M&S PROFILE: Gareth Brahams

Gareth Brahams, founding partner of boutique employment law firm Brahams Dutt Badrick French (BDBF) has been elected as chair of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA).

What was your route into the profession?

My mother, father, brother and uncle are all lawyers. I am not sure if I was ever going to be anything else. The only question was what type of lawyer would I be? I am glad I chose employment. I love the human element, the legal complexity and the variety of work.

What has been your biggest career challenge so far?

In professional terms it was having to fight a four week sex discrimination case and five week whistleblowing claim back to back. On the business side, leaving the comfort of being one of many employment partners at Lewis Silkin, a firm with a great brand, to set up an employment law team from scratch at another firm and then three years later taking my new team with me to start a brand new law firm was huge but very rewarding.

Which person within the legal profession inspires you most?

Peter Edwards, my first boss when I was a newly qualified employment lawyer at Capsticks. He was an original thinker who got to the essence of cases in an instant but most importantly to me, despite my lowly position in the firm gave me great encouragement and support and treated me with real respect.

My confidence had been on the floor after a pretty brutal training contract winding up in me not being taken on and he played a key part in building me back up.

I just went to a talk by Lord Justice Briggs about the civil court reform process that he is producing a report on. I have to say I thought he was the model of what a lawyer should be; clearly incredibly bright, yet humble, courteous, attentive, concise, measured and thoughtful. He is charged with a huge project. I hope the politicians listen to him.

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

I would like to have been a doctor but I am not good with blood and needles and that kind of thing. I would still like to teach one day.

Who is your favourite fictional lawyer?

It was Atticus Finch until I read Go set a Watchman, but now I think it would be “Better Call Saul” from Breaking Bad—not that I would follow his working practices.

What change would you make to the profession?

I would like to see the old ways of sharing equity in law firms at an earlier stage revived. I think it is so much more rewarding to be an owner than an employee of a firm. We have extended equity participation to everyone within our firm and have never regretted it for a minute.  

Some lawyers seem to go into the profession because they enjoy managing and seeking to eliminate risk. I would like to see them willing to take more chances. Sometimes the only way to get a lawyer to do something unusual is by persuading them they would be taking a greater gamble by not doing so.

How do you relax?

Going for a hike, long distance run or playing football followed by a long lunch with a glass of wine, toddling off home and having a deep bath and then playing a board game or cards with my kids is my idea of heaven.

Nominations for the Halsbury Legal Awards 2016, in association with NLJ, are now open. Visit the site to view all the categories and enter online. #Halsbury2016