BIOGRAPHY

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1954; lifelong resident of Wallsend; father of 4; married

Educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne (Scholar); studied natural sciences at A level (A grades in Maths, Physics and Chemistry) and Cambridge entrance level

Clare College Cambridge: Part 1 Tripos in Archaeology and Anthropology, Part 2 in Law, II:1 degree 1977, MA 1981

Called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1978; Astbury Entrance Scholar and winner of the JJ Powell Prize on the law of evidence

Pupil to the late His Honour Gerard Harkins in chambers at 60 Grainger Street, Newcastle upon Tyne 1978-79
Tenant 60 Grainger Street (later Trinity Chambers) Newcastle upon Tyne 1978 - 1992
Tenant Enterprise Chambers 1992 to date, practising principally from the Leeds branch until1997 and since then principally from the Newcastle branch (founder member)
Treasury Counsel, Regional Civil Panel - reappointed November 2007 to the Environment Agency panel
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; founder member and past chairman of the Northumbria Branch; former member of the national Council of the Institute
Member of: North Eastern Circuit, European Circuit, Chancery Bar Association, Northern Chancery Bar Association, Property Bar Association, Bar European Group, United Kingdom Environmental Law Association, Planning and Environmental Bar Association, Bar Pro Bono Unit

Lecturer to solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, students and others on topics of environmental law, commercial landlord and tenant law and arbitration law

Interests outside the law: pop music, sound recording and production, computers, gardening, the South of France, the life and works of Serge Gainsbourg