Tim Taylor QC, a solicitor advocate specializing in complex international dispute resolution, and head of King & Wood Mallesons’ Middle East operations. He was interviewed by Parnika Chaturvedi, Counsel, King & Wood Mallesons Dubai.
How did it start?
I was and still am a farm boy: one of my earliest memories aged about 6 was being sent by my father to the front door to confront a bailiff with a pitchfork. That is actually the perfect way to thwart an Anton Piller Order without risking committal. Of course, we can’t tell clients that, but the experience seeded my future as a creative litigation strategist.
What’s the difference between the TT then and now ?
I used to be able to bench press my own weight, now I struggle to lift my own age.
Dubai
My good friend Vernon Flynn QC once said, ‘I like Dubai, it is sort of Essex writ large’. Of course, the climate is milder and drier, but otherwise he has a point, and of course Essex is the old Greenwich Meantime and Dubai is the new. Amongst the greatest cross-roads for exciting exotic high value disputes on the planet.
Advice to young lawyers
- Victory and Defeat Imposters both
- God Laughs When You Tell Him Your Plans
- Be a lawyer to have fun and because you give a damn
How Do You Handle Stress in General?
What Stress?
A particularly memorable instance
Where to begin?
Being tear gassed in court in Lagos – Enforcing Arbitration Awards in the Jungles of Borneo – literally. One on one audiences in the Sultan of Brunei’s palace. Being paid to find and rescue a damsel in distress from the tabloid press corps door-stepping her in Ubud, Bali (before its discovery by Australians). I could go on: people tell me I should write an autobiography, and I tell them the story of the couple in their late nineties who consulted a lawyer saying they wanted a divorce after 75 years of marriage. She asked ‘But, why now?’ – “We were waiting for the children to die” came the response.
What is still on your travel bucket list?
Eventually I quite fancy doing a sort of solo Thelma and Louise grand finale off some spectacular architectural or natural wonder somewhere in the world, to be selected by a group competition, like the name of our blog KWM Pulse – I still wanted her to be called ‘Bruce’ though.
