Bar Select

Professional Experience

Peter has been involved with the legal profession for 30 years both as a solicitor, consultant and business manager. He began his career in a small firm in Henley-on-Thames, later moving to a Reading firm and finally to London where he qualified in 1983 with Lovells. He then moved to Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, returning to Lovells in early 1986 where he specialised in Intellectual Property. In late 1987 he joined Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong, moving to Singapore in mid 1988. In July 1990 he returned to the UK and established Rouse & Co solicitors.

Under Peter's leadership the Rouse firm grew rapidly into an international IP consulting business with 11 offices in 7 countries including China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Dubai, UAE. The solicitors' practice remained very much part of the Rouse Group; the name was briefly changed to Willoughby & Partners for regulatory reasons and is now known as Rouse Legal.

In 2000 Peter left his firm and pursued a number of business ventures and consulting roles, never far from the profession. In 2007 the American Bar Association published his book 'Every Relationship Matters', the first of its kind published by the organisation in response to demand from its membership.

As Chief Executive at 7 Bedford Row, Peter was responsible for administration and development of the business of Chambers and its members and learned a great deal about the workings of the Bar and the opportunities for growing the Bar's share of the market for legal services. His interest and experience in the application of ICT in legal services, collaboration and the evolution of the legal services sector are now channeled into the Bar Select service.