The Hot 100 career quiz: Doyle Clayton’s Peter Daly

What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee?

Being in the office at 11.30pm preparing a bundle that was required the next day. It was the hottest day of the year, and the air conditioning had failed, so even at that hour the place was like a furnace. Just as I finished, I got a paper cut deeper than the Mariana Trench across two fingers and bled all over the pages. I had to bin the lot and start again. Blood, sweat, and (very nearly) tears.

The other most vivid memory is settling a case at trial at which I was doing the advocacy.  The endorphine release I got from seeing my client’s elation when opposing counsel put the offer to us has turned out to be rather moreish.

What is the thing in your professional career that has terrified you or taken you out of your comfort zone the most?

Acting for a whistleblower against the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, I was informed in correspondence from the Respondent that they might criminally prosecute me in Kosovo if I showed my client’s Particulars of Claim to anyone, including our own witnesses.

I took personal legal advice from a lawyer practising in Kosovo who advised me that there was very little legal merit behind the threat but that I should still take it seriously and that imprisonment was a possibility.

My firm at the time (Bindmans) were hugely supportive – we took it to the press, and tried to get the government to at least express disquiet to Brussels, but got no assistance whatsoever (thanks a bunch Michael Gove).

I can’t say I was terrified exactly – it was such an over the top threat as to be surreal – but I was certainly out of my comfort zone. The extradition arrangements with Kosovo were somewhat opaque, which was some relief.  But going through the Port of Calais on my summer holidays a few weeks later, I had the number of my firm’s head of crime (an extradition expert) already dialled in and my thumb hovering over the “call” button in case the gendarmes pulled me over. Thankfully they didn’t.

What is the wisest thing anyone ever said to you (and who said it)?

My training Principle at MLS Chase Manoj Ladwa was a font of good and pithy advice: “If you’ve got a good case, keep it simple; if you’ve got a weak case, muddy the waters” is one in particular that stands out in the memory (not that I’ve ever had a bad case, of course).

A non-lawyer friend of mine, James MacGregor, told me he gets all his trainees to read “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell as a guide to writing clearly and concisely.  I’ve followed that advice, and it works.  And I don’t know if he ever explicitly said it, but my old boss Shah Qureshi lives by the motto “don’t sweat the small stuff”: a great rule to live by.  But classifying the “stuff” into “small” and “not small” is the key, and that classification is not always obvious.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get to where you are/do the job you do?

Never turn a case away because you think it looks too complicated or out of your comfort zone.  The most enjoyable work is the often the most complex work, and in doing it you inevitably learn something new and transferrable.

What’s your best friend from law school doing now?

I came to law as a second career, and worked as a part time paralegal throughout my full time GDL and LPC, so it wasn’t much of a social experience for me. I’m not really in touch with my classmates any more unfortunately.  I’ve had pretty much the same set of mates since I was 19, and they do all sorts from jewellery making and teaching to bricklaying in Nebraska (and yes, one or two lawyers).