Alexander Carter-Silk, a partner at Speechly Bircham, acts for the luxury shoe brand Gina, which accepted £100,000 plus £150,000 court costs in settlement from Moda in Pelle, which was selling copies of its shoes in retail and internet outlets.

What were the main challenges in this case and the possible implications?

Explaining about the law to designers and about design to a court is challenging. However, the biggest challenge was ensuring that the original shoes came back to the office after they had been borrowed for the occasional glam night out.

What was your worst day as a lawyer?

Sitting in a cab looking at my BlackBerry for details of my next meeting, requesting the cabbie to take me to “Waterloo”, and being overcome with horror realising that this was “Waterloo, Belgium”.

What was your most memorable experience as a lawyer?

Becoming a partner the day I qualified as a solicitor — I am not sure if this was a reward or a punishment. In terms of cases, reading the Court of Appeal judgment in Reed v Reed (trademarks) and realising that, after months of fighting my corner, my original opinion was vindicated.

Who has been the most influential person in your life?

I owe an enormous debt to my friends and colleagues at the Bar who have been patiently willing to share their knowledge and experience and who have even run my more left-of-field points and won some of them. If I have to pick one person it would be Tony Leifer, my former head of department at DJ Freeman, who, apart from being a very astute lawyer, has an unshakable belief in the best of everyone and is a role model for how I imagine a lawyer should be. When he would say: “I mean this in the most loving way”, I knew I had really screwed up . . .

Why did you become a lawyer?

Being admonished by a High Court judge is a lot less painful and has less direct impact on life expectancy than manhandling a screaming race bike on a race track amid a bunch of wild-eyed lunatics with no sense of their own, and even less concern for anyone else’s, mortality.

What would your advice be to anyone wanting a career in law?

You will get well paid but you’ll earn every penny. The emotional financial and cerebral rewards from the law come with a big personal price tag. Choose your partners because you want to work with them, not because it is the highest financial reward.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Paying school fees, growing old disgracefully and continuing to enjoy my extended childhood. As my daughter said when asked if Dad was having a mid-life crisis: “No, he just never grew up.” I can live with that.

l_tsang@hotmail.com

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