S2E8 – Meet The Team: Rob Fink

In this special episode, we’re joined by someone who played a defining role in Fenchurch Law’s early story: Rob Fink, co‑founder of the firm alongside David Pryce back in 2010. 

Rob reflects on the early days of building a specialist policyholder firm, the values that shaped its culture, and the lessons learned during nearly a decade helping establish Fenchurch Law as a trusted name in the sector.

Listeners will also hear the remarkable story behind Rob’s bold career pivot in 2018, when he stepped away from legal practice to focus full‑time on his new venture: Big Drop Brewing Co., now a globally recognised pioneer in award‑winning alcohol‑free beer. 

Transcript

Quick-Fire Icebreakers

Why Start Fenchurch Law

Dru 0:02

Hello and welcome to a new podcast series hosted by Fenchurch Law. The series aims to introduce every member of our offices in a short, informal podcast. Today I'm delighted to be joined by a special guest, Rob Fink. Rob co-founded Fenchurch Law with David Price in 2010 before leaving the firm in 2018 to focus on another venture, Big Drop Brewing Company, a company brewing some of the finest alcohol-free craft beers. A very warm welcome, Rob. Hi Drew, how are you doing? I'm very well, thank you. Glad to have you here. Um, so before we dive into the pod, let's start with some quick fire questions. Okay. Reality TV or documentary? Documentary. Podcasts or music for a commute? Music. Eat breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast? Breakfast for dinner. Have your life narrated by David Attenborough or Morgan Freeman? David Attenborough. Thanks very much, Rob. Um it's a great to have you on the podcast and thanks so much for taking the time to come in. I know I said in the introduction that this is this series introduces every member of our offices, but obviously you're a founding father of the firm, but um but not necessarily a colleague. So it's thank you so much for coming and taking the time. Question one is a question you're probably asked loads, but I think it's an important question. What was the spark for you and David starting Fenchurch Law?

Rob 1:15

It's a really good question. And I was trying to think about this as I came in because I thought you might ask me something like that. Um and I think to be honest, for both of us, there was a desire more than anything else to work for ourselves. I think the policyholder coverage, and at the time we used to do professional negligence claimant work as well, was important, but I think it was more about setting something up ourselves and trying to create something from scratch that was the inspiration.

Dru 1:40

Nice. And sorry, just a follow-up question: how long had you guys worked together when you started Fenchurch Law?

Rob 1:45

God, that's a good question. So Fenchur we registered the first entity 26909 LLP on the 26th of September 2009. And I had been travelling in 2008. I'd met David before that, 2006, probably 2006, so maybe I'd known him for about three years.

Dru 2:05

Oh, really? Oh, I so quite quite quite recent. I thought you guys had worked together for I don't know why, I just assumed you'd worked together for a long time.

Rob 2:12

No, I don't think so. No, I think I joined the firm where we met, which was called WHCG, which then became part of DAC Beechcroft, I think. I think I joined that in about 2006, because that was when I qualified as a solicitor. Yeah. And David was there when I joined, he just joined.

Dru 2:31

Right, I understood. And so back then, back in the sort of 2009 yeah. You're allowed to call it the olden days as far. Uh what was I? I was I think I was about 14. Uh was there someone who was keener on the idea than the other back then, between the two of you?

Rob 2:48

Um, it was definitely David's idea to start a business. That it was his idea, and he approached me and said, Did I want to join him in that venture? Um, but I think once we had decided on what we were gonna do, we we were both pretty excited about the the opportunity and what we were trying to do.

Dru 3:09

Yeah, I suppose you kind of have to be all in if you're gonna start with it.

Rob 3:11

You've got you've got to be all in. You you can't do something like that half-heartedly, I don't think. No.

Dru 3:16

No. I I think if you did, it wouldn't work.

Rob 3:19

It doesn't really work then, no.

Early Days And First Hires

Dru 3:20

So can you tell us a bit more about the early days? Um, so those sort of first maybe two years, first eighteen months. And am I right in saying back then it was a three-man band of you, David, and Donna?

