Habib Khan, qualified Costs Lawyer at Irwin Mitchell 

Habib discusses how he moved from a career in accounts with a maths degree to qualifying and working as a Costs Lawyer.

I graduated in 2009 with BSc (Hons) Mathematics at Sheffield Hallam University and joined Irwin Mitchell in October 2010, initially working in the Accounts department. After spending some time working in the Purchase Ledger team, I decided I wanted to test myself in a different role. I noticed a couple of my colleagues in Accounts had transitioned from Accounts to a Costs Draftsman role, so I decided to investigate the role and what it involved.

I joined the Costs team as a Trainee Costs Draftsman in September 2014 where I primarily prepared the bill of costs for General Management, Statutory Wills and Appointment of Deputyship bills within the Court of Protection team. Irwin Mitchell kindly provided opportunities and sponsorship to embark on the ACLT formal qualification. I started the ACLT course around a year later with quite a few other Irwin Mitchell colleagues and qualified as a Costs Lawyer in 2018.

The course was initially a challenge, due to lack of exposure in Personal Injury (PI) litigation / bills as I was specialising in the Court of Protection area but managed to get to grips with the course and what I needed to accomplish. 

I have recently branched out to drafting PI bill of costs to assist other areas of the Irwin Mitchell Costs Team and for further development. The use of systems at Irwin Mitchell and knowledge obtained from the ACLT course has helped with the transition to be able to prepare PI bill of costs.

I can recommend to anyone thinking about professional training to become a Costs Lawyer.

Added April 2023