From Concorde flights to key milestones in Norton Rose Fulbright’s history and a whole lot more, Jeff shares the story of his years at the firm.

The beginning

My family emigrated to New Zealand when I was 11 and I completed my LLB and LLM courses at Sydney University before joining Stephen Jaques and Stephen. I then decided law was not for me and returned to the UK to pursue my first love - cricket - and had a season playing for Middlesex 2ndXI. Sadly, my finances ran out, so I applied to City law firms. My Norton, Rose Botterell & Roche (as it was) interview was with four partners, Christopher Dixon, Andrew Ayres, Jonathan Chalton, and Francis Chronell. Christopher confirmed it was the firm for me when, at the end of the interview, he said, “If you join us young man you will need to keep your passport in your top desk drawer as you may come in one morning and be on a plane to Rio that afternoon.” Christopher never admitted whether he had made that comment to encourage me to join or to put me off. And I never got to Rio on business for the firm either.

1976: introduction to international banking

I joined in September 1976 to work for David Mullock. On meeting me his greeting was “I see you are good at cricket and enjoy opera - that’s good because we will have something to talk about if your law is no good.” I worked with David and his team on international financing deals and my first “big” deal was advising on the financing of a new hotel in Jeddah. The deal lasted nine months and I spent much of that time on planes negotiating documents in Paris, Kuwait, Cairo, and Bahrain. Signing took place in Cairo and the lead banker, advised me to bring my riding kit as he had horses in Cairo, and we might get the opportunity to ride round the Pyramids – sadly (or luckily) we did not.

1979 to 1982: move to Bahrain

The firm was doing an increasing amount of work in the Middle East, and I joined Douglas Hamilton, Francis Sumner, and John Harding on a trip to investigate opening an office there. War was raging in Beirut and Bahrain was increasingly seen as the finance centre for deals in the region. I flew to Bahrain with Douglas on Concorde which was amazing. The jolt when the plane accelerated to Mach 2 was unforgettable.

The decision was made to open in Bahrain as there were some 50 Offshore Banking Units (OBUs) operating and transacting international financing there. I became head of the office which opened on 13 June 1979. After which we were instructed by a number of the OBUs and became profitable within our first 12 months, signing 52 deals in our first 18 months. We had to ask for secondees from London and quickly growing to five lawyers and three secretaries with other support staff.

The social life in Bahrain was good. There were a number of expats working on the Island and there were some good restaurants and bars for socialising. Also, there were active tennis and squash clubs as well as running and boating. Much to my delight, there was a competitive cricket league which was of a surprisingly high standard. I played for the British club in the league, and we had three ex-county players in our team as well as an ex Indian test cricketer. I also captained a Bahrain XI in matches against Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi. (The Bahrain office closed in 2019 but we maintain a thriving and growing Middle East offering via offices in Dubai and Riyadh.).

Summer 1982: return to London

My three-year term in Bahrain ended in the summer of 1982. I returned to the London office and soon became busy acting banking clients as well as assisting the busy Shipping and Aviation finance team.

I also acted for the three main Swedish Banks on the restructuring and refinancing of various debts of projects carried out by Swedish companies in Iraq as the Iraqi government was funding its ongoing conflict with Iran. I spent some 18 months taking 18 trips to Baghdad, often via pre-meetings in Stockholm.

1987 to 1991: recruitment, training and HR

With Tim Howard, I was asked to help develop a more structured approach to the recruitment of trainees and associates, as well as their training, and this resulted in what became our HR function.

1992 and 1993: IRA Bombs 1992 and 1993

Two IRA bombs in the City had a big impact on the firm. The first on Friday 10 April 1992 destroyed the Baltic Exchange. The IRA had believed they were blowing up the Stock Exchange. Our building in Camomile Street was affected with windows being blown out and we were unable to return to the office for over a week. Following that, several City law firms made an agreement to support each other if any future bomb attack affected any of our offices. Little did we expect it would be us, when just over a year later on 24 April 1993, a large bomb was detonated in Bishopsgate causing structural damage to our building. The other City law firms stepped in and office space at Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance was given over to us until we could return to our building some two years later.

1993 to 1995: Hong Kong 

We had set up in Hong Kong in the mid-1970s by way of an association with Johnson Stokes and Masters (JSM). We reached an agreement with JSM to set up a projects practice which we could market in our own name so I was sent to Hong Kong to promote this practice in conjunction with our Singapore office, which led to our own independent office finally being established in 1998.

