you say to any lawyer considering WS membership?
I am very pleased that I became a member. The events that the Society puts on are well worth attending, with important speakers and famous names. The librarian, James Hamilton, organises fascinating exhibitions of materials within the library. The dinners are always splendid occasions with a thought-proving speaker.
My daughter, Frances, got married last year. The reception was held in the Signet Library, where there is a significant discount for WS members. Many friends and family came up from the south and were hugely impressed by the library as a venue. The service first class. It is a superb place for receptions, dinners, balls, exhibitions and performances. I would say this to new members: it’s a great place to get married.
The W.S. Society supports various charities, mostly involving education.
7. Some people may have seen your TikTok debut. Tell us why it’s important to adapt our marketing of the legal and educational sector to attract the next generation?
Not all readers may have heard of my TikTok debut, visible here: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeE6GCPr/. There is a current fad on TikTok for a presenter to conduct a tour of an institution, in my case Abertay University, using Gen Z language. The humour of the fad is the incongruity between the presenter’s educated accent and the words the use. It has been very good publicity for Abertay, as at the time of writing, it has had over 650,000 viewings. It was helped by a sharp script.
Abertay has a number of student members of the WS Society, and Matthew Bruce, a former student and lecturer at Abertay, is now a trainee at the Society. I know that the internships that the Society offers are highly regarded by students. Marketeers need to put themselves in the position of those looking for the information about the Society. It requires anticipating what people want to find out about, giving it to them with minimal effort on their part. There need to be serious events, and fun events, and quirky events – and these all happen at present. New management and a new energy has pulled the Society into the 21st century. The place is run commercially. Things are happening. There is a buzz in the building. Regular emails come out with details of what is going on. Lawyers at the beginning of their careers are joining. What the Society is doing with students is a great start. The challenge will be to keep them, but provided they, and those who are already in the profession, feel that what they receive in return for their subscription is worth having, I see no reason why we should not continue to recruit more. Maybe I should do a TikTok turn for the Society?!