Mini Biography – Alexander Nissen KC

Alexander Nissen KC, Head of Chambers

For me, Oxbridge was never on the cards as I wasn’t going to get the grades. I had always had it in mind to try to become a barrister and so it never entered my thinking that not going to Oxbridge might stop me doing that. So, instead, I went to Manchester Uni, a great city and a fantastic place to study law in the early 80s. Little did I know that my contract and family law tutor would later become Dame Brenda Hale, with another of our lecturers, Andrew Burrows, also now sitting as a Judge of the Supreme Court.

My eyes were opened to so many different areas of the law, including administrative law, conflict of laws, employment law and the law of intellectual property. With some hard work, I got a good upper second degree which was enough to qualify for the Bar Vocational Course. Construction law really didn’t feature in my thinking until I applied for pupillage when it sounded like an interesting thing to do. How right I was. Keating was recommended to me as a good set to try for, so I applied and made it through the selection process.

My student time in Manchester has stood me in good stead and I am still very fond of the place. About ten years ago, I was appointed to decide a defects dispute at a hearing taking place in a brand new, high-rise office block in Manchester City Centre. Nearby, the grotty backstreet pub where I used to drink in my Uni days had gone. We had both moved on.