When I was 17, I wrote a letter to the head of personnel at Herbert Smith saying I had three months spare in my gap year before going to New Zealand and would the firm like to employ me. I’d never even been to London before, but I was invited for an interview. I came down on the train from Edinburgh with my grandparents. My headmaster wrote a reference. It said, ‘If you don’t employ this boy, call me and I will tell you why you’re wrong.’ It was very kind of him. He was a true educator.
So I started working here as a paralegal at 18. The secretaries took me under their wing. I had a ball. London in 1990 was booming. It was incredibly exciting and I never looked back. After that, I never wanted to work anywhere else.