Rob 3:32

So Donna joined later. So the first day, um, it was just me and David, and we took a serviced office in EC2. We were at the back of the Bank of England, and we deliberately moved there rather than stay in EC3 because we thought that by setting ourselves up as policyholder focused that the market would, to the extent that the market even knew who we were and what we were doing, would would would suddenly find us um persona non grata. So we went over to EC2, but actually we ended up moving back to EC3 pretty quickly because we knew that we we soon realized that we were very much a part of the insurance ecosystem. Um so it was me and David to start with, and then we hired a couple of uh one trainee and an associate or an assistant, and then I think Donna joined shortly after.

Dru 4:27

Right. And so those because obviously it's it's crazy to think the firm was just a startup and a small start-up back then, and now it's you know sort of become what it's become with the international offices and everything. But what was your personal highlight in the first five years?

Rob 4:44

So it was actually it was hiring those those two people. Uh shout out to Daniel Laycock and Jane Simpson. Um because it was at that point that I think we realized that it was a business. You know, I used to do quite a lot of solicitor's prof neg stuff and coverage stuff, so I dealt with a lot of sole practitioners, you know, there's many, many sole practitioners in this country doing very good work. Um but we wanted to build a business. Um and you know, one of the one of the characteristics, key characteristics I would say, of that is having employees. So doing that and saying, okay, well, we think we've got enough fuel in the tank to guarantee these people that we can pay their salaries every month was was quite a seminal moment. A seminal moment, a big step, yeah, for sure.

Culture And Christmas Parties

Dru 5:34

Yeah, nice. Um and now a slightly less serious question. Can you recall a favourite Christmas party when you were working here at Frenchurch Law? And if so, what did you guys do?

Rob 5:45

No, because I was drunk at all of the Christmas parties, so I can't really remember any of them. They they they they were good fun though. I think I remember that. That's why it's I don't know if you're still about to get drunk at Christmas parties.

Dru 5:58

No, it's well I'm looking at DJ Mike and I'm just gonna say paint chihuahua, but uh shout out to Toby. We can't we can't say much about it.

Rob 6:05

Do you know what? I've got a friend, I've got a friend who is a partner at I won't say the name of the firm, but it is a you know, it's a big national commercial firm. Um, they do do insurance work, he doesn't do insurance work, and he said that the partners of which he is one at that firm have now been on the training session that they are required to take, where they have to learn how to deal with their employees and their trainees and their associates to encourage them not to overindulge at the Christmas party. And he told me this, and I was just like, Yeah, we this is these are different times that we're living in now, I think.

The Spark For Big Drop Brewing

Dru 6:40

It's very very disappointing to hear. Um, so so we're moving away from from the early phone church law stuff because obviously your entrepreneurial spirit continued, and you've started your own beer company, which is which is mad. Obviously, it's a very, very different industry. What was the um again? I suppose the same question, what was the inspiration for doing that? What was the spark for starting big drop big drop brewing brewing company?

