Life During Law: Simon Beswick

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Life During Law: Simon Beswick

I’m one of three brothers. My middle brother David has just retired as partner of Eversheds. Ever since we were young lads he wanted to be a lawyer, so I had that echo going on.

I chose economics, accountancy, politics and law at A-Level. I really enjoyed the politics but also found the law a lot more interesting than the accountancy. I decided off the back of that to do law at uni and that carried on into a career. I believed I’d be a lawyer for no more than two or three years, and use it as a stepping stone to go into business. Continue reading “Life During Law: Simon Beswick”

Life During Law: David Patient

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Life During Law: David Patient

My father was a consultant obstetrician, his brother was an accountant, but I was rubbish at science and didn’t like maths. I was pushed down this corridor – ‘why don’t you do law?’ I knew absolutely nothing about it and no-one in our family had been a lawyer.

Some of my best friends still are people I met at university. A lot of them have gone off to do other things but one of them who has remained a close friend from the very first evening we met is a senior corporate partner at Allen & Overy, Richard Hough. Really lovely guy. Continue reading “Life During Law: David Patient”

Life During Law: Anu Balasubramanian

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Life During Law: Anu Balasubramanian

I come from a family of lawyers. My father was a lawyer and a judge, and my brother followed in his footsteps and became a lawyer. So there was a lack of original thought on my part. I just went with the flow and followed them into the profession.

I was born and brought up in India. I went to school there and did my first degree there, in history. When I was at university, law was rarely done as an undergraduate degree and that programme has only just been introduced. When I finished my first degree, I followed in my brother’s footsteps and came to the UK to read law. Continue reading “Life During Law: Anu Balasubramanian”

Life During Law: Samantha Mobley

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Life During Law: Samantha Mobley

My family story is not one of generations of lawyers. My great grandfather was a coal miner in Wales.

I went to school in South Africa and grew up in the apartheid era. My parents moved there when I was a small child and I had always wanted to move back to the UK. I applied to read law at Bristol University and I’ve never regretted it. I worked at the Albion pub in Clifton to pay some of my way through university. Continue reading “Life During Law: Samantha Mobley”

Life During Law: Andrew Ballheimer

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Life During Law: Andrew Ballheimer

I’m the son of immigrants and they were intent that I had an education, so I had to become a professional. To be honest, I was only going to practise law for two years and then do something else.

The first thing I ever did as an associate was spend all night perfecting a document, checking every page. Two-months qualified at the signing, I handed over the execution page. I’d misspelt the client’s name. You spend all this time getting it right and everything’s perfect except for the most important word in the document. His bloody name! Continue reading “Life During Law: Andrew Ballheimer”

Life During Law: Andrew Ballheimer

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Life During Law: Andrew Ballheimer

I’m the son of immigrants and they were intent that I had an education, so I had to become a professional. To be honest, I was only going to practise law for two years and then do something else.

The first thing I ever did as an associate was spend all night perfecting a document, checking every page. Two-months qualified at the signing, I handed over the execution page. I’d misspelt the client’s name. You spend all this time getting it right and everything’s perfect except for the most important word in the document. His bloody name! Continue reading “Life During Law: Andrew Ballheimer”

Life During Law: David Pester

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Life During Law: David Pester

My family background is in market trading, selling goods and services, so perhaps I would have gone into that if not law. My mother worked as a receptionist and my father started out as a rep, including having a bicycle to go around and see the different stores and promote the products. He ended up in marketing and business development in a bigger corporation but that’s where he started.

Home is down on the south coast in Christchurch in Dorset but I went up to the University of Manchester, which was a big deal going from a small place to a bigger one. Continue reading “Life During Law: David Pester”

Life During Law: Segun Osuntokun

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Life During Law: Segun Osuntokun

I was born in Nigeria as one of five children. My parents were medical doctors. My father was one of Nigeria’s pre-eminent neurologists, and quickly became globally renowned. A typical aspirational father, he built himself up through effort and excellence and thought all his children should be equally excellent. By the age of 15 I was sent to a boarding school in England to do my A levels. After that I did an economics degree at Queen Mary London.

I went back to Nigeria and did national service. Not as exciting as it sounds, more community service than military service. Did that for a year and part of it was working in a bank. It was not for me. Continue reading “Life During Law: Segun Osuntokun”

Life During Law: David Collins

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Life During Law: David Collins

I’m London born and bred, never lived anywhere else apart from three years in Manchester at university. Went to City of London School up the road, worked at St Martin’s Le Grand, Aldersgate Street, Fleet Street, Adelaide House in London Bridge and here [Fleet Place]. My wife would say I’m limited in a whole bunch of ways. To be honest, I don’t like to be too far from my family.

My mum was a formidable primary school teacher. I was in her school when she was deputy head at a state primary. Interesting experience. Continue reading “Life During Law: David Collins”