Heather Kolar, Solicitor

We asked Heather:

Q: What do you love about your job?
A: No two days are ever the same and no two cases are ever the same. I learn something new from every case, which I can then apply to the next – medicine is an ever developing field. I also get the opportunity to meet many amazing people – the lengths that some client’s go to give their loved ones the best is truly fantastic and uplifting to see.

Q: What can clients expect from you?
A: Someone who is upfront and honest with them about their case, but is also not scared of a legal fight. If there is a case there, I want to find it and win it. I would hope they find me approachable and understanding of their needs.

Q: What is your specialist area of work?
A: I have worked on cases in all aspects of clinical negligence, but have particular experience of fatal, bowel trauma and birth injury to both mother and child cases.

Q: What drew you to your specialism?
A: Despite having left university thinking I wanted to pursue a career in commercial law, I found the people and medicine in clinical negligence fascinating. The cases are complex and take a long time to investigate, during which you really get to know your clients. The cases are also invariably far from straightforward and regularly need picking away at and a lot of thought.

Q: How long have you worked in your specialism?
A: Nearly all my legal career, having a short time in works accident claims and a brief spell in commercial property.

Q: What did you want to do when you were a child?
A: I always loved history and wanted to work in the world of museums – my first job after my history degree was working as a costumed demonstrator at Beamish Museum in County Durham.

Q: Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
A: Work wise, I have a couple of complex and challenging cases I settled of which I am very proud.  Both involved decisions patients made based on information given. Neither were straightforward. Out of work there is no one thing, more the way I manage to devote time to my family, while running my work and ensuring I have a bit of ‘me time’ – not easy.

Q: What are your ambitions?
A: I always like to be learning something new and can never sit still. I would love to be a much better and more experimental cook.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: My mother taught me to sew as a child and I always have some project or other on the go, usually several unfinished ones…  I have recently taken up furniture upholstery and I also enjoy gardening and baking.

Q: Are you active in any organisations outside of work?
A: Not presently. Throughout my teens I worked as a volunteer on a preserved narrow gauge railway before work and family life took over.