I thought I’d be suited to law because I’ve always been interested in people. And discussion and debate and argument.
I started off getting called to the Bar at Middle Temple. Hated that. I realised immediately that barristers weren’t my cup of tea. Then a spell at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I hated that. And then I tried being a trainee solicitor. Really liked that. It worked for me.
I was interviewed at Wragge & Co by the managing partner, Peter Wall, and senior partner, Sir Patrick Lawrence. The senior partner spent the entire interview mending a chair. They showed me to reception, went back in and considered whether they were going to make an offer. Wall said: ‘I think we have just interviewed our next managing partner.’ I was applying for a training contract. Ditched my other offers; this was the right place for me.
When I first joined the turnover was just £2m or £3m, when I became managing partner in 1995, it was £18m. By 2008 it was £120m. An amazing journey; in the early days all our clients were Black Country metal bashers.
The best lesson I learned in my training was: ‘You can lose various kinds of battles, and even wars, but you must never lose the war of attrition.’ A lot of negotiations are attrition. So don’t give up, be determined, stick at it. That carries you through a lot of battles.
I don’t miss being a litigator. I always hated going to court. I wasn’t the traditional gung-ho fighter. I was the negotiator looking for compromise.
Wragges corporate partner John Hall taught me a lot about tactics and negotiating skills. He would always come up with a sporting analogy for how you should handle a situation. We were in one big negotiation and had these endless meetings with these other parties, which always started at four in the afternoon. He always insisted at three o’clock, though we only had lunch two hours earlier, to go to a greasy spoon for bacon and eggs so we could sit in that meeting until midnight. The other side would be starving to death but we were in good shape. An army fights on its stomach.
My grandfather influenced my career. He left school at 14 and got a job as a clerk in a factory. Twenty years later he owned the factory. I found it fascinating. One time I was sitting in his office and he got a phone call from a supplier and they disagreed over whether £700 was owed. That’s more than £10,000 in today’s money. My grandfather said: ‘I’ll toss you for it.’ Came up heads. Whatever the outcome, they were both 100% happy because they trusted each other. I was eight years old.
My missus said: ‘You shouldn’t do it. Managing partners, it is all bullshit.’ She was 100% right. But then again, I’ve loved it.
I wouldn’t want my kids to be lawyers. To be successful these days is much harder than when I started out. Such a hard road.
I did a deal once where Nigel Boardman was acting for another party and we ended up in a meeting at two or three o’clock in the morning. He came up with the most flashing piece of inspirational genius to solve a problem. It was jaw dropping. It is something I could never do, and never did do. The elegance of it was so impressive!
I had been a partner less than ten years when the firm asked if I would take on the managing partner role. I was sceptical but started to think about it. My missus said: ‘You shouldn’t do it. You have trained for years and become a very successful lawyer – that is a proper career. Managing partners, it is all bullshit and managing expectations.’ She was 100% right. But then again, I’ve loved it.
I was an average lawyer. I could get by. I was definitely more suited to the senior partner role. The senior partner role was about strategy and direction of the firm. About culture and people. That is what I enjoyed: motivating people, giving them opportunity. That worked for me.
Never had a bad day at work. I stand there shaving, feeling motivated about the day ahead. Of course, you have some days where you get home and think it was a bit boring. But I’ve never felt like quitting. Nowhere close to it.
During the negotiations for the Wragge Lawrence Graham merger, a lot of which were done on a personal level between Lawrence Graham’s chair Andrew Witts and me, every now and then we would phone each other up and say: ‘I know I’m being unreasonable, but I don’t think it’s the biggest point, so would you mind conceding because I have a bunch of partners really hung up about it?’ We did that both ways.
My work-life balance has been very skewed to work. The only other thing that is important to me is that I have this family, which I adore, at home. I have cut out all hobbies, all outside interests. Don’t play golf, I am not on the boards. I was negligent about it in the early days but in the last 15 or 20 years I have taken it very seriously.
I have three girls. I am the only man at home. Even the dog is a girl.
In five years’ time, I expect I will be completely retired and gone. I definitely won’t be doing a load of non-executive directorships. I have always feared getting into one of these roles where you turn up every now and then and give sage advice and they are just waiting for you to go away.
I made a promise a long time ago to some of my mates from the old days that there would come a time when we would all meet up in a pub in Dartmouth and I’m looking forward to that. I have friends from all walks of life – farmers and God knows what – who don’t have the faintest idea what I do for a job and I’m certainly not going to talk to them about it.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
Quentin Poole is head of international projects at Gowling WLG