Best brains in ...

Heavyweight commercial contracts and project agreements, deal structuring, alliancing, joint ventures and outsourcing.

What's the highlight of your career so far?

I've been a partner for nearly 20 years so there's a lot to choose from! But, if I had to choose just one, it would be leading the teams advising the Department of Health and Acute Trusts on the four-year Independent Sector Treatment Centre programme (ISTC). It was extremely complex with competing people, competing agendas and plenty of politics. I was the troubleshooter most of the time and loved almost every single minute!

How about the most challenging job you've ever done?

Designing the Alliancing Contract Structure for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers.

What about outside the UK?

Acting for the Abu Dhabi government on how to structure the outsourcing of two major hospitals. It was the first time the client had done anything like that and we were working in a jurisdiction where the law could be changed to suit our needs within a fortnight!

What's your personal definition of great client service? And can you give an example?

Well, client service is just something you get on with!

An example? When Richard Haywood and I advised Powergen Yorkshire Energy combined heat and power business on an acquisition, we worked right up to midnight on Christmas Eve and started again on the day after Boxing Day. I was not popular at home but worse was to come! We completed the deal in London at one minute to midnight on 31 December. I managed to get a taxi home to the Midlands and pulled onto my drive at 3.45 a.m... just as the last of our guests were leaving from the New Year party we were hosting!

When have you ever given a client a real competitive edge?

In my first year at Wragge & Co I was a very junior part of a team working on an acquisition for what was then the firm's biggest and most important client. With hours to go until completion, I happened to be talking to the client (a man who takes no prisoners!) and asked him why he was making this acquisition. You can imagine the silence that fell around! The client did a double take and said 'that's an interesting question'. He left the room and came back later only to announce that the deal was off! Later the client explained that my question had made him realise that he was making the acquisition for the wrong reason.

What's your single greatest contribution to corporate responsibility?

Outside Wragge & Co I helped set up the Sutton Coldfield Cancer Support Centre as a charity and have been the centre's legal adviser.

What's been written or said about you that you're most proud of?

According to Chambers 2006 someone said I'd got 'a good head on [my]... shoulders'. That's the closest I will ever get to winning a beauty contest!