What was your first-ever job?
Children’s entertainer, Welsh holiday camp.
What was your worst experience as a trainee?
Wearing underpants outside my suit on the first Red Nose Day, when no-one else in London seemed to know about Red Nose Day.
Where’s the best place to go if you want to find out what’s really going on in the office?
The ladies’ toilets – allegedly.
What time do you usually leave the office?
7.30pm.
What do you do at weekends?
Embarrass my family, so I’m regularly told.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
The Old Etonian, Harrow-on-the Hill.
If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?
A teacher (and one day…)
What’s your favourite film?
The Usual Suspects.
What was the first record you ever bought?
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John.
Who’s your hero and why?
Michael Palin – the ideal Englishman abroad.
What’s the best thing about your job?
My friends.
What’s the toughest thing about your job?
Trying not to let on that today’s trainees are far better than I ever was.
What’s your biggest work/ career mistake?
Telling a client what he wanted to hear rather than what he needed to hear.
What car do you drive?
Volvo convertible. Raffish in a very safe way.
What book are you reading?
The Shack by William P Young.
What’s your favourite children’s book?
Watership Down by Richard Adams.
What’s the most exciting deal/case you’ve worked on?
Various industrial relations disputes while at Royal Mail: helping great people who deliver a great service to reconcile supposedly irreconcilable issues.
If you were stranded on a desert island what two luxury items would you take?
A tennis racket and Venus Williams.
What’s the worst partner conference location you’ve attended and why?
Aren’t they all the same?
What’s the longest you’ve worked without sleep?
About 20 hours.
If a movie was being made about your life, which actor would play you and why?
Liam Neeson – his nose is almost as big as mine.
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with and why?
Hannibal Lecter. He’s bound to start feeling peckish at some point.
Tell us two truths and one myth about yourself.
I’m 6ft 5in tall, have size 13 feet, and it’s not always true what they say.
CV
Name: Mark Landon
Firm: Weightmans
Title: Managing partner, London office
Lives: Ashtead, Surrey
Education:
1977-1983: Harrow School
1983-86: LLB, University of East Anglia
1986-87: Law, College Of Law, Lancaster Gate
Work history:
1987-89: Trainee, Macfarlanes
1989-95: Litigation and employment assistant, Macfarlanes
1995-2000: Senior employment lawyer, Royal Mail Group
2000-2005: Head of operational employment team, Royal Mail Group
2005-2009: Partner and head of London employment team, Weightmans
2009-present: Head of London employment team and managing partner, Weightmans’ London office
