- What was your first job?
My first job was a bookies clerk with McLean’s Bookmakers in Belfast. I started during university holidays and continued throughout my degree. It was a brilliant introduction to teamwork and customer care, but most of all great fun.
- What qualifications do you have?
I have a law degree from the University of Dundee, a masters degree in law from Queens University Belfast, and a postgraduate diploma from the University of Northumbria. I am called to the Bar of England and Wales, the Bar of Northern Ireland and the Bar of Ireland. I have also qualified as a civil and commercial mediator with the Mediation Institute of Ireland and as a family mediator with Quest and am a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
- What do you attribute your success to?
Being a barrister, after initial training, is very much “learnt on the job.” It is still a very collegiate career in Northern Ireland, so I have had great support from fellow barristers who are always willing to provide advice and support. Coupled with an amazingly supportive wife, any success I have enjoyed has been very much a team effort.
- How would you describe yourself to someone who’d never met you?
I have never taken myself too seriously, I think it keeps me grounded, but I enjoy helping people make really difficult decisions. This attracted me to a career in law and then towards training as a mediator.
- Who do you look up to in business?
I look up to anyone who never forgets the adversity they overcame to get to where they are today. I admire people who treat the individual with the least grade in any organisation with the same respect as they treat those at the top. I look up to those who smashed through perceived “glass ceilings” but don’t “close the door behind them.”
- How do you get the best out of people who work for you?
As a barrister or as a mediator, nobody works for me, but lots of people work with me. A lot of my work is done on my own, so I relish the opportunity to work as part of a team. I think mutual respect and the ability to have a laugh (when appropriate) get the best from any team member.
- If you could change one thing about doing business in Northern Ireland, what would it be?
I think it would be to encourage business to be brave and try new things. For example, mediation as an alternative to litigating cases in court is new and very different, but so rewarding.
- What website or app could you not do without?
The Bar Library’s app, Briefed app and LinkedIn.
- What was the last book you read?
“Killing Pablo” by Mark Bowden
- What car do you drive?
A 10-year-old Landover Discovery. It regularly requires mechanical CPR, but it’s great fun to drive.
- Tell us something interesting about yourself?
In 1991 I won a competition to travel on one of the Tall Ships from Cork to Belfast. I spent four days on the Navy cadet training ship The Royalist then stayed on board when docked in Belfast for the Tall Ships festival at Belfast Dock.
- What’s your greatest passion outside work and family?
Without hesitation it’s golf. I am a terrible golfer, but absolutely I love playing it. Aside from playing it, to the consternation of my children, I love watching golf on TV.