Building Alcohol-Free Beer At Scale

Rob 7:04

So yeah, this is a story that I've told a few times, and fundamentally, the so in the in the early days, the way that David and I would split the the work um would be that I would take on what is what was rather disingenuously called business development, and and he would do all of the complicated legal stuff because David is a far better lawyer than I ever was. Um and back in the olden times, business development largely consisted of standing outside the lamb in Leadenhall Market. Shout out the lamb. Shout out the lamb. I'm I'm gonna go there in about 20 minutes and somewhere else. Um and and I would drink copious amounts of um Young's ordinary with brokers and convince them to send coverage disputes away. And to be fair, that did seem to work, so you know, I was uh I was quite happy doing that. And there are definitely worse ways to make a living when you're in your 30s. Um, but then I had a baby, so I had my my wife and I had our first kid in 2014. That's right. So we were about four years into Fenchurch Law. We had, I think we had a few, I think we'd move to the Gherkin by then. Yeah, we'd moved to the Gherkin. Um, and as I always say, it's incredibly difficult to do your drinking of alcohol in the afternoon if you then have a baby at home. Because most normal people, air quotes normal people, if you enjoy a glass of wine, you would do your day's work, have a sandwich for lunch, go home, put your baby to bed or give them a bath and then have a glass of wine. Lovely, nothing wrong with that. However, if you've been propping up the bar at the lamb for four hours and you turn up at home, then unsurprisingly, your wife is not that keen on handing you said baby to bath, said baby, change nappy and put it to bed. Instead, you you get sent to the naughty step. Uh, and so I just I just knocked it on the head. So I didn't drink for about a year, so I stopped drinking completely, just so that you know you could be uh, and I don't want to sound too cynical about it, but so I could be a better father, no good parent, yeah, or more useful perhaps when you was home. Um and so I would go to the pub and drink two, I'd get I used to get two bottles of Beck's Blue, which you can't buy anymore, really. They've stopped selling it because it's so terrible, was so terrible, um, and pour them into a pint glass and then stand there drinking alcohol-free beer with all of the other brokers, or the all the brokers and underwriters and lawyers and stuff, because I couldn't go and stand there and drink orange juice or coffee for three hours, it's just nuts. So drank this alcohol-free beer, but came to the conclusion that it wasn't very good, and that actually maybe there was a market for good alcohol-free beer. So I thought I'd give that a pun.

Dru 9:49

Yeah, unbelievable. And I can wow it really resonates, I think. And it's it's wild because it's I think I think there is still a lot of sort of business done in the pubs and a lot of midday drinking that you see here on Lime Street and in the London Hall market, but I'd be curious to know how the change in percentage to how many of those are now alcohol-free as they as compared to 10, 11 years ago. Um, so wait, actually, I don't know much, sadly, about big drop. Do we do is it bottles or do you do sort of kegs with so we do all of it?

Rob 10:17

So we do bottles and cans and kegs as well. So you you can buy it on draft. There are pubs that will sell you a pint of big drop. Not as many as I would like, obviously, but they do exist. Um, and then we're in Waitros and Accado and yeah, various bars and restaurants.

Lawyers Versus Brewers

Dru 10:37

I'm gonna have to give it a go after this pod. I may regret this question, but as we approach the end of the podcast, who would you say has more fun, lawyers or brewers? Brewers.

Rob 10:47

I will tell you one thing for sure is that I am significantly less well off than I would be had I have stayed at Fenchurch Law. Um, but you see me in my jeans and t-shirt and plaid shirts, and I will go and have a drink with someone now, and then I'm gonna go and have a drink with somebody else. I'll do a few emails on the train and go to yeah, brewing conferences are better than insurance conferences.

Closing Banter And Sign-Off

Dru 11:13

But then the professional negligence conferences aren't interesting, Rob. What do you say? Um, well, final question then. And again, thank you so much for coming in. Really appreciate you um you telling the stories about the early days of Fenchurch Law. But when you go to the lamb, are we gonna be having a non-alcoholic or an alcoholic pint?

Rob 11:30

Alcoholic. I'm looking forward to a pint of ordinary. I haven't had a pint of Young's ordinary in the lamb for a long time. I don't come into London very often, so this is a bit of a treat for me now.

Dru 11:38

Okay, well I've got to go and research cases on estoppel. So on that. Oh, estoppel.

Rob 11:42

Is that the one that was a shield and not a sword? Uh yes. Yeah, look, that's like one of the four things about lore I can remember.

Dru 11:49

Well, maybe you could hang around and help me out. You don't want my help on lore, trust me. Um, Rob, thanks so much. Um, it's been great to talk to you. And uh yeah, well, wishing big drop brewing company global domination shortly.

Rob 12:00

Ditto to Frenchurch Law's continuing global domination. Thanks very much. Cheers, Drew.