THE LAWYER
30 MARCH 2009
THE WORK-LIFE QUIZ ED LEWIS
What was your first-ever job?
I worked as a farm
labourer in the summer
following my GCSEs.
What was your worst
experience as a trainee?
I confronted a client after
discovering that he’d
forged important
documents. He promptly
locked me in his office and
told me to prepare for a
walk in the Thames
wearing concrete boots.
Where’s the best place to go if
you want to find out what’s
really going on in the office?
The secretaries always
seem to know the gossip.
What time do you usually
leave the office?
Between 7pm and 8pm.
What do you do at weekends?
I spend quality time with
my wife and two sons,
either out walking our
three dogs or following
Aston Villa up and down
the country.
What’s your favourite
restaurant?
The Boot – it’s a brilliant
gastro pub in Lapworth,
Warwickshire.
If you weren’t a lawyer,
what would you have been?
A professional skier. We
have a small house in
Austria where we spend all
our holidays and I still take
part in regional amateur
races from time to time
when we’re out there.
Who’s your hero and why?
My father. He nursed my
mother through multiple
sclerosis for 27 years before
she passed away in 2001.
What’s the best thing about
your job?
Construction is all about
legacy – at least it should
be. It’s been a privilege to
advise on some major
projects, knowing that
many of them will be
around for centuries long
after I’m gone.
What’s the toughest thing
about your job?
The commute and the
hours. I leave the house at
5.30am every morning and
rarely get home much
before 10pm.
What’s your biggest
work/career mistake and
what did you learn from it?
Losing contact through
pressure of work with my
#WWW.THELAWYER.COM
MANAGING CAREERS 15
CV
Name: Ed Lewis
Firm: Weightmans
Title: Head of construction
Lives: Near Lavenham, Suffolk
Education:
1989-96: The Perse School, Cambridge
1996-99: Aston University
1999-2000: Inns of Court School of Law
Work history:
2001-05: Barrister, Squire & Co
2005-06: Solicitor and partner, Squire & Co
2006-08: Head of construction, Squire & Co
2008-present: Head of construction,
Weightmans
friend and mentor,
Court of Appeal Judge
Sir Michael Davies QC.
Sadly he died in 2005,
reminding me of how
important it is for us to
nurture and inspire future
generations of junior
lawyers.
What car do you drive?
BMW M3.
What book are you currently
reading?
The Appeal by John
Grisham.
What’s on your iPod player at
the moment?
Radio 1’s Live Lounge.
It’s a great compilation
of well-known artists
performing their
favourite tracks originally
made famous by other
artists, but with a few
twists.
What’s your favourite
children’s book?
Paddington Bear by
Michael Bond.
What’s the most exciting
deal/case you’ve worked
on and why?
Defending a small firm of
architects against a claim
by a developer and its
magic circle advisers – a
genuine David versus
Goliath scenario. We came
out on top, with the result
described by one writer as
a “proper knee-capping”.
If you were stranded on a
desert island, what two
luxury items would you take?
A radio (a wind-up one, of
course), because I can’t
imagine life without music;
and a surfboard – obviously
essential for anyone who’s
going to be spending so
much time at the beach.
What’s the worst partner
conference location you’ve
attended and why?
The Dorchester Hotel.
The whole thing was so
pretentious, unnecessarily
extravagant and wasteful
(not a venue chosen by
my current firm, I hasten
to add).
What’s the longest you’ve
worked without sleep?
Ninety-six hours on a case
where we had witnesses
scattered around the
world. The run-up to the
deadline for exchange was
brutal as we fought to get
their statements approved
and signed off.
Who would you least like to be
stuck in a lift with and why?
Dan Quayle, the former
US vice-presidential
candidate. He doesn’t
have a clue what he’s
talking about.
#Send your Work-Life Quiz to
tom.phillips@thelawyer.com
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.