Stuart Goldberg, trainee at the London branch of US law firm Dechert, left the music scene to join the world of law. Here he  speaks to Velida Pearce ...

For more than ten years, Stuart Goldberg was a man of dance music – he was among the first journalists who foresaw, back in the late eighties, the impact that dance music was to leave on our culture. His reviews were published on the pages of Time Out and Melody Maker, he was at the forefront of the launch of Muzik, an IPC dance music magazine, where he stayed for five years as Reviews Editor. He also used to run a small independent record label: "It was nothing that Sony would be scared of, but it was quite successful in its field and gave me a lot of joy," says Goldberg.

And then, a year ago, he decided to leave the exciting club scene and join the good, old, boring world of law. This summer, he completed his LPC. At 33, he is now probably (and unusually) one of the oldest legal trainees in the City.

"It’s quite a change but I needed intellectual challenge," explains Goldberg. "It felt as if I’d gone as far as I could have gone in the music business. Three years into editing reviews, I was getting bored with doing the same kind of thing all over again. I was on automatic and was not using all my potential."

So, does the life of a trainee in the London branch of Dechert, a large American firm of solicitors which recently bought the old London practice Titmuss Sainer, meet the demand for intellectual challenge? "Absolutely. I have been here for four weeks and have already worked on half a dozen cases which were all different and all challenging in their own way."

Goldberg may be new in the City, however, with a BA in law from New College in Oxford and the Law Society finals which he passed back in 1989, he is not a novice in the legal world. It is probably why he does not find the change from journalism to law very stressful. "It is true that, in terms of organisational characteristics and behaviour, the two cultures sit at the very opposite ends: as a journalist you are very lucky as you do not have the hierarchy which is so common in an average office… Law itself is very regimental but it is also very stable and there is a clear ladder of progression which can suit someone like myself who, at 33, wants to know where they are heading."

But the strict legal hierarchy also has a tricky angle: "I am a late starter and there are people here who are younger than me and who are already partners. This is quite hard to adapt to but you just have to accept is and get on with your work," says Goldberg.

He knows that his future will be in commercial litigation and, with all the great contacts in the music business, he expects to bring in lots of new business. But there must be something that he already misses: "Yes, gigs, free records, socialising and the dress code. Sometimes I also miss the comfort and ‘laziness’ of my old professional days." (30/10/00)

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