Best brains in ...

Complex commercial litigation. I have undertaken a full range of contract and tort disputes. A highlight was the re-negotiation of a multi-party, multi-billion pound procurement contract. The other side committed a terminating event which was not accepted, but instead kept alive through the duration of the negotiations (for the benefit of the client) by the innovative use of standstill agreements. This innovative approach laid the groundwork for a successful re-negotiation.

I advise on claims concerning everything from share sale warranties and indemnities to satisfactory quality and defective goods, misrepresentation, partnership disputes and conversion claims. Experience includes advising on the termination, for repudiatory breach, of a suite of license and distribution agreements, which involved defending related claims for guaranteed minimum royalty fees from the licensor. I also acted on a professional negligence claim against solicitors arising from tax advice on a corporate acquisition, where we reached a successful settlement with the solicitors' insurers before a trial was needed.

Highlight of your career so far?

Just being a partner at Wragge & Co is up there. But also being involved in a project with the complexity and profile of the aircraft carriers project for MoD, and on other defence contracts of similar ilk. These are legally challenging, for big numbers, and doing something helping the country. But on a more day-to-day basis, and mundane as it may sound, I like closing problems and issues for clients – on a win in court, or on a successful settlement. Any resolution which protects the client on what has happened historically and allows the client to get back to the brass tacks of planning and running its business for the future is a good thing. Nobody wants to be tied down by contracts that have gone or are going wrong, and I always enjoy fixing that.

Most challenging job you've ever done?

Drafting the liability and indemnity provisions, within a ground breaking alliance structure, in the contract for the Government to purchase the next two aircraft carriers for the Navy, at a cost of some £4 billion, and which will run for some eight or nine years.

What about outside the UK?

I most enjoyed a claim I did for a Channel Islands-based trust recovering the trust's assets from the beneficiaries - who, notwithstanding that they were the beneficiaries, had still tried to pinch all the assets out of the trust! After some injunctions, and a disclosure process that was always only ever going to go one way (our client's way), the trust assets did all come back.

I now think that, on well over half the cases that I look at, one or other of the parties is based outside the UK. So it's hard now to view an 'overseas' claim as out-of-the-norm!

What's your definition of good client service?

Good client service is, I think, no more than being on time, being useful, and being right - sounds easy enough... Without doing a list, the best examples of that in a disputes context frequently involve finding a commercial solution to avoid a fight. And so I will always keep an eye on that, and on the cost-benefit of fighting, whenever acting for a client in any kind of dispute or potential dispute.

Best example of a creative legal solution?

The OCCAR defence contract. It must be creative, because we were 'highly commended' for it in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers report. I was involved in the use of standstill agreements to 'preserve' a repudiatory breach.

That one saw a good result for the client; but another much less high-profile case that I also enjoyed was to provoke and drive the mediation of a messy claim in which our client was not a party, but in which it would have had to become involved before a trial. We were pivotal to the mediation happening at all, and that when it did, it saw a settlement to all claims - including that our client got paid out in full!

When have you ever given a client a real competitive edge?

A job which can be a great deal of fun, and also adds lots of value, is to review and challenge the complex contracts we draft in our corporate and projects groups from a legal risk management perspective. So frequently a contract negotiation hurtles past the finishing line at full tilt, and so the opportunity to stand back and test the contract as it approaches the end will always find a point of detail that can be improved to make the client safer. This is an area where prevention really is better than a cure, and knowing the legal risks early can save a lot of money later on by keeping the power with our client from the outset.

What's your single greatest contribution to Wragge & Co's corporate responsibility?

I participate in our College of Law pro bono advice scheme - helping the college's students advise local people on any kind of legal problem they might have. It is a rewarding thing to do: the enthusiasm of the students and thinking about areas of law I might never otherwise encounter in my day job (supervising cases about enduring and lasting powers of attorney; and about tenants in flats with leaking roofs) and it's nice to remember that we were all generalists years ago, and so able to do this kind of thing.

I am also part of our team now working with Human Dignity Trust. I have also been a school governor. It is great to see the care that schools have for their children, but it is also a commitment that could easily be a full time role.

What's been written or said about you that you're most proud of?

Nothing that I'd repeat on a respectable website. Enough said. Otherwise, whenever a client has cause to say 'thank you'.