Richard Biedul: From courtroom to catwalk

Modelling hasn't always been my career and wasn't actually something that I ever considered until a chance meeting in London one evening. As a child I admittedly had a bit of a relaxed approach to education. However, once the great equalizer of GCSE's and A levels had been contended with, my grades showed that despite my approach, I had some kind of mental aptitude and so my mother, an ex-solicitor, managed to persuade me to go to law school.

I went to university and then law school and graduated with a distinction, it was the most amount of work that I've put into anything in my entire life. I was one of very few state-school educated people in my intake at law school and being from a working-class background, I was really spurred on to prove to everyone that I – with a beard, tattoos and long scraggly hair – could actually become something. I came out with a top mark that put me in the upper quartile of the whole country, so I was very pleased.

I completed my training contract in private practice, and at the end of this period started work in the City with Maples Teasdale LLP, as I thought that the mentally taxing environment would be something I'd thrive upon. The City is an amazing place to be if you want to work hard and do well for yourself. Though I thoroughly enjoyed it, my career took a different turn. After three years of university, one year at law school, a two year training contact (and then two years qualified), I was scouted by a modelling agency while at the pub outside my office.

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I thought it was a joke at first. Yet, before I knew it, I was standing in an agency taking Polaroids. A week later, I was closing Oliver Spencer's Show during London Fashion Week and six months later, I'd moved to New York. It was a whirlwind – courtroom to catwalk. In hindsight, I can categorically state that I love this job more than I love the law. The law is an academic thing; this is a creative thing. I'm lucky to have the opportunities to meet fantastic people and to travel the globe, and while I don't get to "create" anything per se, I get to help fulfil other people's creative visions, and that's what I really enjoy.

That said, my favourite thing is creating imagery. It sounds such a cliche but you can create an entirely different persona when you are working with different people. With Richard James, I'm the archetypal British gentleman, elegant yet masculine. With Marks & Spencer, I'm the man on the street, warm and welcoming. That's the thing really; every job is about inventing a new identity. Sometimes modelling can be like acting, although, acting and modelling are two very different things, which I don't think people appreciate at times. Acting is its own art, and being able to model is also its own art, but they're not of the same ilk.

I also really love the atmosphere at the shows. The show is a combination of a specific label's drive and endeavour over the last six to 12 months and this is realised in a three to four minute timescale. There is an incredible amount of hard work that goes into the production from everyone in the company, and for me it's always such a beautiful thing.

RICHARD BIEDUL is an international menswear model whose clients include Armani, Canali, Richard James and Brunello Cucinelli. Photo: Benn Healy