The Court of Appeal disagreed and re-iterated the But he wanted to provide details and acts of alleged orthodox position that parties should be held to their misconduct which would identify third parties and, whilst bargain. It said that: there was a legitimate public interest in the due performance of large firms of their social and moral …this is not a case where there is an obvious duties to their staff, that did not justify, inequality between the status of the parties, since there is a well-resourced claimant on the one hand, …indiscriminate disclosure of otherwise sensitive and media defendants on the other, each of whom confidential information which others have a entered into the settlement with the benefit of legitimate interest in keeping confidential. A general separate expert legal advice, after a substantial desire to talk publicly about the ‘culture’ of a large firm negotiation conducted through lawyers. Further, the is not enough to justify the disclosure of such details. courts would not review the fairness of the parties contractual bargain, either at law or in equity, unless These recent decisions tend to indicate that, where there are grounds which might cast doubt on the disclosure is intended to be in the media, the courts will reality of contractual consent, such as fraud, undue not resile from the orthodox position that, in cases where influence, misrepresentation and mistake – and this confidentiality is protected by contract, there needs to be is not suggested here. proper grounds to vitiate the contract on the basis of a genuine lack of consent. Where there are no such The decision in Mionis was followed in ABC v Telegraph grounds to cast doubt on what the parties said they Media Group [2019] EMLR 5, the Philip Green case. The understood, particularly where they had independent Court of Appeal allowed an appeal from the decision legal advice and may have another avenue of complaint below refusing an injunction to the Arcadia Group and Sir (for instance to a regulator), then a desire to discuss one’s Philip Green to prevent publication in The Daily experiences after having waived such rights and received Telegraph of non-disclosure agreements agreed in the a benefit in return, even on matters of legitimate public context of settlement of complaints or claims by concern, is likely to be insufficient to justify disclosure to employees, under which substantial sums of money were the world at large. paid to and accepted by the employees. It held, following Mionis, that there was a public benefit in the enforcement of contracts and, where a NDA had been entered into with legal advice, the court would be slow to refuse to enforce it as disproportionate in an article 10 case other than on ordinary contractual grounds. Of course, the court was only holding the ring until the issues could be resolved at trial. That was so until Lord Hain intervened. In Linklaters LLP v Mellish [2019] EWHC 177, Warby J followed the Prince of Wales’s case and Mionis and granted an interim injunction to restrain an ex-employee from disclosing information to the media obtained from and relating to his employment and where he was subject to confidentiality obligations in his contract. Mr Mellish said he intended to ‘share my impressions of the current culture at Linklaters’ with particular reference to what he said was the ‘ongoing struggle Linklaters has with women in the workplace’. Should those who have waived their rights to freedom of expression by contract nonetheless be allowed to change their minds and tell the world of their experiences? 2019 Middle Templar 99
FIRST 100 DAYS AS DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS MASTER MAX HILL First 100 Days as Director of Public Prosecutions Master Hill was Called to the Bar Getting to know the CPS in 1987, appointed a Recorder in 2004, took Silk in 2008. He was When I arrived in the CPS, I found, across the Chairman of the Criminal Bar organisation, exactly what you would wish for, namely: Association 2011-12 and Leader of dedicated, committed people determined to do right. the South Eastern Circuit 2014-16. That impression did not change during my first 100 days, He was the independent Reviewer and has not changed since then. I continue to be of Terrorism Legislation 2017-18. impressed by the quality, and the breadth, of the work He was Head of Chambers at 18 Red our 6,000 staff do. Lion Court and was Chairman of the Kalisher Trust and former Chairman On taking up post, I set out that my aim was to build of Trustees and current Patron of public confidence and trust in that work – and that I London children’s charity Scene and would do this by focusing on CPS people and our Not Heard. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was casework. appointed as DPP and took up post on 1 November 2018. He was made a Bencher in 2012. I want to support CPS people – in their work, their careers and their wellbeing. Therefore, in my first days, weeks Two ministerial meetings, two speeches, two phone calls and months as DPP I have focused on getting to know my open to all Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) staff, two new colleagues and the work they do. I have visited media interviews. In my second full week as DPP, many different teams around the country and I try to make a things seemed to be happening in twos. Only one House phone call to a different colleague every day. The number of Lords committee evidence session though, so perhaps of these conversations is well over 100 at the time of they were going easy on me. writing. I was very pleased to learn more about the diversity of the CPS (we are already a leader in this area I was relieved to see it was not three of everything in week but also continuing to improve) as well as the inclusive three, but that did not indicate a slackening of pace. culture, which gives everyone the opportunity and Those first weeks, the first 100 days, the first nine months I support to succeed. have experienced as DPP as I write this – they have been busy, challenging, rewarding and more. When I was Hearing about my new colleagues’ work was valuable, appointed, I said I felt honoured; that feeling has only but to fully understand the CPS I needed to see it in grown as I have gotten to know the CPS from the inside. action – and to get involved. Day two as DPP saw me observing in Bromley Magistrates’ Court. After many years absence, I was reminded just how hard everyone works in the magistrates’ court, and the technical challenges we all face when presenting a list of cases at one sitting. I was particularly impressed by the level of professionalism shown by all. On day 20, I went a step further, prosecuting a morning list at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court. This was something I had not done for more than 20 years and, I’ll be honest, it was a bit of a shock. Although there was a great deal that had not changed (many of the same summary offences and the ways in which they are committed are the same as before), what struck me was the entirely paper-free system, demonstrating the technological progress made in recent years. The Crown Court has of course been my more recent habitat so I felt it was less urgent for me to return, but I did want to experience things from the CPS perspective. So in February I headed into Guildford Crown Court (coincidently, where I defended my first jury trial in 1988) to prosecute three Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing cases. The experience further increased my admiration for our prosecutors who juggle multiple cases and our systems all day – it isn’t easy! 100 2019 Middle Templar
