Rich Pemberton was a solicitor employed by the firm of Fabian Croft. Focussed and self-assured to the point of arrogance, he was the point of contact when Barlow Legal Services had the opportunity of carrying out some joint work, which led to him employing Alya Nazir who left Weatherfield for a six months secondment working in Dublin.
Rich's first contact with Barlows was not what he expected, when Adam Barlow delegated the task of looking after him to Alya while he double-booked himself to meet potential new client Rebecca at the Chariot Square Hotel. Meeting someone with a libido as strong as his, the two had a drink-fuelled meeting and agreed to return to the office for sex. In the meantime, Rich and Alya had been discussing the rules of engagement of their joint work and Rich found himself impressed with her due diligence and attention to detail, remarking that she was future partner material if ever he saw one. Rich wanted Alya to come to his firm and present her suggestions to his team, remarking that he would get his PA to contact hers and arrange a diary date, and not realising that Alya was the PA for Barlows and not a lawyer as he had assumed. Before she could say anything, Adam and Rebecca burst into the office in a passionate clinch. Rebecca quickly departed and Adam pulled himself together to try to take over the proceedings and chauvinistically instructed Alya to make the coffee. After the meeting, Alya chased after rich who had left his phone behind and apologised for misleading him about her position at the firm, though she was adamant that she had told no lies and admitted she was the glorified admin. She was taken aback when Rich offered her a trainee position at Fabians saying they were always keen to take on people like her who were keen to progress. Back in the office, Adam laid the blame on his fiasco firmly at her door and she quit on the spot, taking up Rich’s offer after impressing one of the senior partners at her interview.
It wasn't long before Alya poached Barlow's most important client for Fabians. After an argument and a sulk, Adam invited her back but to no avail, as she was thoroughly enjoying herself in a more professional environment and, moreover, working with Barlows, she had fun winding up Adam so much so that Dee-Dee Bailey was amused enough to remark that there was a growing attraction between the two.
Rich offered Alya the chance to learn more about corporate law but with the catch that it involved working in their Dublin office. Dee-Dee’s intuition was spot on, and Adam had found himself very attracted so the sparkier side of Alya's personality that he had provoked. He therefore set out to impress her with careful preparation of the firm’s joint case, and even Rich had to admit that Adam had gone much further into the details than he himself had yet achieved. However, any good feeling was dissipated when Rich made a poor joke about Barlows’ lack of a secretary and then put the cat amongst the pigeons by insisting that Alya and Adam work together on site on the case preparation. Alya was finding herself attracted to Adam and after several hours in close contact, the two could hold back no longer and kissed, just as Rich entered the office.
Not backward in expressing his opinions, Rich upbraided Alya in front of Adam for her lack of focus and professionalism, going so far as to openly question whether she was the right person to send on the Dublin placement. Afterwards, Adam sought out Rich to try and convince him that Alya’s professionalism was not to be doubted and he reluctantly heard him out. Adam’s words had their effect and Rich was happy to tell Alya that the placement was still on, putting the kissing incident down as a “misunderstanding”. A relieved Alya set off for Ireland soon afterwards.
List of appearances[]
2024