Gary Senior was born in England, the country where he trained as a solicitor and built his legal career. His professional life developed within the English legal profession, which has long been organized around solicitors' qualification, regulation and professional bodies.
Senior completed an Honours degree at Durham University, a institution founded in 1832 that is among the older universities in England and has a long tradition of undergraduate teaching in the humanities and law.
He was admitted to practise in 1986 and became a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England. In England and Wales, admission as a solicitor is the formal qualification that allows a person to practise as a solicitor, and the designation reflects admission to the roll of solicitors.
Senior became a partner of Baker McKenzie in 1992 and served as managing partner of the firm's London office from 2003 until 2013, before taking on the role of EMEA chair. Baker McKenzie was founded in Chicago in 1949 and grew into one of the largest international law firms, with offices across Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East.
He later stood down as EMEA chair at the end of a three-year term, and he left the firm in July 2018 after more than thirty years there. In June 2020 the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the body that hears professional misconduct cases against solicitors in England and Wales, found that he had committed serious professional misconduct through his behaviour towards a junior colleague in a hotel room in 2012. The tribunal also found that he had improperly sought to influence the firm's internal investigation into the incident, and it imposed a fine of £55,000 with costs.
Senior also worked as a partner of TETHER.
Senior is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, the professional body that represents solicitors in England and Wales and supports the standards of the profession.
