Partner interview

What are the trends shaping the legal industry?

An increasing demand to deliver value for money as a service provider. This will require flexibility in how certain ‘commoditised’ services are offered while competing for ‘big ticket’ work to balance margins and profitability. With procurement departments taking a more active role, lawyers will not only have to promise value but also provide clear evidence of how they will deliver on their value proposition.

What has been your most memorable day as a lawyer?

While the birth of our daughter in 2000 had nothing to do with my legal skills (other than perhaps enabling me to stay up all night in the birthing room, listening to Billie Holiday and Dave Brubeck), it has shaped everything I have done since.

If you weren’t a lawyer, how would you earn your living?

If I was born ten years earlier, a coal miner, a fisherman or a priest. Given that I was a Director of Hospital Pharmacy, I could have stuck with that. However, if I went with my heart and not my head (or wallet), I would have been an actor. Who knows, maybe random strangers would have been stopping Will Ferrell on the street to ask him if he was David Butts?