On taking up post, I set out that my aim was to build public confidence and trust in that work – and that I would do this by focusing on CPS people and our casework. Casework The package introduced in September 2019 will put more money in the pocket of every single barrister who As DPP though, my role in casework is of course much prosecutes for the CPS. It is the best outcome for less hands on and so I have focused on what I can do to prosecution advocates in 20 years – it is unprecedented, support our teams to deliver the highest quality of and it is the result of months of work by my team at the casework. That involves a range of activity, but crucial is CPS. As I write this the wider review continues, and will leading work with our partners to address the challenges lead to a business case for wider reforms. we face. So in my first 100 days I was, inevitably, quickly involved in the National Disclosure Improvement Plan The issue of prosecution fees has dominated our work with the police. interactions somewhat in recent months. That is understandable, but we must also be able to work Indeed, in that busy week two I mentioned at the start, collaboratively to address other issues of shared interest one of the ministerial meetings was the Attorney and I look forward to us doing so. General’s roundtable discussion on disclosure, one of the speeches was to our annual disclosure conference for Building confidence prosecutors and police officers, and disclosure was certainly raised in the media interviews. My immediate The CPS is one part of a complex criminal justice system, attention on this issue was of course vital, but I was also and in some ways, we cannot control what we do. We are keen to ensure we focus on all elements of casework a demand-led organisation that must consider every case quality, right through from the investigation to court – the police put to us, and prosecute where our test (The and that work continues. Code for Crown Prosecutors test, as re-issued in the 8th Edition, October 2018), is met. However, we can and we The Bar must engage with other parts of the system – and beyond – to ensure the whole works as well as possible. That has Of course, it is not just the police and CPS who play a role been a key feature of the start of my time as DPP, and I in our casework, as I know well from my own career. The am sure will only increase. CPS relies on the significant contribution of the external Bar to the service we provide to the public, and I found I said I wanted to build confidence in the CPS. That is not people were keen to seek my view on this relationship something that can be achieved overnight, or even in 100 early in my tenure. I was quick to stress that I wanted to days, but I am positive that we are making progress and, continue the effective balance that was struck by my crucially, that we will continue to make progress in the predecessor in terms of internal and external advocacy, months and years ahead. and that I wanted a strong relationship between the CPS and external Bar. Having moved personally from the self-employed Bar to the CPS – some way into my career, admittedly – I can see clearly the benefits of connections between the two, and indeed the disadvantages if the two exist in vacuums, unaware of the abilities, experiences and challenges of the other. An early challenge for us all was the review of prosecution fees, which started soon after I took up post. We listened carefully to the concerns raised by Bar representatives, and I was pleased we were able to address the priority areas – in some respects going further than requested – and reach an interim position with significant increases in the fee scheme and key adjustments to make our approach fairer. 2019 Middle Templar 101
BAR COUNCIL: 125TH ANNIVERSARY MASTER MARK HATCHER 125th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Bar Council Master Hatcher was Called to the Bar in 1978. He is Reader of the Temple Church and Special Adviser to the Chairman of the Bar. He became Director of Representation and Policy at the Bar Council in 2006. He has been involved in a number of parliamentary campaigns on behalf of the Bar and assisted in the creation of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Constitutional and Legal Affairs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was made a Bencher in 2013. This year provided an opportunity for the Bar to celebrate The prominent representational role of the Bar Council in not only the centenary of the enactment of the Sex promoting the interests of barristers, as well as the public, Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 but also the 125th to politicians, the media and the public at home and anniversary of the foundation of the Bar Council in 1894. It abroad was stressed by Lady Justice Hallett. Addressing was appropriate therefore that the keynote speaker at the an audience of lawyers (including several former Chairs of Bar Council’s celebratory event, generously hosted by the the Bar including Masters Bean, Doerries, Dutton, Corporation of the City of London at Guildhall on 9 July, Hockman, Lodder and Mansfield) as well as should have been Lady Justice Hallett, Vice President of representatives of the City, she recounted a series of the Court of Appeal and the first woman Chair of the Bar battles which the Bar Council had fought. in 1998. It had fought to defend the practice of law as a One hundred and twenty-five years may not seem a lot to profession, by promoting the professionalism of the Bar the Inns of Court but, as Lady Justice Hallett pointed out, and had improved diversity at the Bar. It had fought to they have been important years for the survival of the Bar preserve access to justice, foreshadowing the and the legal system as we know it: a system respected consequences of the coalition government’s legal aid throughout the world (if not always at home) for its changes of 2010, most of which followed with the integrity and excellence. From the