Twice half a life in international taxation

The United Kingdom is one of the few countries that retains a split legal profession divided between two categories of lawyers: solicitors and barristers. My decision to become a barrister was taken while working for a firm of solicitors before going up to university. One of the advantages of the split profession is that it allows a degree of specialisation and in my case that has involved half a life in international taxation. ‘Half a life’ because I have always spent part of my time in academia (and I hope that half of my life in tax advisory is still ahead of me).

First encounters with tax law arose from my father who was in turn an article clerk employee partner senior partner and consultant in a smallish firm of accountants from the time that he started his training in April 1936 until...