WESTERN BUREAU: Attorney-at-law,Natalie Messado Brown who only recently re-entered private practice, has described as “invaluable,” her four-year tenure as a clerk with the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Messado-Brown is in her third week as an associate with the law firm Clark, Robb and Company located along Market Street in the city.

“I wanted to go into the government service because I had always been advised that the experience you get there would propel you further into the field of law and with that level of confidence that you wouldn’t otherwise have enjoyed. And I find that it has happened to me. It has been invaluable,” Messado-Brown told the Observer in an interview this week.

Having accomplished her goal, the 27 year-old now advises all young and upcoming attorneys to consider serving with the government before entering private practice.

According to Messado-Brown, working as a clerk afforded her the opportunity to not only become familiar with courtroom procedures but also to gain exposure to different advocacy styles and develop her self-confidence.

“After a while, it helps to boost your self-confidence. Now that I am out of the system, going back to represent clients is so much easier because you have now become familiar with everybody. You know the ropes and you learn so much because there were judges there guiding you along,” Messado-Brown, who herself did a stint with Ripton McPherson and Associates straight out of law school, commented.

“With each new style, you learn, because you experience the different advocacy styles. And then there are those attorneys who are more meticulous than others and you learn from them too. If you had overlooked this particular thing in a trial, you ensure the mistake doesn’t happen again and each time you get more experience and exposure. It is a lot better for you I think, leaving law school and then going into the system.”

As a beneficiary of the system then, she is grateful to attorneys, Nathan Robb (in whose law firm she now works) and Ian Max Cooke, who has responsibility for the Legal Aid Clinic in St James.

But albeit that the experience as a clerk-of-court has proven invaluable, the Norman Manley Law School graduate said it was time to continue on her path to becoming not only a well-rounded, but experienced attorney.

“I believe that I had got to a stage where I just felt it was time to move on… I had come to that point where I felt that I was basically on a plateau. I didn’t feel I was going much further and the (three-year) time limit (I had set) had elapsed. I was now ready to get out there and give of myself to the public (via private practice),” she said.

She is enjoying it immensely.

“I am still in the teething stages but I am enjoying it. I am learning so much… I am doing a lot of additional matters that have required me to do research and I am enjoying the whole process… It keeps me challenged. It keeps me excited…” she said.

“I find that going back to court now I feel very comfortable and welcome by the police, the judges and the other attorneys who were my opponents. I feel just so much more comfortable than I am sure I would have felt had I not been in the system. And it is such a pleasure appearing before the judges before whom I was a prosecutor just a few weeks ago… I enjoy it and I am looking forward to what is to come,” she added.