Russell Brand – he thinks he’s funny and I don’t.
Bond Pearce” />What was your first-ever job?
Plunging jam into doughnuts at a bakery.
What was your worst experience as a trainee?
I was sent to check out a company before a client made a large investment in it. On meeting the managing director in a hotel, I was asked to join others in a car where he proceeded to ask me a host of questions. We had crossed wires – he thought he was interviewing me for a research job. It broke the ice and I found out far more than expected.
Where’s the best place to go if you want to find out what’s really going on in the office?
I keep my ear to the ground at all times.
What time do you usually leave the office?
7pm-7.30pm.
What do you do at weekends?
Saturday mornings I play tennis. I like to watch my boys play rugby or hockey, or in the summer I sail my dinghy in Chichester harbour. A walk with my wife and our dogs across the water meadows for a pint tops off the weekend.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
Barrafina, a great tapas bar on Frith Street, Soho.
If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?
In the Navy or teaching sport and history.
Who’s your hero and why?
Nelson. He was an inspired leader with more than an edge to his character.
What’s the best thing about your job?
Working with a great bunch of people and stimulating clients, in a firm with lots of ambition.
What’s the toughest thing about your job?
Travelling to five different office locations from Southampton to Plymouth, Bristol,
London or Aberdeen.
What’s your biggest work/career mistake and what did you learn from it?
As a newly qualified solicitor I sent a new articled clerk a letter suggesting that the senior partner had arranged for him to represent the firm in the Territorial Army battalion at the Inns of Court. I didn’t realise he’d complained to the staff partner, who raised the matter with the senior partner. I learnt to be more circumspect in my practical jokes.
What car do you drive?
A Volvo V70 – it works for muddy rugby kit, hockey sticks, strapping teenage boys, sailing stuff, golf bags and two dogs.
What book are you reading?
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.
What’s on your iPod at the moment?
I still have CDs, while Radio 4 is my staple diet while I travel around.
What’s your favourite children’s book?
Skellig by David Almond .
What’s the most exciting case you’ve worked on and why?
The most satisfying was when the widow of a former client asked me to release some money from her husband’s invention. I negotiated the sale to the licensee for more money than she could dream of. It enabled her to live in her own home with the nursing help she needed. When she died her daughter wrote to me to say how much it had meant to her mother.
If you were stranded on a desert island what two luxury items would you take?
Watercolours and a radio in the hope I can get World Service and the sports results on a Saturday.
What’s the worst partner conference location you’ve attended and why?
I think the content is more important than the location. For the most part they’ve been pretty good.
What’s the longest you’ve worked without sleep?
I’ve worked through the night but have always doubted whether it was the most sensible thing to do.
If a movie was being made about your life, which actor would play you and why?
I’d be more interested in who was playing my wife.
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Russell Brand – he thinks he’s funny and I don’t.
CV
Name: Nick Page
Firm: Bond Pearce
Title: Chairman
Lives: Winchester
Education:
1968-75: Northgate Grammar School for Boys, Ipswich
1975-78: LLB, University of Hull
1978-79: College of Law, Guildford
Work history:
1979-81: Articles, Boodle Hatfield
1981-83: Solicitor, Boodle Hatfield
1983-85: Solicitor, Bracewell & Patterson, Houston
1986-95: Partner, Boodle Hatfield
1995-2008: Partner, Bond Pearce (on merger)
2008-present: Chairman, Bond Pearce