beginning, the four enactment of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment Inns agreed to provide some funding for the Bar Council, of Offenders Act 2012. This resulted in widespread cuts in which they have continued to do albeit on a gradually legal aid impacting particularly harshly on the poor and reducing basis. vulnerable, as the Bar Council had warned and subsequent parliamentary inquiries have confirmed. During the early part of the last century the Bar Council grew in stature, maintaining the independence of the Bar The threats to the independent Judiciary and legal and defending it in its relations with the Judiciary and the professions here and abroad had been highlighted by the Executive, promoting law reform and providing rulings on Bar Council over the years and their support has been questions of professional etiquette and conduct, although most vocal recently when, after the judgment in the Brexit disciplinary control remained with the Inns, subject to appeal case was published, the headline appeared calling appeal to the Judges. the Judges ‘enemies of the people’. The period of post-war reconstruction, growth of the Lady Justice Hallett concluded that there had never been welfare state and the enactment of legal aid legislation of a more important time to have an overarching 1949 ushered in a period of growth of the Bar (now 16,500 professional body. It was needed to maintain standards self-employed and employed from increasingly diverse and integrity and to provide a voice that could be heard, backgrounds) as well as its professional body and changes for the profession and the public it seeks to serve. in its organisational structure. The current structure was introduced ahead of the enactment of the Legal Services Act 2007. This resulted in the separation of regulation of the profession (which was delegated to the independent Bar Standards Board) from representation of the Bar. 102 2019 Middle Templar
LIBRARY DONATIONS Library Donations The Library would like to thank the following people for their generous donations of books to the library: Amicus: Ximena Montes Manzano Jan Arriens (ed), A Crack in the Wall, 2018 Main Residence Relief, 2018 Sunny Jacobs, Stolen Time, 2007 Tolley’s Tiley & Collison’s UK Tax Guide 2018-19 Peter Pringle, About Time, 2012 Milan JN Meetarbhan Master Louis Blom-Cooper Constitutional Law of Mauritius, 2017 We have received a generous donation of books from the Master Andrew Moran & Anthony J Kennedy estate of the late Master Blom-Cooper Commercial Litigation in Anglophone Africa, 2018 Master David Bean The National Notary Association Injunctions, 2018 The Model Electronic Notarization Act, January 2017 Kieran Coonan QC Master David Ormerod Statutes 16-20 Geo3 1777-80 Smith, Hogan and Ormerod’s Criminal Law, 2018 Barry Denyer–Green Eric Prokosch Compulsory Purchase and Compensation, 2018 The Death Penalty in Japan - Report of an Amnesty Falcon Chambers International Mission to Japan 1983 The Electronic Communications Code and Property Law, Jamaica The Death Penalty, Report of an Amnesty 2019 International Mission to Jamaica, 1984 & a 1989 report on the Death Penalty in Jamaica John de Waal QC Peter Hodgkinson and William A.Schabas, eds, Risk and Negligence in Property Transactions, 2018 Capital Punishment: Strategies for abolition, 2004 Alisdair A. Gillespie Bill Pelke, Journey of Hope… From violence to healing, 2003 Alan Reed and Michael Bohlander et al., Homicide in Criminal Law, 2019 Michael L. Radelet, ed, Facing the Death Penalty: Essays on a cruel and unusual punishment, 1989 John Keown Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1949-53 Euthanasia, Ethics and Public Policy: Report An Argument Against Legalisation, 2018 The Death Penalty. Proceedings of Siracusa conference Professor Myles V. Lynk 1988. Revue Internationale de droit penal, La Peine de Mort The Death Penalty 58e annee-nouvelle serie, 3e et The Legal Papers of John Adams, 1965 4e trimestres 1987 McCormick on Evidence, 2013 2nd World Congress against the Death Penalty, Montreal, 2004 Report The U.S Federal Civil Rules Handbook, 2018 3rd World Congress against the Death Penalty, Paul Magrath Paris, 2007 Report Transparency in the Family Courts, 2018 Philip Rainey QC Service Charges and Management, 2018 Sundra Rajoo Law, Practice and Procedure of Arbitration, 2017 Master Guy Roots The Law of Compulsory Purchase, 2018 Master Paul Stanley Coke’s Booke of Entries, 1614 Master Eric Stockdale Blackstone’s Criminal Practice, 2019 2019 Middle Templar 103
VALEDICTORY MASTER IAN BURNETT Valedictory The Rt Hon. Sir Brian Leveson It was Lord Lane, I think, who coined the phrase ‘statutory later as a Deputy High Court judge before joining the senility’ to describe the phenomenon of a judge at the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in 2000. Brian’s height of his powers being required by Act of Parliament practice at the Bar remained mixed but was to retire. predominantly in Crime where he was recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the country. Still embedded Sir [Master] Brian Leveson will be 70 tomorrow, and so will in our collective consciousness is the trial of Rosemary retire as President of the Queen’s Bench Division, to the West, which he prosecuted. I am told I can’t mention deep regret of all who know him and have worked with another famous criminal trial in Liverpool. So I won’t. him. This gathering this morning allows us to pay tribute But can I just say this Mr Attorney? The CPS, which you to a remarkable judge, public servant and human being. superintend, applies the two tests of evidential sufficiency and public interest before prosecuting. It might be Now I know that for all Brian’s distinction as a barrister and thought that in a case that alleged tax fraud by Ken Dodd judge the most important thing in his life is his family. And before a Liverpool jury – in reality, a Knotty Ash jury – so, it is a particular pleasure for me to welcome many the threshold was unusually high? members of the family to join in the celebration. I also know from Brian that nothing he has achieved would have Brian’s achievements as a judge deserve a full biography. been possible without the support of his wife and his There is time only for a sketch. He was presiding judge on parents, siblings and children. the Northern Circuit 2002-05 and was appointed Deputy Senior Presiding judge in 2006 whilst still in the High And what achievements they have been. But a moment or Court. Promotion to the Court of Appeal came in that two on the history. Have any of you picked up before that year. He was Senior Presiding Judge of England and Brian is from Liverpool? His was a medical family. His Wales 2007-09. He chaired the Criminal Justice Council father was a distinguished psychiatrist who did a good 2008-11 