Alan went to school at Kettering Technical College in Northamptonshire from where he was the first student to be accepted to go up to Cambridge University . As he was too young to go immediately up to the University , Cambridge offered him a scholarship to first study for a year at the British Institute in Florence. He then went up to Cambridge University to study law.

At Cambridge University ( Gonville and Caius College) Alan won the Senior Squire Scholarship in Law. He also was awarded a Senior University prize for being placed first in the law Tort exam . On graduating he was awarded the Tapp Postgraduate Scholarship in Law.
He has lectured at Stanford University with the American Law Institute on International Trade.

Alan is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales .
He first qualified as a foreign lawyer in Japan in 1991 and was also Chairman of the Law Asia Committee on Energy,
He has worked in New York with the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and was then a partner in Ashurst another international law firm for over twenty four years first in London and then as Managing Partner of its Asia practice. Currently he is Managing Partner of Simpson Kitchin LLP.
Alan is a non executive chairman of the property company AK Properties Investments Ltd and the trading company West Business Group Services Ltd .
He is also non executive director of a number of companies including Reox Limited the medical research company in which Oxford university is a shareholder and Thornbury Water.
Alan was previously non executive chairman of the quoted recruitment company SG Recruitment company ( formerly Healthperm Resourcing).