Ashurst energy partner David Wadham co-led Ashurst's team advising China General Nuclear Power Corporation on the £18bn agreement to build Hinkley Point, the UK's first nuclear power station in 20 years. The UK government gave the go-ahead to the deal last month.

What was particularly interesting about this deal? I have been involved in the project for well over three years and there have been an extraordinary number of twists and turns, culminating in Brexit and the project review by the new Prime Minister, just as the investors themselves had finally concluded a deal. It has been fascinating to witness a very public deal from the inside.

Why did you become a lawyer? I studied French and German at university and was rather proud of the fact that I could speak three languages until I was struck by the number of people I met in Europe who could speak fluent English and also had a masters in nuclear physics or something equally impressive. After a while, I decided I had better get some sort of useful qualification. Accountancy seemed to involve working and studying at the same time, so I chose law.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career? My legal and commercial colleagues in-house at International Power, as well as many of my colleagues at Ashurst for the past 10 years.

What's your proudest professional moment? Probably closing the acquisition and project-financed expansion of Umm Al Nar, a huge power and desalination plant in Abu Dhabi back in 2003. I had ambitiously said we could do the work in-house and spent the next 15 months negotiating directly with the two sets of lawyers for the government and the funders, as well as various contractors. It was incredibly satisfying to close that deal and Phil Fletcher of Milbank put me up for an in-house award, more out of sympathy I think.

…and worst day on the job? As a newly qualified lawyer at Slaughters I got sent up to Aberdeen to advise on a disposal. The senior associate couldn't go and I was only supposed to be handling the disclosure exercise so only had a cursory read through the sale documentation. The client insisted on me taking everyone through the documents and he then shredded me in front of the entire room when I couldn't explain how the net asset adjustment worked. To make matters worse, I misread the departure board in Aberdeen airport and caused us to be summoned by name to the plane over the airport tannoy when we nearly missed the flight home.

Aside from your own firm, which lawyer do you most admire and why? If I had to pick one I would probably say Tim Pick (ex-Shearmans and now at Freshfields). He's a friend from Abu Dhabi days but has also been my counsel when I was in-house, and the opposing counsel on a number of Middle East deals since 2001. He is calm, bright and hard working.

What's your strongest characteristic… and worst trait? An ability to get most deals done. My worst trait is probably my tendency to zone out and gaze at my BlackBerry when I'm supposed to be listening to my wife, then trying to remember the last five words she's said – it drives her nuts.

What advice would you give to young deal lawyers starting out? Stay a generalist as long as you can.

What's the best part of your job? I derive a huge satisfaction from helping develop infrastructure that impacts on people's lives. I also enjoy working with different cultures and nationalities. I lived in Paris for two years and the Middle East for eight years and many of my clients are Asian companies.

What most annoys you about the legal profession? An inability at some point to exercise some form of commercial judgment on complex projects. Infrastructure will never get built if lawyers seek to identify every single 'what if the sky falls in' risk and then get someone other than their client to cover it off. It's rarely the extreme risks you've spent hours arguing about that come back and bite you.

What's the most unusual/shocking request you've ever had from a client? The request to strip an illegal provision out of a contract and put it in a side letter to "make it binding".

Most memorable deal you ever have worked on? Hinkley Point.

What is the daftest bit of corporate jargon you've heard? I don't know if it counts as corporate jargon but my clients on Hinkley always used the phrase 'chickens speak to ducks' when the two sides weren't on the same page. This has entered the Ashurst lexicon!

Do you see yourself having a career outside law? Not really. I used to harbour secret ambitions of a career in music playing the saxophone in smoky clubs, but three years of Monday nights playing in the basement of 16 Coleman Street as part of the Slaughter and May jazz band alongside luminaries such as Steve Cooke put paid to that.

What's your favourite item of clothing? I asked my wife what clothes I wear too much. She unhesitatingly replied my Dubai rugby sevens top from a decade ago and my paint-splattered brown board shorts.

It's midnight and you're in the office for the night – where's your takeaway from? If I've planned ahead, I've probably gone and got some sushi from somewhere round Liverpool Street earlier on.

Favourite boxset? The West Wing. I think the dialogue and the characters have stood the test of time. It seems particularly poignant watching it at the moment, as you're left with the feeling that any single member of the cast would make a better president than the two on offer this time round.