Board meetings of the Solicitors Regulation Authority could be about to get more colourful. Its latest appointment is a solicitor who can not only demonstrate the proverbial ability to organise a drink-up in a brewery, but one who is not shy of expressing outspoken opinions.

Step forward Tony Williams, who as principal of legal consultancy Jomati is regularly quoted in these pages.

Williams has seen many ups and one big down in his career. He qualified as a solicitor at Turner Garrett & Co in Surrey before moving to Coward Chance (now Clifford Chance), initially as a property lawyer and then as a corporate lawyer. He worked in London, Hong Kong and Moscow before becoming worldwide managing partner.

In 2000 he left for the same role at Andersen Legal, legal arm of the Andersen organisation – which collapsed in 2002 in the wake of the Enron scandal. For his role in the orderly dissolution of the English arm of the law firm, Williams won an industry gong as partner of the year.

‘After 30-odd years in practice it’s time I put my head above the parapet,’ he tells Obiter. ‘The next few years are going to be fascinating times for the SRA.’ We wish him luck. 

 

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