David Owens

I joined Sharpe Pritchard from a large international firm in the City, and I’ve now been here for about eight months. I’d enjoyed working at my previous firm and gained some great experience, but it had become increasingly clear to me that, now that I have a young family, I didn’t want to be travelling frequently and chasing international work. I’d also started to feel a little anonymous in such a big organisation, and wanted to be part of a firm where I could get to know everybody.

One concern with moving from a big firm to a much smaller one is that the quality of work you do might suffer, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. With Sharpes we work on many very high profile matters, and I’m involved in several multi-million pound disputes. The work is interesting and challenging, and as many of the clients are public authorities there’s the sense that you’re working for the community.

Its also a very friendly and collaborative place to work. In some firms partners are very protective of the work they’ve won, leading to an “eat what you kill” system and very siloed mentalities. In contrast during my first couple of months here I’d been referred work from colleagues across the firm.

In short, I’d highly recommend working for Sharpes!