Twenty questions

1.    Years in legal   
26

2.    First job in legal  
Work experience at the tender age of 17 when I was given no training, a dictating machine and my own office and asked to interview clients!

3.    First computer you ever used  
In 1979, a Commodore PET with cassette-tape drive

4.    Current role
Director of Operations for bpl solicitors limited, a specialist property lawyers

5.    Notable achievements in role
Achieving growth of in excess of 65% in first year of operation and launching web-portals for use of third parties and solicitors firms

6.    Current challenges of role
Implementing ill-conceived and poorly implemented legislation in respect of Home Information Packs so that these cause the minimum disruption and inconvenience to the public.

7.    How has your work impacted on your practice overall
My current role is not the natural habitat of a lawyer:  in many firms it would be occupied by someone with a business background.    I bring a different skill set to bpl and I hope my experience means that we can reach decisions and react to events more quickly as I can combine knowledge and experience in different areas,

8.    The hardest thing you’ve ever had to do at work
Leaving the comfort of a large partnership to form a new specialist conveyancer

9.    One thing you’d most like to change about the legal profession
The feeling that solicitors are in competition with each other.  They’re not:  there are plenty of outsiders who want our work and without us acting together we’ll lose it

10.    Anything you’d like to change about the IT profession
To involve us at an early stage of development so that we can help tailor new products to obtain the maximum productivity and functionality in a real-life environment.

11.    Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given
Never feel sorry for yourself.

12.    Most painful lesson learnt in business
That, no matter how good the product you’re selling and the level of service you provide, people will go for the cheapest price. 

13.    The next big thing to hit the legal IT sector
IT is full of promise but can often fail to deliver.  Firms install expensive kit only to find they haven’t got the resource to maintain it properly and lose the potential it can offer.  The next big thing for me would be “simpler not more complex”.

14.    Your favourite gadget
My Sony Ericsson 850i phone:  the sliding cover means I never dial up people inadvertently!

15.    Your favourite website
BBC Business section.

16.    What would you have been if you hadn’t gone into the law
Economic journalism:  I still pen the occasional letter to the “Economist”

17.    Favourite place to be when not at work
At home:   I am fortunately to live in one of the loveliest areas of the country and don’t have the time to see enough of it!

18.    Three things you’d take to a desert island
A luxury yacht to moor off-shore – I was never one for camping!   My other half (she would grumble if I left her behind) and Factor 25.

19.    Three words you’d use to describe yourself
Enthusiastic, fair and diligent

20.    What you hope people will say about you when you log off at work for the last time
He must have gone, his desk is tidy!

Published on: 27-09-2007