Karl Brown

Meet Karl Brown who, after graduating, spent time working as a paralegal, before completing a training contract with Porter Dodson. He joined Clarke Willmott LLP in 2005 and is now a Partner in the Commercial Property team.

University life and experience

Karl decided to study at the University of Hertfordshire after visiting an Open Day. He was initially impressed by the facilities, the friendly students and staff as well as the diversity within our community. He says, ‘I felt that studying amongst different nationalities would enhance my student experience and enable me to develop an understanding of different cultures.’

Throughout his studies, Karl’s love of the subject was encouraged and fuelled by the excellent teaching and support he received. The diversity of the modules also enabled him to explore different areas of law and their application to businesses.

He says, ‘The best thing about my course was that it gave me the knowledge in core areas of law such as contract, property and tort, but also allowed me to study business course modules alongside my law modules. The business course modules were useful as they confirmed that I would eventually want to work for commercial clients in a commercial law firm.’

Future aspirations

Karl is a partner in the Commercial Property team specialising in the acquisition and disposal of development land. However, he also enjoys his work as a social mobility ambassador for the Law Society of England and Wales. In 2019, he launched the Bristol Property Inclusion Charter which is a vehicle to increase diversity and inclusion in the Bristol Property industry/sector and is the first city property inclusion charter in the UK.

Karl was recently awarded fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in recognition of his work in trying to boost social mobility.

The RSA was founded in 1754 and its mission statement is to bring positive change to the community through innovative ideas, pioneering research and thought leadership. Fellowship of the RSA is very prestigious and notable previous fellows of the RSA have included Benjamin Franklin, Charles Dickens and Stephen Hawking.