On reflection, if it were not for BIALL I might well not be writing this. I am not referring to John's invitation to give a presentation in Cork but to the fact that BIALL played a pivotal role in my becoming a professional support lawyer. In 1997, Kate Hodgson and I were awarded BIALL bursaries to go to the AALL Conference in Baltimore; while we were there, Kate happened to tell me about the PSLs at her firm, Cameron McKenna, and the work they did. The more she told me, the more I thought, like the character Mike in the musical A Chorus Line, ‘I can do that, I can do that!’ I came home from Baltimore having gained not only a good friend but also the idea of changing my career in a way that would combine my legal training and my law library and publishing experience.