Most lawyers have only ever seen these situations from the outside, advising from a distance. I've seen them from the inside as the person in the room when the decision was made, and the one who lived with the consequences. That's why I set up New Road.

My story

I qualified as a solicitor and spent my early career in private practice, advising both employers and employees across the full range of employment and HR issues. I was good at the law, but I kept noticing the gap between advice that was technically correct and advice a business could actually act on.

So I moved in-house and spent the best part of a decade running businesses from the inside, initially as General Counsel and then as Chief Operating Officer with ownership of operations, HR, legal, marketing and technology.

Along the way I earned an Executive MBA and a CIPD Level 7 in HR because I wanted to understand the whole business.

By then I knew what I wanted to build. After years inside other people's businesses, I set out to forge a new road of my own. One with no internal politics and more of the work that matters most to me: helping businesses, and the people in them, move forward and drive change.

New Road is where all of that comes together: legal support for people who want a lawyer who gets it, the commercial pressure, the people, and the pace, not just the law.

What I believe

• Plain English, always. The law can be complicated enough; my advice shouldn't add to it. I'll set out your position clearly and with no jargon.

• Options, not orders. My job isn't to make your decisions for you. It's to help you see clearly what each option means, legally and commercially, so you can make the call that's right for you.

• Honesty about risk and cost. You'll always know where you stand, what things are likely to cost, and whether something is worth pursuing.

• People first. Whether you're an employer or an individual, there are real people and real livelihoods behind every one of these situations. I don't forget that.

Why New Road is different

You get someone who has actually run the kind of business you're in, or up against. And you get support built for how people work now: responsive, remote-friendly and straightforward on fees, without the trappings (or the overheads) of a traditional firm.

I work particularly closely with the recruitment sector and, through New Road Consulting, I also help growing businesses with the wider operational, commercial and people challenges that go beyond the law alone.

A little about me

Outside work, you'll usually find me outdoors walking, or somewhere near or on the water. I'm a sailor, a Scout leader, an avid reader, I teach knitting and crochet at a local craft shop, and I'm a trustee at EBP South, helping connect young people with the world of work.