My father, who sadly died last year, did his articles. Absolutely hated it. Left as soon as he could. He did briefly work in London and then went to Edinburgh, and carried out his career as a fund manager. He was always much more interested in stock markets than the law. He was a very kind, calm and perceptive man.
I joined SJ Berwin in 1991, qualified in 1993, became a partner in 1999, left in 2004. Came back in 2006. Until the bitter end.
I had two offers from completely different law firms. One was SJ Berwin. I had spent a summer there. It was a fun place to be. There was a huge amount of energy that was very visible even when you were doing a vacation scheme. The other was Slaughter and May. It had the biggest cachet even then. At university I was just being a bit rebellious. I was only 20 when I made the decision. I thought I was doing the right thing for me. SJ Berwin was a place where you were pretty free to do whatever you wanted.
I’m Scottish. Brought up in Edinburgh. I still spend a lot of time there. When I left SJ Berwin the first time, I went to be a partner at Dundas & Wilson and moved the family back to Edinburgh. But my work is London, Brussels – so I came back.
I still love it up there. Scotland is a brilliant place to bring up children. It became clear quickly that I had a loyal client base that were all based in London, and I continued to do work largely in London. Unfortunately, it became a little pointless.
Like most people I have a lot of outside interests, but in a very amateur way. I still play my violin. I would have loved to have been a professional but I realised pretty early on that I’m not good enough. I would have loved to have been a great cricketer but I realised early on I wasn’t good enough. This is the sort of job where if you get your work/life balance right, you can still pursue your sporting interests, your musical interests or whatever.
I work hard to make it a good work/life balance. I am a big champion of flexible working because I travel pretty much every week to Scotland. You need to be open with clients and colleagues about it. It is the best way for me to work. I try if I can to enjoy my weekends with the family.
I sit on the board of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which is Edinburgh’s big orchestra, and indulged my passion by proxy with other people doing the hard work and the playing for me.
My parents wanted me to indulge my passions, which was why I had a year off abroad before university. I went to Germany and notionally joined a university but actually spent my time playing violin in a Greek band and joined the circus. To this day I juggle and breathe fire at a children’s party level. When my eldest daughter was six or seven she said to me: ‘Daddy, can we have a proper entertainer for my birthday this year?’
I have juggling clubs you can set alight if you fill your mouth full of paraffin, which is pretty disgusting. Do not swallow it, you become quite ill. Basically you blow it out as fast as you possibly can. It is about entertaining children. I have four kids. It is something I enjoy.
I have always done a little bit of cabaret to this day. I write verse. Humorous verse. It needs to rhyme. Sometimes I put it into song form. I have done it for years at partners’ weekends for SJ Berwin.
I juggle and breathe fire at a children’s party level. My daughter asked: ‘Daddy, can we have a proper entertainer for my birthday?’
I did one on the night of [the article 50 notice] at Macfarlanes because we are a European department. Everybody was so unhappy that we decided to have an antidote-to-Brexit drinks. We got some champagne, some unpasteurised French cheese and German sausage and had a party. I did a Brexit-related verse about all the things that I will miss being out of Europe. If you’ve seen or heard Tom Lehrer, a musical comedian, who changed the words to a Gilbert & Sullivan song, it was that sort of format. It was: ‘I will miss a lot of things like parmesan and Camembert and lacy French-style underwear.’
I write verse about people in authority who need to come down a peg or two. In the nicest possible way. It is all completely harmless. People don’t get offended.
Having a sense of humour is important to get us through this job. Maintain a sense of perspective. It helps you engage with clients. Then you are likely to build those relationships, which are really important in order to get the job done well and win the work in the first place. This is a profession that lends itself to taking yourself too seriously.
My very first day as a trainee, I was asked to put a bundle of correspondence into court, and not knowing anything, I put in a bundle that included all of our advice to our clients telling them we didn’t think they had a very good case. On discovering what I had done the following day, I realised how easy it was to swap bundles. These moments teach you that if you have made a mistake you have to deal with it quickly. Whether you are a trainee or a senior partner: fess up and sort it out.
SJ Berwin got bigger very quickly, and there were huge integration problems. At that stage culture starts to disintegrate. Identity starts to change. Loyalty disappears. It was the loyalty disappearing that was the catalyst for the whole place to crumble. A catalyst of unfortunate events. It was pretty avoidable but for a lot of people exiting very quickly.
That is the big sadness in all of this. And you can’t blame any particular individuals. There was quite a lot of selfish behaviour but I guess you expect that when people’s livelihoods are on the line. People were not being paid on a regular basis. You can understand the attraction of the big US law firms for some people. The human cost is enormous.
It was a very difficult time running up to Christmas – everyone was worried about their jobs, worried about not being paid. The partners had stopped being paid by then. And there wasn’t much time. We had to transfer files, clients, everything and then find the right place. We talked a lot to the clients about the sort of firm they wanted us to go to. Macfarlanes jumped out a mile as being the right place. I approached Macfarlanes.
I like the model here where there are great relationships with other independent law firms across Europe and across the world. You can decide who is best for your client, rather than always pushing your other offices in other territories. It works.
It was the loyalty disappearing that in the end was the catalyst for the whole place to crumble. It was pretty avoidable.
When I joined SJ Berwin it was a bunch of individuals that worked together. And it did work. It was hugely profitable in the early years. But as those individuals start to leave – some very strong characters over the years – the model begins to break down. It is nice to be somewhere where partners are genuinely collegiate. In five years’ time I definitely still see myself at Macfarlanes.
The firm I joined was hugely loyal. People were passionate about SJ Berwin. I was passionate about SJ Berwin. And it gave you the opportunity to do whatever you wanted provided you could create a business model that worked. It was full of entrepreneurs and an exciting place to be. I have hugely fond memories of it all.
Where competition law is hugely rewarding is when you get into the boardroom. You are advising the board on something that is seriously strategic. Bet-the-farm mergers or concerning global cartels. To do that you have to be a rounded person to deal with the various different types of people you meet in any sort of boardroom. If you are just an academic lawyer it is going to be very difficult to win client confidence and to get in front of the right people.
To be good you have got to be passionate. That is why I admire people in other industries – those jobbing musicians who have a tough time of it but are so passionate and dedicated in what they do. That is something that I would like lawyers to be. I want them to be completely dedicated. It is easier to do when you are getting paid a bit more.
The closest I ever came to quitting law was towards the end of last year. There was a job that came up, which was the chief executive of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I was completely unqualified for it. That was probably the only thing that would drag me away from the law.
If you find the right firm – which was SJ Berwin for a number of years, it ceased to be SJ Berwin – you can have a very good, rewarding career as long as you maintain your sense of humour and perspective. Only go into the law if you are passionate about it. Don’t do it for the money.
In ten years’ time I’ll pick up my violin again, write a bit more stuff. I want to write a musical. A humorous take on something. I did think about a Pinocchio-type musical. I’ve got some ideas.
Tom Usher is a competition and antitrust partner at Macfarlanes