Introducing Alec
Alec is a senior lawyer whose experience includes corporate and commercial, finance and regulatory law, with industry specialisms in aviation and emerging markets.
Can you describe your experience of working through Obelisk?
Obelisk provides the opportunity to work with great clients in diverse industries and roles, with a simple and user-friendly onboarding and assignment selection process. In addition, the internal team and fellow consultants I have met are all very friendly and approachable!
What makes your expertise unique?
I have worked over 30 years for large law firms, small law firms, in-house departments, as a legal consultant and sole practitioner, being based at various times in three different countries and assisting on transactions or operations involving 20 countries or so. I have been fortunate enough to gain wide experience of different client types, industries and legal workstreams along this journey. A client who had significant experience of lawyers (and was actually an ex-lawyer himself) once described me as the most commercial lawyer he had ever come across, although I recognise this is not necessarily actually the compliment he intended it to be!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of flexible working as a lawyer?
Variety of work and clients and control over your time and types of work and client.
What’s the most challenging?
IR35! More seriously, managing downtime between assignments.
What are your proudest professional and personal achievements so far?
Professional: being part of the senior leadership team which created the world’s first carbon-neutral aviation operator. I believe professional achievements should be measured primarily by social and environmental impact.
Personal: together with my wife, raising our 12 week premature son, life-threatened at birth, into the University student he is today.
How do you find the right work/life balance?
Organisation is key. The flexible working contractual structure also helps. While of course we go above and beyond for our clients, there is not the expectation that we will always be working at midnight as in some legal roles ! (Just midnight four days a week in our roles…)
What are your words of advice to other legal consultants?
Enjoy! You are immensely privileged and living the life!
How do you start and end your day?
Start with a double espresso listening to the Today programme and end with a double whisky listening to The World Tonight… Radio 4 junkie!
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
The ability to double the number of hours in the day… actually make that triple…
