From legal advisor, through Criminal Barrister to Royal Navy First Sea Lord Fellow (2024–2026), John-Paul has enjoyed a distinguished career spanning the military and legal profession. An accomplished public speaker and advisor in International Humanitarian Law, including the law of weapons, John-Paul now works as a Barrister with Pump Court Chambers’ Civil Team in London.
Drawing on his experiences navigating warships, courtrooms and complex legal challenges, John-Paul shares his insights on leadership, resilience, communication and the parallels between military decision-making and the role of in-house counsel.
What took you from the Royal Navy and law into leadership and speaking?
I've always loved public speaking. I used to be wedded to my scripts and had all of my pauses and jokes pre-planned. However, at the Royal Naval College, during officer training, leadership is there from day one. In public speaking terms, this means letting go of rigid scripts, believing in yourself and becoming more fluid as an orator.
My break into public speaking as a career move was with a group of Durham University students on board HMS Bulwark. I was asked to run a mentoring program and, on the back of it, speak at a conference. From that, paid speaking gigs started coming in. People saw something in me that I hadn’t seen myself. I've done regular public speaking ever since. It's a big part of me now.
What do high-pressure environments teach you about leadership?
That you should regularly delegate the execution of tasks, but never the responsibility for those tasks; the more senior you get, the greater the risk there is of you becoming a single point of failure.
Two issues stem from leaders who can’t delegate. Firstly, you lose the capacity to pick up on emerging problems as you're too immersed in the day-to-day. Secondly, you're not equipping your juniors for more senior roles in the future. Know your business and delegate to the lowest appropriate level that you feel comfortable with - and then a bit more. This frees you up to make decisions in emergencies and deal with emergent issues while also developing your team.
Also, the debrief is often more important than the initial brief. Too many organisations overlook this, yet an ‘after action review’ helps you understand what went well and, more importantly, what went wrong and what lessons can be learned.
What does “staying calm under pressure” look like in high-stakes roles?
I believe leaders are developed rather than born, though an innate grain of leadership potential is required. Being calm under pressure comes with knowing your job, knowing yourself, and practice. That said, the classic swan analogy is true. Where I'm leading in a high-pressured environment, I’m calm on the outside. I force myself to speak more slowly because this has a physiological effect on autonomic responses and calms people in general.
However, if you were to capture an MRI of me in that moment, you’d see me paddling like hell under the water! It doesn’t help your team to see you doing that, yet nor does behaving inauthentically. You need to be yourself while demonstrating that you’re in control.
This only comes with experience and practice and it's something the military does an awful lot. We rehearse, we rehearse, we rehearse. In an emergency, there are immediate actions to take, and these keep you grounded. They’re designed to ensure, for example, that a 21-year-old person at the helm of a massive warship won’t be petrified and misinterpret an order during an incident.
For me, keeping calm means consciously slowing myself down to become almost theatrically calm. It settles me inside and assures the team that this guy knows what he's doing.
What has your legal career taught you about reading situations?
You never fully understand a matter until you’ve engaged with the people involved. Almost every problem, be it technical, criminal, political or anything else, is a people problem. It comes down to the first meeting with individuals and finding out what's really affecting them.
People might be spitting feathers over a problem when, in fact, the solution is simple. Often, people are nowhere near as aggressive as they might originally come across. They just need to be heard. It's very easy for a lawyer of any flavour, but particularly barristers, to simply read the papers and get stuck into the case. But until you speak to the people and see the human element, you'll never have the full picture.
Do you see parallels between your naval career and in-house legal roles?
Yes. I do advisory work on the law of weaponry. I meet with engineers and weapons designers and help them plan trials to get the evidence for legal reviews.
An in-house lawyer is like a ship’s navigator. You’re the person advising the internal client who is often senior to you. You need to plan in detail to take a ship through dangerous waters. The same applies in business and you bring your true value when things change.
At sea, the environment is always changing. As a navigator, you need to be able to give calm advice to the captain. As an in-house lawyer, you need to advise your senior management on how to safely steer your organisation through changing environments and challenging economic climates.
When public speaking, how do you adapt your message to different audiences?
There are two rules. Number one, don't change yourself. You can be the most competent person in the room, but your credibility will vanish the moment you stop being yourself. Stick to who you are and what you know.
Number two, know your audience. Do as much background work as you can and, if possible, arrive at the event early and speak to people in the breaks. That way, you can find out what’s on their minds and tailor your speech accordingly.
What themes would you like to focus on in the future?
AI is a game changer, but only if we give our teams effective and secure AI tools. Organisations should help their legal teams to help the business by making sure they’re investing in the most appropriate tools. I also plan to help in-house lawyers make the most of their leadership style and help teams understand how to be led.
This, along with knowing how to help your leader, is a distinct skillset. I think it’s important for in-house lawyers to understand that they’re not decision-makers and also, that no should never, or at least rarely, be the first answer – we are paid to solve problems, and all reasonable avenues should be explored before giving final advice.
How do you relax away from work?
I love surfing, horse-riding and occasionally skiing. I especially like to get out and about with my children and get them in the water with me.