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About the Society

 

RICHARD PATON

is elected

President

of

Liverpool Law Society 2009-10

  Richard Paton


I was born in Hove (yes, actually) in February 1947 (during one of the worst winters in living memory) and my early years were spent in East Sussex. My father was a Partner in what is now PKF (UK) LLP, based in the City of London. To moderate his commuting, I was packed off to boarding school (Ashdown House, in Sussex) at the age of seven and from there went to Radley College, near Oxford, where I specialised in Classics and English (thus the reference to Greek verse in my speech at the Annual Dinner).

From Radley I went to Clare College, Cambridge to read Law, and met my wife Shân. Whether there is any connection between this last fact and my having only achieved a “Desmond” (2.2) degree in Law I leave to others to judge, but my children think it’s hilarious.

I started my Articles at Slaughter and May in London in 1970, and Shân and I got married in June 1970: I remember vividly my Principal grumbling that he had to buy us a wedding present. I stayed with Slaughter and May, doing company and commercial work, until 1977, during which time our two daughters (one now a solicitor and the other a GP) were born. We were living in Central London, and weekend commuting to my family in Sussex or to my wife’s parents on the North Yorkshire border became tedious.

So we sold up in London and moved to the house in South-West Cheshire where we still live, and where our son (now an Army Officer) was born in 1980. I joined Alsop Stevens Batesons & Co (as it then was) in Liverpool in 1977 and became a Partner in 1981. I left DLA (as it had become) in 2002 and joined Hill Dickinson, still doing company and commercial work.

I have been a member of the Law Society Standing Committee on Company Law since 1983, and have recently been heavily involved in consultations on the new companies legislation and its implementation, together with its extension to limited liability partnerships. Part of my time is spent on internal work within Hill Dickinson, dealing with compliance, regulatory and contractual issues.

Away from the office, I enjoy walking, gardening, photography and the arts, as well as entertaining our three grand-children when they come to stay.

My other main external involvement is as a member of the Court of Assistants (roughly equivalent to the Board of Directors) of the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company, one of the ancient Livery Companies in the City of London which has its Hall in Coleman Street, London EC2.