I obtained a scholarship in classics and a degree in law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a Harry A Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. I was then Mansfield scholar at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1975.

I have been a CEDR accredited mediator since 2001. As a mediator, I am willing to undertake cases in any field, in addition to those in which I have particular or current specialist experience. I acquired a further qualification in psychological counselling in 2005. The disputes with which I have been concerned have included international contracts (technology), education, inheritance and succession, insurance, partnerships (agricultural, business, medical), professional negligence (architects, solicitors, engineers), psychiatric injury (childhood abuse), real property (land development), trusts and wills.