Peter Scott

Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright’s (NRF) EMEA managing partner Peter Scott assumed his role on 1 April 2020. A pessimist would find it hard not to read something into that timing. Luckily, Scott is no pessimist. For him, the past couple of years have been an “incredibly exciting time” to be taking over the leadership of one of the world’s largest law firms. Even without the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on working patterns, changes that were already in train, from social justice issues to the impact of a struggling economy, have been hugely accelerated.

To Scott, it was an opportunity. He has made it his mission to use these developments as an impetus for change, setting targets (notably in relation to social mobility) and helping NRF deliver on and embed them. Scott is a member of the 30-strong City of London task force headed by the City’s current Lord Mayor, Vincent Keaveny, which was set up to promote diversity and social mobility in the financial and professional services industries.

Scott, whose parents ran a village post office, will hardly lay claim to a rags to riches story but admits that the world in which he now operates is in stark contrast to the one he inhabited as a boy. Access to and advancement within the law is a passion that not only helps him steer the juggernaut that is NRF, it is also a guiding principle for his own life and career.