David Wilde was born near Manchester in 1957. After taking both a law degree and a post-graduate degree in law at Cambridge University, he took the Law Society’s Final Examination. As one of the few people to finish the Solicitors Accounts course with a wish to know more rather than less about accounting, he took a night school course at what was then Manchester Polytechnic and obtained the Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants whilst completing his two years training with a large firm of commercial solicitors in Manchester. He soon preferred close client contact and the opportunity to advise on a wide range of commercial matters to specialising in a narrow topic or working as part of a large team advising a remote multinational company. On qualifying as a solicitor in 1982 he moved to Lincolnshire, where he dealt with a wide range of commercial transactions and was a partner in a firm of solicitors in Lincoln for a number of years. The wish to experience business from the inside and a long-standing interest in computer law then led to a move to Nottingham and eight years working as in-house legal adviser to a group of computer software companies. After a further period in private practice in Nottinghamshire, David joined with Paul Mitchell to set up Mitchell Wilde LLP, a solicitors’ practice that gives effect to their shared vision of how high quality, cost effective and practical legal advice can be provided to businesses and their owners. In what spare time is left to him by his four children, David’s hobbies include transport history, singing tenor in his local church choir and trying to convince himself that he can still play badminton.