A day in the life of... Kemp Little’s Managing Partner and Head of Employment, David Williams

Amy Hambleton, RedLaw Director, asked David Williams of Kemp Little to give us insight into the daily life of a managing partner at a city law firm.

RedLaw: What time do you say good morning?

David Williams: 6am

RL: Best part of your job?

DW: Watching people progress their careers and develop is definitely what gives me the most satisfaction.

RL: Worst part of your job?

DW: I would have to say that it’s actually trying to avoid people who are determined to sell me stuff that I don’t want.

RL: Currently reading?

DW: …I’ve been working my way through Julia Donaldson’s books with my daughter; we started with the Gruffalo and now we are on Tabby McTat.

RL: Favourite restaurant?

DW: For me it’s not about the restaurant, it’s about the company, so my favourite place would be eating at my local pub with good friends.

RL: Favourite film?

DW: Closer to the Edge – it’s a documentary with Guy Martin about the TT races.

RL: Tipple of choice?

DW: A nice pint of bitter.

RL: How do you spend your weekends?

DW: I spend a lot of time at my children’s’ many sporting events and once those rounds are done ideally I will be socialising with friends.

RL: If you weren’t a lawyer, what would you be?

DW: I would be an architect – I love seeing buildings that have been designed well.

RL: What’s your proudest career moment/achievement?

DW: A ten year run without losing an employment tribunal.

RL: If you could go back in time 10 years, what advice would you give yourself?

DW: I would tell myself that everything changes, so don’t worry too much about the here and now.

RL: Describe the firm culture in 3 words?

DW:

1. Dynamic
2. Techie
3. Engaged

RL: The firm’s areas of growth for the next 12 months?

DW:

1. Financial services, particularly Fintech
2. Digital media
3. Data protection and privacy

RL: 3 things that most people may not know about Kemp Little?

DW:

1. We do yoga in the office – well actually it’s in the seminar room at lunchtime with an instructor who comes in.
2. We are often referred to as a boutique firm which sometimes people take to mean that we are small and only work for smaller clients, but in fact we are much larger than people think and work for many household names. We have over 50 fee earners and are still growing and we are working for over 10% of the FTSE 100 and 15+ of Fortune 500 companies, as well as many established and emerging tech and digital businesses. Beyond the law practice we have also set up complementary businesses to support our existing and new clients in other aspects of their business such as consulting (through Kemp Little Consulting) and legal process management (through KL Services).
3. About 46% of our commercial associates can write computer code – it’s an odd statistic, but it came up recently when we decided to see if our tech legal credentials were matched by our non-legal tech capabilities.

RL: What time do you say good night?

DW: Usually around 11pm.