When I was at school trying to figure out what to study at university, the school organised a series of individuals to give us a talk. They were all fine – from major multinationals and different industries – but none of them made me think: ‘Wow, this is what I want to do with my life.’ It wasn’t until a solicitor from Woking turned up – a specialist in criminal law – and he was hilarious. He was the only one who was enormously enjoying what he was doing. That was the first inkling that work could be enjoyable.
You wonder about becoming a solicitor or a barrister. I knew if I went the barrister route – which would have worked quite well since I like the sound of my own voice – if I failed as a barrister, I would be stony broke. If I failed as a solicitor, at least I could pay my expenses along the way. Also, the barrister profession can be quite a solitary existence compared to solicitors meeting clients. My personality led me to being a solicitor. I made the right choice.
There have been so many bad days in the office but one stands out. In those days, you had to take your original sworn statements (affidavits). One trainee had borrowed a pilot case with a combination lock and we went in and the judge asked if we had the original statement. The trainee said to me: ‘Oh my God, I borrowed this and the combination lock has somehow twirled on the way – I don’t know what the code is.’ We went outside and started kicking and jumping on the case and finally smashed the lock. We found one little gap and tugged all the affidavits through. The trainee I was with is now a very fine partner at DLA Piper. Any solicitor who reads this will know this can be the worst day, sitting in front of a judge getting something so elementary wrong.
A client in trouble gets me out of bed. If you want to get corny about it, I read a book on star signs once while I was in the waiting room at the dentist. I turned to the chapter on Cancerians and it said: ‘Cancerians are born waiters. You’ll find them on every strata of every service industry because what makes a happy Cancerian is a happy client.’ That’s me.
A good litigator can be summed up in two words: emotional intelligence. It’s someone who listens rather than talks, someone who understands the client’s commercial imperatives rather than pursuing their own agenda, and someone who understands and has the ability when dealing with the opposition not to treat them as the opposition, or they will behave as such. You should seek to find a solution where both walk away, if not happy, avoiding a massive bust-up in court.
I really admire Sir Alex Ferguson because of his ability to motivate a team – it’s extraordinary. He knows what makes people tick. The other is Rafael Nadal – I heard one of his trainers say that he hits every ball as if it’s match point at Wimbledon. He is performing at his best at every single moment. Hardly anybody does. In the profession, I admire Dame Elizabeth Gloster. She taught me about the ability to work extremely hard but not take yourself too seriously.
I have a work/life balance. The kind of people you want to hire at a law firm are those who have a major zest for life and want to do things outside the office. People whose only interest is to sit in the office…the reality is if you want well-rounded advice from a lawyer, you want someone who is out there. That lawyer will otherwise lack in originality and the ability to work fast and efficiently. I see a lot of friends and family, play a lot of sport, and watch a lot of films. I saw Guardians of the Galaxy the other night – I highly recommend it.
There’s no time to pause for thought now. Demands are heavier. A less obvious change and a really good one is emotional intelligence. If you’re dealing with a client, you try to understand them as people, their strategy, and their organisation, whether it’s risk averse… it’s because e-mails have become so pervasive, there’s a risk is that you’re distancing yourself from clients. People are so used to communicating via various electronic devices, you find you might even e-mail someone sitting in the next room.
One of the joys of litigation is you haven’t a clue about where things are going. In 2008 after Lehman, a number of lawyers talked about a wave of litigation that didn’t happen. So many litigators got that wrong. People didn’t appreciate that people weren’t going to start an action until they’d suffered a loss. It’s unpredictable. So much litigation is now around contentious regulatory work. If we head more towards the US model, you might start to see in years to come that any time there’s regulatory action taken against a company or a bank, it’s immediately followed by a class action. It should be easier to sue – you’ll see a boom in litigation work that I would find deeply depressing.
I’m 55 now but actually I’m 25. In five years’ time my son will be 20 – we’re mad tennis fans. I would like to go to all the tennis championships with him over a year.
I don’t really have any aspirations. There’s a phrase I read years ago. It sought to differentiate people who are ambitious and competitive. I derived from it that I am in no way ambitious but highly competitive. Ambition is for people who set themselves their own goals whatever other people think – entrepreneurs fall into that category. I don’t really care, you see, so long as I’m beating everyone else. My ambitions are zero but I want to win in a competitive situation. Whatever I do, I want to be the winner. That’s not an ambition… or even an aspiration.
Simon Davis is a partner in Clifford Chance’s litigation and dispute resolution team.