Q&A with Nick Emmerson: deputy vice president of the Law Society

Nick Emmerson is the deputy vice president of the Law Society of England and Wales and a partner at Lewis Mathys Emmerson LLP.

He’s a specialist in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and international capital market transactions.

Nick trained in the City (Denton Hall). Once qualified, he moved to Tokyo where he was a founding member of the Herbert Smith office.

He returned to Herbert Smith in London and later joined Eversheds.

At Eversheds he became a partner and worked in the City, Leeds and China, where he founded the Hong Kong office and managed the Shanghai office.

Nick has been admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland and as an attorney at law in the state of California.

How many years have you been a Law Society Council member (and for which constituency)?

I’ve been a council member since 2015 for the city of Leeds.

What other roles have you held at the Law Society?

Membership of the Board, Audit Committee, and Scrutiny and Performance Committee. The latter being the most fun as your job is to be nosey.

What motivated you to stand for election, and what are you hoping to achieve in your three years in office?

The Law Society is our national professional body and our international representative body.

No other body looks after the interests of our entire profession.

The Law Society cannot sit in splendid isolation behind the grandeur of Chancery Lane.

My aim will be to fling open its doors and invite our entire profession home, both physically and virtually. If you do not like what you see, tell me.

Give us one great piece of advice you've received

I am going for a quote that I recently picked up from the actor Matthew McConaughey: “Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time.”

A bit more realistic than always being told that your dreams will come true.

What book is on your bedside table?

No books; a TV remote control. I spend all day reading and it is the last thing I want to do at night!

Favourite city?

Fukuoka in the southern island of Kyushu, Japan.

I lived there for two years. Between the mountains and the sea with great people and food.

Try Motsunabe if you ever go but probably best that you do not ask what is in it!

Any pet peeves?

A bit random, but tractors on dual carriageways!

Do you have a role model, or is there someone you admire, and why?

Blair and Obama in their first terms. They gave people hope.

What do you consider the biggest challenge facing our members in the City?

As a profession, we tend to define ourselves by geography. Look at Chambers and Legal 500.

Brand 'City' is strong, but the extent to which that badge remains relevant when sat working from home is going to be interesting.

In rare moments of calm, how do you relax?

My village set up a cycling group during lockdown and I was pressured into joining.

I cheated and got an electric bike, so I enjoy bombing around on that, pretending to pedal.