Up Close … with lawyer Tamara Christen |24 July 2018
‘I am lucky to have people referring clients to me’
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Tamara Christen
Tamara Christen, aged 27, hails from the district of Bel Ombre. She has worked in the legal field for five years and is a well-qualified lawyer. On June 1, 2018 she opened her own law firm -- Christen Chambers -- located at Victoria House.
‘I try to be as down to earth as possible and to appreciate the little things’
Tamara studied at the University of Seychelles under the University of London International Programme where she acquired her Bachelor of Laws. After University she started work with Pardiwalla-Twomey-Lablache’s Law firm (PTL) and while working she did her 1-year bar (a bar examination is a test intended to determine whether a candidate is qualified to practice law in a given jurisdiction) in which she performed outstandingly and came out first in her cohort.
After getting the bar she started her pupillage (the final stage of training to be a lawyer) still with PTL on December 15, 2014. She was sworn in as a fully qualified attorney at law in December 2016.
Personality wise, Tamara is friendly, warm, kind as well as being a very adventurous soul.
“I try to be as down to earth as possible and to appreciate the little things,” she states. “I try to be friendly and to go out of my way not to be shy…I still remember that on my school report from 1994, the teacher wrote: ‘She is very shy’,” she recalls with a giggle.
Among the values she considers most important are humility and generosity. She believes it is important to help people but also know when to draw the line.
She also values kindness and honesty.
“You never know what someone’s day is like,” she goes on. “To be honest is also important, in the sense that when asked a question don’t just give people the answer they want to hear…give them the truth…its especially important in this career that I am in,” says Tamara.
She is also a fond lover of animals; at one point in her life she had sixteen dogs. Her favourite subject was art and the least favourite were all the science subjects.
Career choices
One of Tamara’s first career choices was architecture. “I love drawing and I can draw bridges and houses,” she smiles.
As a lover of animals she also considered becoming a vet though she says that she does not like and cannot stand blood.
“My parents advised me to cross that one out,” she says.
Eventually, Tamara talked to one of her uncles, who was also a lawyer, and thus inspiring her final career choice.
“What really amazes me is that each time someone asks my uncle a difficult question he answers them without blinking and he gives such brilliant answers that everyone is convinced by the time he is done,” says Tamara. “I wanted that skill,” she says.
So she decided to venture in the legal field as a means to acquire a few skills and later, depending on whether she turned out to like the field or not, she would then choose what to do next. But eventually she found that law was truly what she loves and decided to stay in it.
Starting a new law firm … the ultimate goal
When asked about the recently opened law firm Christen Chambers, Tamara explained that “in this new business it’s a very steep learning curve…I have been really lucky to have everyone supporting me… it’s been good …because people have supported me”.
With a generous smile she adds that she has been really blessed to have people referring potential clients to her.
“I am lucky to have people referring clients to me, saying this lawyer, she just finished with PTL, and so she has some good training.”
“I’m definitely looking for more clients to work for. I am very happy to do any kind of work that needs to be done and to take in just about any person who needs my help,” says Tamara.
“I believe that there are so many opportunities in the legal field, because there are not enough lawyers for the amount of work out there, so it’s a simple mathematical thing ….every lawyer who comes in will get some business…law as a career is a great opportunity,” she adds.
“The downside is that it is incredibly stressful…it’s a very demanding job. I often say they need to teach psychology in this module because half of the job is dealing with people’s emotions,” says Tamara.
Shark cage diving in South Africa
Apart from having law as a passion, Tamara’s hobbies include running as well as going to the gym. She also loves going to the beach and is a lover of the sea. “What I usually do is, after work on a stressful day, I will take walks on the beach …I will walk from the Gran Kaz casino area at Bel Ombre to the Bazar Labrin (Regatta site) area, buy a coconut and watch the sunset,” she says smiling.
“I also go to the beach every weekend and I love scuba diving,” she says.
So far, Tamara has explored almost all of the dive spots in the north but one of her favourite diving experiences was in South Africa where she went shark cage diving.
“You literally go on a boat between two islands and there are seals there who have to swim between these two islands to get food, so the sharks wait for the seals to swim in between the islands and then eat them...this is the place where you dive…with the great white sharks circling there in the water,” she explains in awe.
“I also love reading,” says Tamara, “but the law degree traumatizes someone in terms of reading. As a law student you read about 500 pages a day which is the same as a novel… so you know you like reading but it’s like a food that you can’t eat, you cannot handle a novel,” she continues.
So to try and start reading novels again, she attempts to read at least a page every night before bed. She is currently reading ‘The girl with the dragon tattoo’.
Tamara also loves to travel. “If by the time I die I have managed to visit every single country in the world I would die a happy person,” she says.
Tamara says she was meant to be on holiday in Alaska but she could not afford to leave as she recently changed job. Among her next dream trip is a ski trip in Austria. Her first ski trip was two years ago in the French Alps.
‘I have a small group of friends but a lot of acquaintances’
When asked about her friends and family, the young lawyer explains that she has “a small group of friends but a lot of acquaintances”. Coincidentally, all her friends are lawyers, and are the same people she went to university with.
“They are friends which I can relate to, and they can relate to me and that is important,” she explains.
“There are two ways of defining family…for me family are the people who you can count on and will be there for you when you need them so a lot of friends fall into that group,” she says.
‘I was inspired by a collective number of things put together’
Elaborating on her life inspiration Tamara explains that there are various factors which have somehow made her into the person she is today.
“I wouldn’t say there is a specific thing or person who inspired me, I think it’s a collective number of things put together, it’s how I grew up…, all the people I came across in my life, it’s all the events of my life so far that have helped shape me into the person I am today and not necessarily what inspired me.”
“I think I still have a lot of growing to go through and lots of things to experience …it’s a long path but I will get there in a couple of decades, as long as I follow my principles and that is do no harm to others, be humble and help out when you can, eventually I will become the person I would like to be,” says Tamara. “I do not think human beings are designed to be satisfied...the minute you achieve what you want to achieve, you start thinking of the next step… You feel like you need another goal so in my case I [was] scheming for the next two years until I found a degree: a Masters in Law in international financial and commercial law with King’s College in the UK and it’s mostly online.”
In fact she started her Masters on June 19.
‘Don’t second guess … it’s bad for the soul’
“My advice to someone my age would be that 27 is a difficult age to be at…this is when you have two different paths -- you either become a family person or become a career oriented person, so it’s the right age to decide what you want to do,” Tamara advises.
“For me the next stage is still to build my career, at this age you have a few years of experience in your field and people start to respect your decision,” says Tamara.
“Embrace this [phase], make a decision and stick with it, don’t second guess, second guessing is bad for the soul,” she says firmly.
Tamara thanks everyone who have supported her as well as everyone who have given her good advice along the way.