Getting to know... Phil Gregory

In the latest instalment of Bdaily's Getting to know feature, which looks at the person behind the business profile, Phil Gregory, a commercial property partner based at Square One Law's Leeds office, talks about his path into the legal sector, the joys of family life and why nothing is really a secret any longer...

We know you as a commercial property partner at Square One Law, but who is the person behind the title? Tell us a little about what makes you tick...

A large part of my life revolves around family and, particularly, my two teenage daughters. 

Aside from family, my two main passions are sport and music.

I am an avid, determined (but slowing!) runner and enjoy regularly getting out running and racing if I can.

I will happily play and watch most sports, and am a lifelong Nottingham Forest fan (I was born in Nottingham before coming up to Leeds to university).

In addition to that, I love all sorts of music, mainly indie, pop, electronic and more.

I still regularly go to gigs – ideally small venues and random low-key bands most people have never heard of.

Did you always want to work in law? 

At school, I think my initial hope was professional football.

That morphed into sport and the idea of being a PE teacher.

In the end, I think my family connections with law (my grandpa was a solicitor at a local firm) probably guided me down the legal path, and I decided to do a law degree. 

I was still thinking about a history degree, but the sensible boy in me decided law was a better career option.

What’s the best bit about your job? And the worst? 

The best thing is meeting new people and developing new relationships.

You get the option to meet all sorts of different people in what we do, and have the chance to spend quality time with people learning about them and their businesses. 

Working with people over a long period of time and seeing businesses develop and grow is always a pleasure. 

And I still get a kick out of winning a new piece of work and starting off on a new journey with a new client. 

Working with the people in our teams at Square One Law is also a highlight, especially when you see members of your team develop and grow.

In terms of negatives, I think it must be linked to pressures we are often under to deliver in short timescales, and the never-ending rollercoaster of dealing with, and responding to, emails.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement? 

It has to be my family. I am most proud of my wife and two kids and the life we have together. 

I am probably at my happiest when we are all at home at the weekend and we are all just knocking around together in the house – even if I do end up being the butt of most of the jokes and being heavily outnumbered by a gang of women!

How do you relax outside of work? 

Family time and exercise. 

You can’t beat a nice long run to wind down and de-stress, especially when followed by some quality family time and perhaps a nice meal out with the gang. 

I also enjoy music and sport, and watch it on the TV or live if possible.

My oldest daughter has really got into football and we seem to spend a lot of time at weekends heading out to watch a women’s football match.

What makes the North such a great place to live and work?

I think we get a great balance of being able to live and work in large cities (in my case Leeds) where there is so much going on, high-quality work and people, and decent connectivity (though we know that could be better!), but at the same time we have the wonderful countryside on our doorstep and can be out in the middle of nowhere in not much more than half an hour.

To have the ability to work in a large city hub, but get out in the Yorkshire Dales or to the North East coastline in no time at all is a wonderful thing. 

The sense of humour up here is pretty good too.

Tell us something about you we didn’t know... 

When you get to my age, there is usually a reason why things are a secret and people don’t know stuff about you. 

In my answers above, I have divulged more to people about myself than I have in many a year! 

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