“This isn’t a sob story,” says Fieldfisher regulatory head and Brexit task force chief John Cassels. But having endured at the brink of personal catastrophe, his is not your familiar tale of London success.

Sitting down with Law.com U.K. affiliate Legal Week, he describes a life shaped by family tragedy, the struggles he encountered as a young gay man growing up in Scotland and, as a lawyer, the uneasy tension between winning business and calling out discrimination.