and was the founding Chairman of the deal of medico-legal work. Brian, as I’ve said, was born in Sentencing Council 2010-13. He has sat on the cross- June, 1949 that is, and one might expect that his father government Criminal Justice Board for so long that would have been consumed with nervous anticipation and nobody can now remember when he didn’t. Brian became then devoted his time to his new born son. But it seems President of the Queen’s Bench Division in 2013 and in not. Now the internet is a remarkable thing. Perhaps Brian October 2017 it was my pleasure to appoint him Head was a noisy baby – that is entirely possible – and so of Criminal Justice. his father spent that summer writing a paper for the September edition of the British Medical Journal on He was deeply involved in developing the arrangements Aspirin Poisoning. Mr Attorney, for your note, 1949 between government and the judiciary following the BMJ 628. passage of the Constitutional Reform Act, which now govern our formal relationship. His 2015 Review of Brian was precocious. His brother has been quoted as Efficiency in Criminal Proceedings is a model of clear saying ‘He was a serious child, and was one of those analysis and practical suggestions – the best example, guys who, if he said he would do something, he did it perhaps, of a largely unnoticed reality: that the judiciary and did it well. Even if he wasn’t good at something he constantly reviews all that happens in our courts with a was always a trier. He always worked hard at everything. view to making improvements. He was no athlete (agreed his brother) – but he tried. The one attribute he’s always had is he has always been an extremely hard worker’. That sums it up, although I doubt there was much he wasn’t good at. Brian started life as a scientist – there was parental pressure to become a doctor. But his interest in the law developed and he won out in the debates at home and went from school in Liverpool to Merton College, Oxford to read law. He Chaired the Oxford Law Society and even then, developed a particular interest in Crime. He was Called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1970. He will be our Treasurer next year. Brian was pupil to Eric Goldrein, a hugely popular Liverpool figure. He then developed a mixed common law practice whilst at the same time lecturing in law at Liverpool University. He took Silk when he was only 36. By then he had already been an Assistant Recorder for two years. I believe that is a unique combination of professional and judicial early achievement. He then sat as a Recorder from 1988, 104 2019 Middle Templar
Since 2006, when Brian first joined the emerging Judicial Most of you will have endured the experience of Executive Board, he has made a greater contribution than telephoning a utility company, bank or insurer, for anyone to the strategic and practical management of the example, and the phone having rung a few times be judiciary. But he has also been an outstanding judge greeted with a recorded message saying that all the across the board but particularly in the Criminal Division of advisers are busy because of exceptional demand. It the Court of Appeal where there is almost no topic on doesn’t matter what time of day or night you call, there is which he has not given judgment. This body of judgments always exceptional demand. A jingle comes on, usually will continue to provide the basis of much that happens in very annoying, and then intermittently another recorded our criminal courts for many years to come. Whilst making message tells you how important your call is to the all of these contributions, and more, to the administration company concerned. After what seems like a life time, of justice Brian has run the Queen’s Bench Division with contact is then made with a human being. After enduring distinction. I should mention the endless time and trouble this experience recently Brian got to the stage where it he has taken with the judges of that Division during his six was necessary to give his personal details. Surname: years in that office. It encompasses a huge range of Leveson, Customer adviser: ‘Is that Leveson as in the responsibilities. No burden has been too great. inquiry?’ Brian: ‘I am afraid so’. It is rarely the fate of judges for one aspect of a judge’s For us, the Leveson Inquiry was one of the most career to eclipse all others in the public imagination. outstanding examples of judicial public service of our age. Public, I should make clear, rather than legal. It is usually But it was nonetheless an interlude in the course of a the fate of politicians but it may also be the reality for remarkable legal and judicial career. Sir Brian Leveson. I am confident that he is the most well-known, most recognised judge in the country May I finish on a personal note? During the last 21 months following his inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics Brian has provided me with the most remarkable degree of the press. The quite exceptional public service he of personal support and allowed me ruthlessly to exploit rendered in taking on that role should not be his experience, his knowledge and his wisdom. The carpet underestimated. He might have said no, although in my room has been worn out by Brian’s pacing up and resisting the blandishments of Lord [Master] Judge was down, round and round, hand on his head as we discuss never easy. But the furore surrounding some aspects of tricky issues. I shall miss that. I shall miss his bursting into the conduct of the press in the first decade of this century my room and saying, ‘I need to tell you something’. Or, reached such a pitch that the government needed to take fairly frequently the door opening, followed by the knock, action. Not for the first time, it was to the judiciary that with Brian then exclaiming: ‘Ian we’ve got a problem’. government looked to provide a calm, independent and Well Brian, we sometimes had and sometimes we hadn’t trusted review of difficult matters. Brian knew well that but what I and all his colleagues will miss most is his good whatever he said or did would be unlikely to please humour, his personal support and the daily evidence of his everyone, indeed very likely to please almost no one. friendship. But he took on the task uncomplainingly, rose to the challenge and endured the intense pressure that it Brian is not really the retiring type. I suspect that whilst his brought, perhaps, not with equanimity but with as much pace of life may slacken a little in the short term, he will good humour and good grace as could be mustered. soon end up almost as busy as he has always been. On Seven years on, it is remembered. behalf of the whole of the judiciary, Brian, we wish you well as you leave fulltime judging and look forward to watching the next chapter in your remarkable life unfolding. An extract from the valedictory given by Master Ian Burnett on 24 June 2019 Value proposition The process of buying, managing and storing Digital Assets is a tedious and painful experience. Digital Asset Management Ltd’s unique value proposition is to assist in buying, managing and storing cryptocurrencies and tokens in ways which align with regulatory principles. 