Barrister Simon Myers is to hang up his wig and gown after almost three decades as a top lawyer.

Mr Myers, 50, of Gargrave, will leave the Bar in April and step back in time by concentrating on his family’s antiques business.

He has been a well-known and highly regarded barrister, representing hundreds of clients in the Bradford area for 14 years.

Brought up in Skipton, he began his legal career in London after being called to the Bar in 1987 and was a pupil of such notable QCs as George Carman and Baroness Patricia Scotland, a former Attorney General.

But the lure of Yorkshire was too much and he moved to Broadway House Chambers in Bradford in 1999, where he has worked from ever since.

Mr Myers, a Conservative councillor for the Gargrave and Malhamdale ward of Craven District Council, will now work full-time for the family business in Gargrave.

He said: “I have been very fortunate to do two things I love but you can’t do everything forever. I want to buy and sell antiques.

“I am also a councillor. It all takes time and you have got to be very focused when you are a criminal barrister.”

He will have more time to walk his dogs, Daniel, Amos and Samuel – all named after Old Testament prophets – across the moors.

Mr Myers said he would miss his colleagues at Broadway House Chambers and would miss going into Bradford every day.

He said: “Bradford is a great city and the people are very friendly, hospitable folk who deserve better than they have got.

“Broadway House is the finest chambers in the North of England and I have been so lucky to be there. The camaraderie among the barristers is phenomenal. We have a lot of laughs, which you need as a release from the unpleasantness of the subject matter you are often dealing with.

“Bradford has an excellent set of judges and the court staff are marvellous. It’s a lovely place to work.”

Mr Myers said financial pressures had meant a lawyer’s job had changed.

He said: “Things get pushed through in the interests of economy rather than justice.

“For old romantics like me, who really believe in the criminal justice system, to see these sort of pressures is very unattractive.”

He said his most frightening experience as a young junior lawyer was to drive George Carman’s Mercedes-Benz sports car from the Old Bailey and park it back at the chambers.

“I thought if I bumped his car my career would be over. Fortunately, I didn’t.”