Work Life Quiz: Jane Keir, Kingsley Napley
What was your first-ever job? Stacking cartons in a yoghurt factory.
What was your worst experience as a trainee?
Failing to recognise the senior partner, thinking he was an intruder and offering to escort him off the premises.
Where’s the best place to go if you want to find out what’s really going on in the office?
The One Tun pub on Saffron Hill.
What time do you usually leave the office?
I try my best to leave at 6pm so I can catch the 6.30 train from Marylebone.
What do you do at weekends?
I breed thoroughbred horses for the racing industry so I’m usually in a barn or poring over the racing results.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
The Bleeding Heart in London.
If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?
A jockey.
What’s your favourite film?
Four Weddings and a Funeral.
What was the first record you ever bought?
Jeepster by T Rex.
Who’s your hero and why?
Our judges. They have to decide what we haven’t been able to resolve, and they do so with wisdom, empathy and courage.
What’s the best thing about your job?
My team and the fantastic support it provides.
What’s the toughest thing about your job?
The lack of resourcing in the legal system and long delays.
What’s your biggest work/career mistake and what did you learn from it?
As a trainee, getting totally immersed in the child custody case of one of my clients and wanting to right all the wrongs I thought had been inflicted on him. When his ex-wife got into the witness box I realised that there are two sides to every story.
What car do you drive?
A Land Rover Defender.
What book are you reading?
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope.
What’s your favourite children’s book?
I’m still reading my way through the Twilight series.
What’s the most exciting deal/case you’ve worked on and why?
Acting for a Premier League footballer and outwitting the paparazzi on the one occasion he had to go to court.
If you were stranded on a desert island what two luxury items would you take?
A case of Puligny-Montrachet and Weatherbys’ Directory of the Turf.
What’s the longest you’ve worked without sleep?
Sixteen hours.
If a movie was being made about your life, which actress would play you and why?
Julia Roberts – it must be something to do with the way she played Erin Brockovich.
Who you would least like to be stuck in a lift with and why?
Sepp Blatter, for obvious reasons.
Tell us two truths and one lie about yourself (in any order)
John Noakes once gave me his Blue Peter badge; I’m skinny enough to be a jockey; I went up the nearside lane to overtake a milk float on my driving test and still passed.
CV
Name: Jane Keir
Firm: Kingsley Napley
Title: Head of family law
Lives: Oxfordshire
Education:
1984: LLB (Hons), Northumbria University
1985: Law Society Finals, College of Law, Chester
Work history:
1987-89: Assistant, Henmans
1989-92: Assistant, Kingsley Napley
1992-97: Partner, Kingsley Napley
1997-present: Head of family law, Kingsley Napley
