I began helping in my father's legal practice as an office boy during the school holidays in the late 1950s and continued throughout my teens. After an honours degree in philosophy from Warwick University, a post-graduate teaching certificate from Birmingham University, and a brief
teaching career, I joined the firm as a clerk in 1972 while I decided what
to do next, and stayed on. In the days before compulsory attendance at
law school I put myself through the Law Society's exams while working in the practice
part-time. When I qualified in 1979 I remained as assistant solicitor and took
over the practice on my father's sudden
death the following year.
My father would take on nearly everything, and I learnt as I went: we did private and commercial conveyancing, landlord-and-tenant work, family law, employment, wills, probate, and a wide range of litigation.
I joined Clarity when it was formed in 1983 and at about the same time began converting my firm's documents into plain English, establishing a policy which brought new clients and valuable work. Over the years I gradually reduced the scope of the practice to act as a plain drafting consultant (to lawyers and others) and to allow time for teaching plain legal writing in the UK and overseas.
In 2007 I retired from practice as a solicitor (and from being a solicitor) but continue to accept commissions as a plain language consultant, offering seminars, individual training, and document-drafting.
In 1988 I married Jan, a social worker whom I had met at university.
I volunteered for the committee when it was formed at the first meeting, in 1984, and have enjoyed being on it ever since. I edited the newsletter from 1987 and continued as it developed into a more formal journal. I served as chairman from 1989 to 94 and again from 1996, retiring from both chair and the journal in 2000.
Clarity continues to evolve under new, dynamic, leadership, with members in some 40 countries.