M & S PROFILE: Charles Brasted

Solicitor advocate Charles Brasted was recently made a partner within Hogan Lovell's UK & EU public law and policy practice.

What was your route into the profession?

Aged 6, I said that I wanted to be a lawyer, although I suspect that I had no idea then what a lawyer was. I suppose that I still did not have much idea of what it meant to be a practicing lawyer when I went to university. I read law (occasionally, and certainly less than I should have done) at Magdalene College, Cambridge, during which time I did a vacation scheme at what was then Lovells. And the rest is history: I accepted a training contract with Lovells, went on to do my LPC in Oxford, as one of the first wave of students on the "City LPC",  and have happily remained here ever since.   

What has been your biggest career challenge so far?

One of the great things about being a public law litigator is that there is always a new challenge, a new area of law or business to learn about in short order.  But when it comes to dealing with governments and regulators, sometimes law will only get you so far. You need to think more broadly. One of the greatest challenges of my professional life was finding a way to convince the UK government that they both could and should release Libyan state-owned assets (which the UK government had seized under international sanctions against Gaddafi) into the hands of our clients, the Libyan National Transitional Council, at a time when the situation in Libya was extremely uncertain, and those assets were desperately needed in order to stabilise the country. The knowledge that we were dealing both with high politics on the international stage and the  lives of ordinary Libyan citizens, and that every moment really counted, made for a uniquely challenging—but ultimately rewarding—job.  
 

Which person within the legal profession inspires you most?

Surely it has to be that anonymous but highly influential gentleman, the Man on the Clapham Omnibus. A friend of Walter Bagehot (himself a towering figure in constitutional law and politics), he has since his (arguable) maiden appearance in Court in 1871 (per Collins MR in the 1903 English Court of Appeal libel case, McQuire v Western Morning News), led the way to the answers in more cases than any other and is renowned or his unfailing reasonableness.  

If you weren’t a lawyer, what would you choose as an alternate career?

I would say being a restaurateur, but you have to be quite rich before you can afford to lose fortunes on owning restaurants.  For now, I have to settle for eating in them and very occasionally writing about them (Charles's review of new Clerkenwell spot Foxlow can be found here).   

How do you relax?

Cooking, entertaining, upholstery, and spreadsheets. Not everyone would regard organising and cooking three themed dinner parties in three days for twenty people each time, in a kitchen you have never used before, as relaxing.  It does, however, provide something of a distraction from everyday life. It also explains the spreadsheets—you need a lot of spreadsheets to run events like that. 

(Charles.Brasted@hoganlovells.com)

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