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AUTUMN READING MASTER PETER MURPHY To Bury Shakespeare or to Praise Him? In search of the lawyer(s) of team shake-speare Master Peter Murphy’s legal career Since Greenwood’s day, the controversy has continued took him to the Bar in London, to the unabated, giving rise to extraordinarily strong feelings on United States as a law professor, to all sides. As an instance of the passion and anger the The Hague as counsel at the subject provokes, consider the Shakespeare Authorship International Criminal Tribunal for the Coalition (SAC) a non-profit foundation based in Former Yugoslavia, and finally back California formed, not to put forward any particular view home to England, where he retired as of the authorship question, but simply to establish it as a a judge of the Crown Court. He is now legitimate academic inquiry. In its account of itself on its an author. He has published two website SAC says – political thrillers about the American presidency, Removal and Test of The SAC does not advocate an alternative authorship Resolve; six novels in the Ben Schroeder series about a barrister candidate. We aim to establish reasonable doubt that in 1960s and 1970s London, A Higher Duty, A Matter for the Jury, Stratford’s William Shakspere [sic] was really Shakespeare. And is there Honey still for Tea?, The Heirs of Owain Glyndwr, Since there are good reasons to doubt Mr. Shakspere’s Calling down the Storm, and One Law for the Rest of Us; and authorship of the works, the issue should now be three collections of humorous/satirical short stories based in part regarded as legitimate in academia, and should no on his own experience on the bench, Walden of Bermondsey, longer be regarded as a taboo subject. This is the Judge Walden: Back in Session; and Judge Walden: Call the threshold issue in the authorship debate. The SAC was formed to focus on this issue. Next Case. It is a measure of the anger the controversy arouses in In the issue of August 5 and 12, 2019 (Dept of Dissent, true Shakespeare believers that there are many who Poetic Justice) the New Yorker reported on the eulogy would deny it that status. Two of the Coalition’s leading given by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the funeral of adherents are Mark Rylance and Derek Jacobi – two of Justice John Paul Stevens, and noted the apparent irony the great actors of our time. In 2011 they starred together of her quotation from Hamlet, given that Justice Stevens in Roland Emmerich’s film Anonymous, which promoted was a known heretic on the question of the authorship of the candidacy of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the plays of the Shakespearian canon. But the attraction the author. It’s a brilliant piece of film-making, but of this heresy to the legal mind is neither new nor predictably the film drew the ire of traditionalists. surprising. Justice Antonin Scalia was another recent heretic in the Supreme Court. The large number and high The most compelling argument for authors other than quality of legal references in the plays has always led William Shakespeare, the actor from Stratford-upon- some to ask whether the hand of one or more lawyers is Avon, is the sheer number and the consistent precision to be seen in these timeless classics, as opposed to that and accuracy of the references in the plays to the law. The of William Shakespeare, the actor from Stratford-upon- author (as I shall call him, or them, for the sake of Avon, the extent of whose education, incuding even a simplicity) had a formidable knowledge of many subjects, functional literacy, must be regarded as doubtful based ranging from ancient history and classical knowledge to on the available evidence. seamanship, military strategy and diplomacy, from philosophy to mythology, from falconry to espionage, Justice Stevens was not the first to tread this path, of from life at the Royal Court in England to life in Italy, course. As early as 1845, the American writer Delia Salter Denmark and Spain. He seems to have read books not Bacon (1811-1859) proposed the theory of a team of then available in English transation. But of all the writers led by Sir Francis Bacon (no relation to Delia, as far numerous technical references in the plays, one subject as I know) and including such luminaries as Sir Walter stands out above all the others. This area is the law. The Raleigh, Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford, and author had a truly remarkable command of legal Edmund Spenser. Delia was followed by the principles and terminology, and often used them as an acknowledged leader of the heretical movement in the important pillar of the plot and the dramatic content of 19th century, Sir Granville George Greenwood (1850- the play. According to the analyis of Professor 1928). George Greenwood, a barrister called to the Bar in Porohovshikov in Shakespeare Unmasked (1955) there are 1876 by my Inn of Court, the Middle Temple, was the some 124 legal references in the plays, more than any author of numerous tracts in support of the heretical view. other single subject. The author’s command of the law In 1922, he was instrumental in founding the Shakespeare has drawn uniformly high praise from many well-qualified Fellowship, which carried on research after his death. critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Unlike Delia Bacon, he was – rightly I believe, given the state of the evidence – agnostic with respect to the actual authorship; though I am sure that he had his own thoughts on the matter, as do I. 106 2019 Middle Templar
