I was educated at Downside School (near Bath). After leaving Downside, I attended Grenoble University, ostensibly to study French. By the time I left Grenoble, I was a reasonably accomplished skier, but a less than accomplished French speaker.
After Grenoble, I spent some time travelling, then settled down to read law at Southampton University for three years. Following graduation, I studied for the second part of the Law Society Final Examinations at The College of Law in Guildford.
Having left Guildford, I served my articles with Breton Deacon & Co for two years before being admitted as a solicitor in April 1977.
I remained with the family firm until the merger with Knights in October 1991 and worked briefly at the offices in the Ironmarket before the firm moved to The Brampton in 1995.
Until the merger with Knights, I specialised in two areas - personal injury litigation and wills, trusts and probate. (A client once labelled my department as ‘Death and Disaster’.)
Following the merger, I concentrated almost exclusively on personal injury work, but retained some connection with private client work through various executorships and trusteeships.
In a world where ambulance chasers and ‘claims farmers’ have tainted the reputation of our profession with a cynical, conveyor belt approach to personal injury claims, I and my colleagues at Knights have attempted to redress the balance in our own small way by applying some old-fashioned values, such as professionalism, dedication to duty and true expertise to what we see as an extremely important service to those in need of help and guidance at what can be a very difficult time in their lives.
I am the Chairman of the Alexander Memorial Trust, a small grant-making charity which I founded in memory of my nephew, Alexander Roberts-Miller, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in July 2002.
The running of this charity enables me to target help to some very worthwhile local causes.