While at Oxford he acted and performed in a number of revues and plays including productions at the Edinburgh Fringe.
A scholarship from the Henry Malcolm Hubbard Trust[6] in 1971 enabled him to spend a year studying legal institutions in Montreal, Quebec, where he worked at the Pointe St Charles office of Services Juridiques Communautaires, the first community law clinic in Canada.
From 1982 to 1985 he worked as a freelance legal journalist and broadcaster, principally writing a weekly column for the New Law Journal.
[11] During this period the service had to handle high-profile surges of single issue complaints: these included those about pension mis-selling, dual mortgage rates, the Equitable Life affair, mortgage endowment mis-selling, “precipice” investment bonds, bank account default charges, and payment protection insurance.
Between 2010 and 2015 he was a member of the board of Ombudsman Services Ltd,[13] the dispute resolver for communications, retail energy, property and other consumer sectors.
[15] The Academy brings together the expertise of the medical Royal Colleges and Faculties to drive improvement in health and patient care through education, training and quality standards.
Following the collapse of the XL tour operator group of companies in 2009, which produced an unprecedented number of claims on the Civil Aviation Authority's ATOL consumer protection fund, the Authority commissioned him to review and report on lessons learned.
This followed the finding that Mastercard had infringed competition law in the setting of the transaction fees it charged to retailers.
The claim alleges that retailers passed on the costs of these fees to consumers in higher prices over a 16-year period.
On 3rd December 2024, Mastercard announced that it had "reached an agreement in principle", to settle the lawsuit for £200 million, subject to the Competition Appeal Tribunal's approval.
The charity supported the ending of the practice of anonymous donation, and emphasises the need to tell donor children early about how they were conceived.
He has contributed numerous articles and chapters to publications on law reform [27] administrative justice,[28][29] financial services,[30] and donor conception.
[31] He was appointed a CBE in 2007[32] He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from London Guildhall University.