by Dr. Iain
Corness
Peter Mewes is a successful lawyer advising the
engineering, oil, water and power construction industries, specializing in
contract advice and dispute resolution, and now resident here. He is also
someone who can prove to the satisfaction of any jury that not all lawyers
are born with mouthfuls of silver spoons. However, like all lawyers, he
came to the interview carrying copious notes!
He is a Londoner, having been born in Camberwell, South
London, and his parents were not well off, having lost their chances for
higher education through WWII. He initially went to school in Peckham, a
fairly tough area of London, but by the time he was 8 years old family
finances were a little better and he was sent to Dulwich College
Preparatory school. “We were now living in a posh area and we were now
truly middle class.”
It was around this time that he met his great love, and
one that still enthrals him - soccer! This was so strong that when he was
due to move up to secondary school, he turned down Dulwich College because
they played rugby, and went to Alleyn’s School instead - they played
soccer!
Peter says he did just enough study to pass his exams,
but he was more interested in sport, art and music - and, of course,
soccer. He was even offered a trial as a professional footballer when he
was 15 years old, but it was not the time to leave home and go to the
north of England. His education was also streamed towards producing
doctors, lawyers and accountants, not artists or footballers.
When he finished his schooling he did not want to go to
university. “I wanted to work and liked the outdoors, so I got a job as
a seasonal gardener.” Raking leaves was not to be his future, however,
he had some friends who were studying law and thought he might give it a
try, doing a correspondence course in A level law.
Following this it was off to university for a 3 year
full-time degree course. There was not enough money in the kitty to be a
dilettante, so he worked many part-time evening and weekend jobs, from
raking the leaves again to being a ward orderly in a hospital. This was
also another watershed in his life. He had been playing semi-professional
football but with study and work he did not have enough time left for
training. “This ended my football career at the ripe old age of 21,”
he laughed.
After the degree course was completed and he had his BA
Hons Law, this was not the open door to the lawyer’s offices. There was
another year to be done to become a solicitor, but he did not have enough
money, so it was back into the workforce, doing two years in government
service and then cramming a 12 month course into weekends and evenings
while he worked part-time.
He was then 27 years old and was a trainee solicitor,
receiving his lawyer’s certificate two years later. It had been a long
hard road, but it was not over yet. It was just the beginning.
He joined a top London city firm and began to
specialize in construction law. The work was interesting and the hours
were long, but he was finally able to take a real holiday, without filling
it with part-time jobs. He was 31 years old, an age where many lawyers
have already been reaping the rewards of a decade of professional work.
The holiday was, he felt, long overdue.
Peter continued with his law practice, but with its
success came the downside. He was working 12 to 14 hours every day and
could see his health and fitness deteriorating. But he was on that
treadmill and it would be difficult to get off.
The next event in his life, another watershed, was
probably serendipitous, but was momentous in its consequences. He had
purchased some property and he was approached by a developer who wanted to
make a larger development. The initial offer was unacceptable, but the
property developer continued. He thought that the lawyer would be a
push-over, but Peter Mewes had been working professionally with some of
the toughest nuts in the construction/development industry. When the deal
was finally done and dusted he had realised five times the initial value
of the property. He had also realised a large sum of money, for the first
time in his life. “I was 37 years old and approaching my mid-life
crisis, and it (the money) changed my outlook on life.”
He admitted to himself that he was not happy, quit his
job and took a holiday to soul search. He decided that he was never going
back to the day to day grindstone, but would work as a consultant, which
he did successfully for many years. He was also going to do things outside
the legal field. He then took an Asian holiday which was supposed to
include Penang, but fortuitously ended up in Pattaya instead! The
experience would bring him back many times, until he eventually came here
to settle one year ago to provide a legal consultancy to industry on the
Eastern Seaboard.
“Pattaya helped me find art and music,” he said
enthusiastically, and indeed you may just find him singing and
entertaining at night, just for the sheer fun of it. “I love to watch
people stop, listen and then come in for a drink! It’s nice to have some
pulling power at my age.” Regarding art, he commissioned paintings here
and sold them in the Middle East but then began painting himself, going so
far as to have personal exhibitions in the UK.
For Peter Mewes success is not money in the bank, but is an inner
contentment with one’s self, an aim he now works towards. You get the
feeling, talking with him that he has passed his mid-life crisis with
flying colours, and he now enthusiastically seizes every day.
