I joined DLA Piper in 2001 after taking a year out to travel before starting my training contract – the firm was very supportive of that. Two years later I qualified into restructuring and have been there ever since.

Things have changed a lot in that time. Rather than being a top ten national law firm with a European presence, we are now one of the world’s largest firms...

I read music at Manchester and after graduating taught English in Japan for two years and then travelled. I returned to the UK and worked in event management.

I started at what was then called Dibb Lupton Broomhead in January 1995. I had trained at Simmons and Simmons in London and worked in their property litigation department for about nine months after qualifying. Basically it was a lifestyle choice to move to Yorkshire – my wife’s from Yorkshire and she made me do it.

I was looking for a firm that was going places and had something about it. At the time DLA Piper was a firm that was...

Why did you join DLA Piper? I wanted to join a firm that offered truly international reach whilst allowing me to stay in Leeds, the city in which I studied whilst at university. DLA Piper offered the best of both worlds, allowing me to experience top quality work from a great city.

What have you found to be most challenging so far? I took the opportunity to work in the litigation department of a major client of the firm. Having only had one week's litigation experience...