Work Life Quiz: Michael Neofytou, Artesian Law

What was your first-ever job?

McDonald’s during my A-levels at £2.70 per hour (15p extra after 7pm).

Where is the best place to go if you want to find out what’s really going on in the office?

Either a clerk’s room or the nearest pub.

What’s your favourite restaurant?

My mother’s kitchen, beside the Aga. She’s Irish and simply won’t rest until I’m full.

If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?

A lottery winner.

What’s your favourite film?

The Godfather.

Who’s your hero and why?

My father, but I’ve never told him that.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Clients - the variety always amazes me and you never knows who’s going to be next through the door.

What’s the toughest thing about your job?

Waiting to get paid and the fact that we’re still a referral profession, with little control over where the next brief comes from.

What’s your biggest work career mistake and what did you learn from it?

As Oscar Wilde said: “Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes”. I’ve got too much ‘experience’ to list.

What’s the most exciting deal/case you’ve worked on and why?

Representing the captain of the Premiership football team I support (who will remain nameless).

If you were stranded on a desert island what two luxury items would you take?

A yacht and some champagne.

What’s the longest you’ve worked without sleep?

Prosecuting my first trial at 18-months’ call at Snaresbrook Crown Court, a section 18 received the night before my 25th birthday - he got eight years and I got about an hour. It’s the only one I prosecuted before turning to defence.

If a movie was being made about your life, which actor would play you and why?

I’d like to think it would be a young Al Pacino as he is cool personified, but knowing my luck I’d end up with Michael McIntyre looking like a Chinese Elvis.