In addition to the recent Justices mentioned above, the greater or lesser degree in respect of several plays: legal references were admired in times past by the likes Pericles Prince of Tyre, McBeth, Measure for Measure, of Justice Nathaniel Holmes, of Harvard Law School and Timon of Athens and All’s Well that Ends Well. Henry VI, the Missouri Supreme Court; and one of the great 19th Part 1 is certainly a collaboration with other playwrights, Century British Lord Chancellors, Lord Campbell, who one of whom may well have been Christopher Marlowe, found that unlike most dramatists and novelists, and the idea of collaboration probably no longer Shakespeare, “uniformly laid down good law.” controversial in principle in respect of any of the plays. Many Shakespeare afficionados would probably begin a Oxford was not a lawyer – exercising a profession would tour of the law in Shakespeare with The Merchant of have been beneath his station as a high-ranking ember of Venice, and particularly the exchange between Portia and the aristocracy – but after University at Cambridge he Shylock over the infamous contract for the pound of flesh studied at Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in in Act IV, Scene 1. It is an interesting scene, to be sure, London. At that time, the Inns were finishing schools as but not only for its wonderful dramatic qualities. To a well as law schools, and they were known as patrons of lawyer, there is also a less obvious theme. The author theatre. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men presented A combines a sound understanding of basic contract law Comedy of Errors in Gray’s Inn Hall in 1594. Twelfth Night with the concept of equitable alternatives to the hard was premiered in the hall of my Inn, Middle Temple, on results dictated a strict literal interpretation of the law – Candlemas Day 1602. Many high-born men passed an increasingly live issue in legal circles in the period in through the doors of the Inns, who, even if not destined which this play was written, in which the struggle between for the law themselves, must have gained some the Common Law and the Chancellor’s Equity jurisdiction knowledge of it and had close contacts with lawyers and was active. judges. After his marriage to Elisabeth Trentham in 1591, Oxford abruptly changed his way of life. What had been a Perhaps the single most remarkable example occurs in reckess, turbulent way of life gave way to a more Hamlet, albeit not the passage quoted by Justice contemplative one. He almost disappears from public Ginsburg. In the graveyard scene (Act V, Scene 1) the view, devoting himself to his own literary pursuits, but author displays a clear understanding of the extraordinary also patronising other writers; and theatre, including at case of Hales v Petit (1550). The case turned on the very least one company of players. curious point of whether the felony of suicide had occurred during lifetime of a person who took his own Another plausible candidate is Sir Francis Bacon life, or after his death. This would decide whether the (1561-1626). Born into a professional family, Bacon also deceased died as a felon, in which case his property was studied at Cambridge and Gray’s Inn. He was called to forfeit to the Crown, or whether the property passed to the Bar in 1582. Bacon was a true polymath. He received his widow. In 1562 the court ruled that the felony had a thorough classical, linguistic, philosophical and scientific been committed during the deceased’s lifetime, education. Starting out as a practising barrister, he rose notwithstanding the widow’s plausible argument that an rapidly up through the ranks, to become successively act of suicide could not logically be deemed to have Solicitor General, Attorney General, and eventually Lord been completed before the deceased’s death. If you read Chancellor, a post he was forced to relinquish in the wake the scene, you can only marvel at the way in which the of a bribery scandal. By 1591, despite considerable author uses the detail of this bizarre case in the detailed professional success, Bacon was expressing the desire to and eruditely witty exchange between the gravediggers give up the law in favour of philosophy. about the death of Ophelia. But my personal favourite is the exchange between Brutus and Mark Anthony in Act III Scene 2 of Julius Caesar. This scene consists, in effect, of two courtroom closing arguments delivered to a jury (the Roman Plebeians) and I venture to suggest that whoever wrote this scene was not writing from a purely theoretical point of view. It is, I suppose, just possible that it was written by someone who had been trained in rhetoric and oratory outside the law, but the practised ease with which the courtroom skills are combined and exploited belies such a conjecture. The scene is simply too reminiscent of the courtroom to be a coincidence. This author was someone who had studied the art of advocacy, and had either made closing speeches himself, or had listened to enough of them to be thoroughly familiar with all the most effective techniques. He was very probably I suggest, a member of an Inn of Court. It is no accident that, as the New Yorker notes, Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, (1550-1604) is widely regarded as a likely author of the plays. I say “a[n]… author” rather than “the author”, because the idea that the plays may have been collaborations, rather than the work of any single author, has been established to a 2019 Middle Templar 107
This coincides with the period during which Oxford was grammar school in Stratford-upon-Avon; and even if he taking the same course. He was by then undoubtedly did, that education could not possibly have equipped writing poetry and other literary works in addition to him to write the plays. It has been estimated that the philosophical and scientific papers: why not plays too? author had an unusually wide vocabulary for his time – He had a track record in that department: in his earlier life estimates range between 15,000 and 21,000 words. In An as a student at Gray’s Inn he had written and produced Outline of the Elements of the English Language (1864) short plays for performance there. N.G. Clark wote that Shakespeare’s vocbulary was ‘double that of any other writer in the English language’. There is a remarkable synchronicity between Oxford and In his Lectures on The Science of Language (1885) Max Bacon, which opens up obvious lines of speculation; and Müller maintained that Shakespeare displayed ‘a greater although speculation is not evidence, the fact is that variety of expression than any writer in any language’. these creative periods in the lives of both Oxford and Müller estimated his vocabulary at 15,000 words, Bacon coincide exactly, not only with each other, but also compared to an estimated 8,000 for Milton. This aspect with the composition of not only the bulk, but of the of the evidence alone clearly calls into question, not only acknowledged great works of the Shakespearian canon. whether the actor William Shakespeare could have Of the great works, only Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and written the plays, but whether the plays could be the Anthony and Cleopatra were completed outside this work of any single author of that period. period, after Oxford’s death, and even these plays are dated to the period within a year of two of his death, We don’t know for sure whether Shakespeare was even which would permit a ready inference that Oxford could functionally literate: it was not uncommon for actors at have worked on them. There is a limited, but striking that time to be illiterate; they learned their lines