After five long years of assignments, exams, summer school courses and stress, Hawke's Bay man William Story has been admitted to the bar.
He was the only person to be admitted at the Napier High Court last Wednesday.
"It's a prestigious event, it happens fairly infrequently here," he said. "If I hadbeen in Wellington, there would have been a whole herd of people."
The former Lindisfarne College pupil studied a BA, majoring in History and Criminology at Victoria University and completed his professionals course by correspondence from Hawke's Bay last summer.
Mr Story and his girlfriend from Wellington were the only two students to secure jobs. Since the beginning of April he has been working for Hastings law firm Gifford Devine Barristers and Solicitors, specialising in family law.
"Aside from potentially criminal law, family is the avenue where you can make the biggest impact on someone's life," he said.
"It allows me to be a litigator, negotiator and counsellor all at once, unlike any other area of law. In my opinion it involves the widest range of skills and personal resolve."
