I’m a busy practising barrister and King's Counsel — KC — which is a mark of seniority at the Bar. KC’s are known as leading counsel, and are engaged in the largest and most complex cases.

My practice is in planning and environmental law, and compulsory purchase and compensation. I'm a co-author of leading textbooks in each of my core practice areas.

Each case involves leading a multidisciplinary team — consultants in planning, landscape, heritage, ecology, highway, engineering, valuation, for example. My role is not just to advise on the law, but to bring the strands of expertise together into a coherent story, and support each team member to perform at their best in service of the client.

What I've learned through this work — and through my own experience of coming off the rails at the height of my practice — is that being good at law is only a fraction of what the job actually requires.

Yet the profession continues to train lawyers exhaustively in the externalities - what good drafting looks like, how to hold yourself in court, how to frame an argument - but it ignores the personal skills needed to perform with excellence. You don’t learn how to run a meeting, how to lead a team, how to delegate, how to work sustainably, how to self-regulate and maintain boundaries. I've spent years since learning and practising these wider skills, bringing in learning from outside the profession, and passing it on to the people who work with me.

If you want me for my legal work, you can click here to find me at my Chambers website page (Francis Taylor Building, Inner Temple, London).