through coincidence of phraseology as between Bacon and the listening and repetition. Both his parents and both his text of the canon, demonstrated by quite lengthy lists of sisters signed their names using marks, suggesting that phrases compiled by Bacon in the period 1594-1595 he was brought up in an illiterate household. which appear in the same form in later works of the Shakespeare’s own daughters signed their names in the canon. It is also interesting, if no more, that while there same way, indicating that perhaps not much had changed is not a single reference in the canon to Stratford-upon- by the time he himself became a father. We have no Avon, there are fifteen to Bacon’s home base of examples of his handwriting, except for five or six St Albans. unconvincing, laboured signatures. We don’t know whether he ever travelled outside England; there is no In the face of this heresy, what is to be said for the evidence that he did. orthodox view that the actor William Shakepeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was the author of the plays of the The fragmentary evidence we have of his life suggests canon that bear his name? What do we know about the that when not acting, Shakespeare’s work was not that of actor William Shakespeare? Not a lot, as it turns out. We an author, but that of an impresario. There is no evidence don’t know whether he received an education of any kind. that he was ever paid fees or royalties as an author of a There is no satisfactory evidence that he attended the dramatic work, except for one entry in the accounts book 108 2019 Middle Templar
for 1604-1605 kept by Edmund Tylney, Master of the involved some writing of lines – personally if he was Revels, recording performances of Measure for Measure, capable of writing, or by the hand of an amanuensis if he A Comedy of Errors, and other plays by one ‘Shaxberd’. was not. These roles were: (1) coordinating the work of Spelling was fluid during this period, so it is likely that this the author(s); and (2) advising on the technical aspects of does refer to Shakespeare. But there is no mention in producing a dramatic piece capable of being performed Shakespeare’s will of any financial or other interest in the on the stage. Let no one doubt the necessity for this plays, including the eighteen plays of the canon which latter role. Writers who possess a poetic flair often have remained unpublished at the time of his death. His difficulty in addressing the mundane practicalities of son-in-law, John Ford, wrote a tract about local poets in producing what they have created on the stage: factors the area of Stratford, in which there is not a single such as the running time of the piece, the size of the cast, reference to his father-in-law. And it must surely also be the dimensions of the house, and the special effects significant that the death and funeral of a man claimed to called for. Within Team Shakespeare, somebody had to be the author of the greatest canon of work in the English worry about such technical matters. There is textual language passed unnoticed and uncelebrated at the evidence in the plays of someone adapting the work for a time. The monument to Shakespeare at Stratford came smaller stage, such as that at Blackfriars, and later and may originally have been a memorial to manipulating the length of acts to allow time for such Shakespeare’s father. necessary practical tasks as the trimming of candles by the backstage crew. In that role, the actor may well have Is there evidence for the actor William Shakespeare as contributed lines to the text, as well as carrying out an the sole author of the canon? Yes, some. Despite the essential editing function. claims made for the erudition of the author and his breadth of knowledge, the plays do contain some Given some background about the era in which startling errors. Some of the geographical details are Shakespeare lived, a far more significant role is also likely: wildly wrong. In Troilus and Cressida, the author has that of the agent and impresario for the author or Greeks and Trojans discussing Plato and Aristotle, authors. Any author with the level of education we are centuries before those philosophers lived, and the looking for would have occupied a high social or charitable explanation of artistic licence is not altogether professional position. At that period, many men of high convincing. On the other hand, I am not aware of any education and high rank wrote creatively as a leisure such criticism of his numerous legal references. In activity, and their output included plays: some even did fairness, the case in favour of the orthodox view is not so in Latin or Greek, as well as in English. But a strict confined to such circumstantial evidence. Various convention rendered it impossible for such a man to be important contemporaries in the world of theatre, such as seen to write plays, and certainly impossible for him to be Ben Jonson, identified the actor William Shakepeare as a seen to receive money for doing so. In addition, some of prominent author. His thespian colleagues commented the Shakespearian plays – notably the later plays and that he wrote lines, and that he did so without any those in the historical canon – can be read as advancing crossings-out (a curious foreshadowing of an observation political platforms which, if not actually seditious, would about Mozart attributed by Peter Shaffer, in Amadeus, to have been very dangerous for a member of any Salieri). There are numerous title page attributions to him prominent family, or a man in any prominent public as the author of the plays; apparent references in records position, to associate himself with. In those of the Stationer’s Office; and, as I noted earlier, an circumstances, it would surely have been unthinkable for apparent mention in the accounts of the Master of the any such man to publish or to agree to a performance Revels for 1604-1605. The First Folio of the plays, under his own name as author. He would need the published in 1623, seven years after his death, clearly services of an agent, and the cover of a brand name. attributes the work to Shakespeare as author. There is There is evidence that Shakespeare provided both, and it even a possible explanation for the author’s legal sheds a new light on the evidence of authorship. acumen. As I have already noted, the Inns of Court at that time were not just law schools: as finishing schools with a Attributions of the plays to the actor William Shakespeare broad interest in education and culture, they were as author is exactly what one would expect to see if patrons of theatre and the arts. Shakespeare must have Shakespeare were acting as an agent for men who could come to know any number of lawyers in the Inns – both not risk being exposed as authors of plays publicly for that