Paul started work in a Solicitors office in 1971 and after completing his articles was admitted as a Solicitor in 1980. He began in general practice dealing with a wide range of litigation, from commercial work for clients such as Butler Machine Tool Company, to property disputes, landlord and tenant, professional negligence, probate and personal injury claims.

He left general practice to become an in-house Solicitor for a major finance company and then a bank where he added asset finance, PFI, banking and consumer credit to his knowledge base. Persuaded back into private practice he continued to act for banks and finance companies, both drafting and litigating agreements for high value and sometimes innovative transactions.

After specialising for a few years Paul returned to general practice when one of his major clients closed down. The main focus of his personal work then shifted to Chancery and commercial litigation with trusts, including ToLATA and pensions, professional negligence, insurance, property and mortgages, partnership and shareholder disputes, probate and inheritance litigation, including capacity want of knowledge and approval undue influence fraudulent calumny mutual wills and proprietary estoppel cases. Paul also mentored a number of younger solicitors and trainees who dealt with a wider range of work including landlord and tenant, business tenancy renewals including mobile phone masts, leasehold enfranchisement, dilapidations, commercial contracts, banking and borrowing and insolvency. His reported cases include Evans v Cherry Tree Finance [2008] EWCA Civ 33 on the definition of a consumer, Dingmar v Dingmar [2006] EWCA Civ 942 on the interpretation of s.9 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 and Consolidated Finance v Collins and others [2013] EWCA Civ 457 on the financing of a bankruptcy annulment scheme.

Paul was accredited as a mediator in 2002 and became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2004 before becoming a Chartered Arbitrator in 2006. He wrote the rules and explanatory notes for a simplified arbitration scheme that started life as the Yorkshire Arbitration Scheme and has since been adopted by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. The scheme allows the parties to control costs and provides a three month timetable.

Paul retired as a Solicitor in 2013 to concentrate on his ADR practice. He is an active Mediator and Arbitrator. He is based in West Yorkshire but his mediations take him all over England and Wales.

In 2016 Paul went to Uganda with the Huddersfield Law Society to provide training on representing clients at mediations to the members of the Uganda Law Society. His lecture notes can be downloaded below.