One memorable deal from this time was the restructuring of the Dom Muang highway in Bangkok which was the road from the airport to the busiest intersection in Bangkok. Unfortunately, no exit roads had been agreed so, as one banker said, the road would just be a 23km parking lot. I had numerous meetings advising the lending banks and negotiating the terms of the extra finance needed to acquire exit routes. It was an interesting consortium which had won the concession, German, Thai and French companies, all of whom approached discussions and negotiations in differing ways. . 

1995 to 2002: Project Finance group

I returned to London at the end of 1995 to head the Projects Group. Project finance was quickly becoming a major practice area, especially with the Government’s PFI initiative to develop hospitals, roads and schools. There was also the dash for gas with concessions being awarded to developers to build and operate gas fired power stations on a project finance basis. We established a good track record acting on a number of the UK power plants and we became one of the go-to firms for project finance both in the UK and globally.

A particularly memorable project was the Spata Ring Road which was to provide the link to the new Spata Airport and which had to be completed in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics. The project was beset with difficulties as the concession agreement had been passed into law by the Greek Government on a basis which was not possible to finance. I led the team, with great assistance from our Athens office, advising the project company comprising 13 Greek contractors and a French operator. We had to restructure the financing and persuade the Greek Government to change the underlying concession arrangements. We also faced other difficulties such as a court case requiring the road to be re-routed, an earthquake, a bomb and a visit by President Clinton during which time we were confined to our hotel and were not able to attend signing meetings. In the three years I worked on the deal I made 61 trips to Athens. The Euro 1.3bn finance documents were eventually signed in March 2000.

Another notable project was the first project financed power station in Abu Dhabi. We acted for the banks who were the lead arrangers on this US$1.3bn project. It was particularly memorable for me because I could not attend the closing meetings in Abu Dhabi as my wife was pregnant with our first child, a son, who was due to be born in early December 2000. In fact, I was on the phone and had to sign off on our legal opinion to agree the first drawdown of some US$500m on 8 December and my son was born an hour or so later.

1997 to 2002: Chairman of the Norton Partnership Committee 

This subsequently became the Partnership Board and was the body which monitored the performance of the firm’s management. During my time as Chairman, I oversaw a restructuring of the firm’s management whereby it moved from being run on a geographic and office basis to a practice line basis.

1997 to 2002: Chairman of the Norton Partnership Committee

This was the body which monitored the performance of the firm’s management. During my time as Chairman, the committee was extensively consulted on a restructuring of the firm’s management whereby it moved from being run on a geographic and office basis to a practice line basis.

2002 to 2006: Global Head of Banking

I was appointed Global Head of Banking when the new management structure was put in place; as such I was responsible for managing some 300 lawyers located in 10 offices in different jurisdictions.

I also continued to work on various projects, most notably advising the arranging banks on the £1.8bn facilities in relation to the PPP financing of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Sections of the London Underground. The lending banks had some reservations about our ability to resource the transaction but we convinced them and, in the 6 weeks lead up to the close, we had some 40 NR lawyers working on the transaction.

2006 to 2014: Senior Banking Partner and 2014 to 2017: Consultant

During this time, I continued working on projects in the Middle East and elsewhere but spent more time representing the firm’s interests with key City institutions within the financial and business community. This included chairing the Energy and Infrastructure Board of the TheCityUK, elections to the London Council of the CBI, the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Supervisory Board, the Board of the International Project Finance Association, the Cook Society as well as functions with various Lord Mayors and the Mansion House.

Over my time at the firm, I was also involved in a number of events such as running and speaking at conferences and publishing numerous articles. In conjunction with Patrick Farrell, we hosted a number of events for and with clients with the purpose of raising money for charities focussed on helping disadvantaged or disabled children to reach their potential. Charities included Dyspraxia Foundation, Volunteer Reading Help (now called Beanstalk), Wooden Spoon and Snow Camp.

2017 to 2024: Lloyd’s Council

I joined the Association of Lloyd’s Members board as a director at the end of 2016. This is a trade body representing about 30% of private capital members. I was elected to the Lloyd’s Council to represent private capital in February 2017 so stepped down from my consultancy role at Norton Rose Fulbright. During my time on the Council, I was heavily involved in a revision of Lloyd’s governing structure as well as its strategic and operational functioning.

2024 onwards

Aside from walking our dogs, I ski regularly with friends and family. I have an instructor’s certificate and teach/coach at Gloucester dry slope. I continue to play golf but only sporadically when a dozen or so retired and current Norton Rose Fulbright partners take to the links for a long weekend. I am a member of the Freemen of the City of London Guild and sit on the Council of the Cook Society which promotes British/Australian relations. I also attend several forums to keep up to date with developments in the project finance market.