“I left the Royal Navy in 1992 after six very happy years, four of those in submarines, and I went to Birmingham University to study law. I did a traineeship at Lawrence Tucketts, which merged with Trumps in 2000 to form TLT. I stayed on with this new firm.
Since then I have become a Partner in the Corporate Team, and until recently I was based in Bristol. Since September I've been working in London heading up the Commercial Services Group.
I go to work with a genuine spring in my step every morning. Friends ask me what it is like and I say "it is like any other job" – while it is work and sometimes it can be frustrating and difficult, it is immensely rewarding and enormous fun.
I have a varied and high profile client base with lots of interesting work – my clients include TUI Travel plc. (First Choice and Thomson), Sword Group SE (a French listed IT company), Avon Rubber plc. and Smith & Williamson.
This means that very rarely are two days the same. In addition to the variations to my days thrown up by clients, I have lots of exciting challenges thrown up by my other activities. I like to get involved in the life of the firm beyond my core work, and I feel that there are massive opportunities for those who want to get stuck in. My going to London is a very good example of this – if someone had told me six months ago that I would be Head of CSG in London I would have laughed at them.
I've had the opportunity to do some great deals. For example in the last 12 months I've sold Church House Trust plc. to Virgin Money and TUI's Thomson Al Fresco brand. Both were complex deals requiring close attention and careful management, externally and internally. While the Church House deal was brilliant for TLT's profile, as it was Richard Branson's first foray into UK retail banking, the Thomson Al Fresco deal summed up why our firm is special. I was the most qualified lawyer on the deal by a long way – everyone else was less than five years' qualified, with a good proportion being two years' qualified or less. The confidence with which technical and commercially relevant advice was delivered to a very demanding (but very pleasant) client was amazing to watch from my perspective, and the praise the team had from the client was great to see.
I am very lucky in that I have worked with most of my clients for years. This means that I can often predict how things will pan out. My job is to do deals for clients, and if I can get their deal over the line with them keeping the money they have received, or paying a proper value for what they have bought, then I have done my job properly. I love to hear from firms which have dealt with us when they say it was a rewarding experience and we were good to deal with.
TLT is a well-oiled machine. We stick to what we are good at, and when things happen where we could have done them better we recognise that. We are genuinely supportive of one another, and we care about how our actions affect those around us and our working environment.
I've been really lucky in my working career. In the Navy I was part of some brilliant teams where things just happened because everyone knew what they had to do and what we had to achieve. At TLT when I am doing deals we have the same; everyone pulls in the same direction and does their best. Sometimes it can go a bit wrong, but with some nudging we always get things back on track. Working at TLT is what you want to make it.