The OBA has asked me to reflect upon my career and perhaps offer some advice along the way. It’s a privilege doing this, earned if for no other reason than my longevity. I was admitted to the bar in 1978 and have been practicing construction law since 1979. That span of time has permitted some successes, although I can think of none which might have come about without the help and support of a great many caring people to whom I am forever grateful. Success in the law, as in most everything else, is not a solo performance.
Not least among the many changes along the way has been the emergence of construction law itself as a standalone area of practice. Even large firms, traditionally supported by their corporate departments, have accepted their construction law practitioners albeit with the occasional touch of envy. Construction lawyers really do have more fun, after all.
Rather than recite the many changes over the last 45 years, I propose to do something different. I am in that awkward place occupied by any senior practitioner: A feeling of being left behind, especially when it comes to skill with technology, while at the same time aware of an ever-expanding horizon not yet sensed by our younger colleagues. As my favourite business writer, Charles Handy, once put it: You can only see forward as far as you can look back. So I offer this forward-looking reflection in five stanzas in the hope that it might do some good.