If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?
A screenwriter – it can’t be that hard when you see what sort of movies come out.

What was your first-ever job?

Delivering the local newspaper The Orange County Register.

What was your worst experience as a trainee?
None. As a summer associate in New York it was three months of well-paid bliss as opposed to the UK tradition.

Where’s the best place to go if you want to find out what’s really going on in the office?
Our state-of-the-art espresso-maker in our canteen.

What time do you usually leave the office?
9pm.

What do you do at weekends?
Watch my boys play rugby and football in the rain.

What’s your favourite restaurant?
Bouley in New York, Club Gascon in London.

If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?
A screenwriter – it can’t be that hard when you see what sort of movies come out.

Who’s your hero and why?
John Starks, the New York Knicks shooting guard in the 1990s. In the 1993 playoffs against the Chicago Bulls Starks dunked over the much taller Horace Grant and a stunned Michael Jordan.

What’s the best thing about your job?
Acting for hedge and private equity funds as they’re the most important firms on the financial landscape.

What’s the toughest thing about your job?
Having to always be available to clients and colleagues.

What’s your biggest work/ career mistake?
Not investing in many of my clients when they originally launched their funds.

What book are you reading?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

What’s on your iPod at the moment?
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium.

What’s your favourite children’s book?
Chimp and Zee by Catherine Anholt.

What’s the most exciting deal you’ve worked on and why?
Like your children, they’re all beautiful in their own way.

If you were stranded on a desert island what two luxury items would you take?
My sound-cancelling headphones and my BlackBerry.

What’s the worst partner conference location you’ve attended?
A very dodgy hotel under the Heathrow flight path.

What’s the longest you’ve worked without sleep?
40 hours.

If a movie was made about your life, which actor would play you and why?
David Tennant – my boys would be impressed I was being played by the Doctor.

Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Anyone with strong opinions about US politics.

Name: Timothy Spangler
Firm: Kaye Scholer
Title: Chair of investment funds group
Lives: London (mostly)
Education: University of California, Los Angeles; Vanderbilt University School of Law.
Work history:
1993: Rogers & Wells, New York, summer associate
1994-99: Rogers & Wells, New York and London, associate
2000: Clifford Chance, London, associate
2000-02: Latham & Watkins, London, associate
2002-06: Berwin Leighton Paisner, London, partner
2006-present: Kaye Scholer, London and New York, partner and chair of investment funds group