Caroline Grimshaw talks to former Freshfields associate Alastair Vere Nicoll about turning his back on the law to set up his own private equity fund

If you are looking for a commercial lawyer who has gone to somewhat extraordinary lengths to achieve a life outside law, you need not look much further than Alastair Vere Nicoll.

In broad terms, the former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity associate's story is unremarkable – disillusioned lawyer attempts to escape from a profession that offers potfulls of cash but insufficient fulfilment. We have heard it before. But what is more unusual is that he now runs his own successful fund management company and got there via a 76-day traverse of the Antarctic. And, by the way, he has written a book about it.

Vere Nicoll is co-founder of Berkeley Energy, a private equity fund manager specialising in renewable energy infrastructure investments in developing markets. It is still early days for the company established in January 2008, but in December last year it achieved first close of €50m (£42m) on its Renewable Energy Asia Fund and is hoping to at least double that by final close at the end of this year.

Vere Nicoll concedes that he does most of the legal work, so from that point of view he has not really escaped law at all. But then it is a small start-up company, and he does a bit of whatever lands on his desk. "I go from ordering the bin bags and employing the cleaner to agreeing currency hedging – it's the full gambit," he says.

The variety is a long way from his days at magic circle giant Freshfields, which he joined as a trainee in 1999 at the end of the dot-com bubble. He is anxious about appearing disparaging about his former firm, but notes that it was a 'slog' for associates working their way up to the partnership, and that the hard work did not stop when you became a partner. He didn't want to become one of the ones who moan but do little about it. He wanted more. "I didn't want to be in just a legal role, but an entrepreneurial role which allows you to fulfil your financial goals and ethical ambitions."

The circuitous route by which Vere Nicoll arrived at a role that he says now fulfils his goals and ambitions could easily be mistaken on paper for one lacking in direction, and it is true that the direction changed a couple of times along the way. His achievements, however, so far have undoubtedly resulted from advance strategic planning.

Having left Freshfields in 2003, Vere Nicoll took an eye-watering salary cut to work as a part-time lecturer at BPP Law School, with a view to working towards achieving his first ambition of writing a book.

His second ambition was to undertake a major expedition, and it became obvious that the two could work hand in hand. Cue two years of planning, £400,000 of funding, a sabbatical and a four-man trip by kite and sledge across Antarctica.

The book, Riding the Ice Wind, followed and is published next month. In a notable endorsement, British adventurer Bear Grylls describes the trip as: "one of the longest, hardest polar journeys of recent years."

Two goals achieved – tick – but he found that the low wages of academia were no longer sustainable, and once again the strategising began. Vere Nicoll decided to start his own renewable energy business, yet returned to Freshfields' private equity team in June 2006: "My CV needed a bit of strengthening and to target setting up a renewable energy business I wanted to go back in at a higher level than when I left and try to do a renewables deal."

During his second stint at the firm he wrote a business plan and began networking with high-profile renewables professionals, leaving Freshfields a year and two months after joining, during which time he had pulled together the team that now runs Berkeley Energy.

While he may have escaped the slog, hard work is something that would definitely characterise the last couple of years setting up Berkeley Energy, combined with a risk factor that was never present as a private practice solicitor. Setting up a fund during one of the worst credit crunches in recent history is not for the fainthearted and, with two children to support, it's lucky Vere Nicoll also has an understanding wife. "I'm pretty exposed and I don't think any of my other colleagues would have taken the risks I've taken," he says.

But it is largely because of that willingness to take risks that he has found a mental and emotional buy-in with the company that was never present in private practice.

Vere Nicoll's ethical ambitions have evidently been achieved; the fund is investing in building renewable energy installations in Asia and, while raising money is the object, they are also "trying to help a problem".

But what about his financial ambitions? Well, the salary is not yet rivalling his private practice income and Vere Nicoll says honestly, "I earn less than half". Performance-related bonuses come in lump sums but are unpredictable, so you learn to live off the salary.

On the plus side, when you do get a windfall, because it hasn't already been accounted for in your day-to-day expenditure, it can be put towards something extraordinary. "It might mean you can pay off a mortgage."

Is this it for the time being? Vere Nicoll thinks so. He is excited about the book launch, hoping that it will appeal to those lawyers who dream of "casting off the buoys".

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