reason, and because at various times, his performed, especially those which had more than a hint commercial dealings may have driven him to seek their of sedition about them. One would expect, too, that the professional advice. He must have had ample opportunity secret would be well kept, both in official records and to associate with and study lawyers and aspiring lawyers. among colleagues. But that might not have been enough to protect the authors, if it were not for one serendipitous But the balance of the evidence is clearly against him. factor. In an age fraught with domestic and foreign The content of the plays suggests that the author was threats, the Queen and her ministers would not relish an very highly educated by the standards of the time, and unnecessary confrontation any more than the authors, probably widely travelled. But more importantly, his and the Shakespeare fiction may well have provided knowledge of the law seems to go well beyond a cursory convenient cover for both sides. If Shakespeare was, acquaintanceship with the legal profession. If that is true, as we have good reason to suspect, functionally illiterate, it is very unlikely that the actor William Shakepeare was the ascription of the plays to him offered a compromise the author, and certainly that he was the sole author of which was at the same time both diplomatic and the plays. somewhat humorous: the actual identity of the authors would have been known to or suspected by all, but Nonetheless, there remains room for the actor in a honour was satisfied, and the whole affair had its number of important roles, some of which may well have funny side. 2019 Middle Templar 109
Shakespeare was ideally placed to act as an agent for this Is there evidence of such significant collaboration purpose. The roles of producer and impresario were roles throughout the canon? As I noted earlier, it is now widely we know he performed regularly, most importantly on accepted that collaboration occurs in some of the plays, behalf of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s as was the common practice at the time. There have Men) who owned and operated the Globe and Blackfriars been recent efforts to employ computer-based theatres, and held the exclusive rights to the performance algorithmic methods to the style of the plays, to of the Shakespearian canon between 1594 and (beyond determine whether they are more likely to be the work of Shakespeare’s death) 1642. I suggest that, using the name one, or more than one author; but it questionable Shakespeare as what we today would call a brand name, whether these methods have added much, other than Shakespeare acted as agent for and coordinated the further rancour, to the debate. Gary Tylor, editor of the work of authors who, because of their station in life, were New Oxford Shakespeare, and his colleagues have necessarily close to the Royal Court and engaged in attempted to establish a percentage of collaborative public affairs, and so obliged to keep their writing a input in the canon. But their work was trenchantly closely-guarded secret. There is a small, but intriguing criticised by Sir Brian Vickers, who in an interview for The piece of evidence to support this conclusion. Among the Times of London in December 2017, denounced it as several renderings of Shakespeare’s name, the spelling of interference by, ‘A number of scholars with training in which varies as between different documents, is one maths … [who] have devised algorithms that appear to variant in which it is written with a hyphen after ‘Shake’ give results declaring this or that scene “non- and before ‘Speare’: Shake-hyphen-Speare. The use of Shakespearean” … But they know very little about the hyphen was a not uncommon device at that time to Shakespeare and don’t look at the plays.’ At the other indicate a fictitious name. One interpretation of this is end of the spectrum is the older work of Caroline that the name Shakespeare was used as a brand name. Spurgeon, who in her 1935 book Shakespeare’s Imagery Then, as now, if you wanted to create a good brand and What it Tells Us, analyses the images and motifs in name, you needed something catchy. The Elizabethan the text with a view to gaining insight into the author’s era rejoiced in bawdy humour, and there is lot of that in mind, and then provides a contrast between the author’s the plays, sadly often edited out today in deference to mind and that of other contemporary authors, including more modern sensibilities. I’m sure you will forgive me if I Sir Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe. don’t spell it out, but leave it to your imagination to find a While that approach is necessarily subjective and perhaps bawdy double entendre hidden in Shake-hyphen-Speare. even partly intuitive, Spurgeon’s methodology is arguably It would be natural for the impresario Shakespeare to every bit as appropriate to this kind of inquiry as the make use of his own name as a brand for the work of algorithmic approach, and perhaps more so. Team Shake-Speare. At the end of the day, the evidence is inconclusive. The Now, a brief aside, which may really worry the purists question of the authorship of plays remains one of the among you. Bacon’s claim on the literature ascribed to great, and most intriguing mysteries of western Shakespeare may not be confined to the plays. Bacon civilisation. It is also, as noted earlier, a question that was gay, and there is an intriguing mystery surrounding gives rise to an extraordinary degree of anger and the homo-erotic sonnets published under Shakespeare’s passion. The actor William Shakepeare is, of course, not name with a dedication to the Earl of Southampton. The only the putative author of the greatest body of literature dedication is the key. A dedication of such potentially in the English language, but also an icon, and in England, dangerous material to a man of Southampton’s rank a symbol of national identity akin to St George. To might perhaps have been acceptable – just – coming question his authorship is, in the eyes of many, an from Bacon; from the actor William Shakespeare it would unspeakable heresy – not to mention the implications have been quite the opposite. Moreover, there is no heresy might have for the millions of pounds the country reason to suppose that the actor William Shakespeare derives annually from tourism centered around Stratford- was gay – all the gossip about him is decidely upon-Avon. heterosexual. So: does the heresy extend beyond the plays? Were the sonnets another example of the actor I suppose it’s also legitimate to question why a lawyer working as an agent for a writer who could not publish his such as myself should be spending any time on an author own work? who wrote the line: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’ But I do have an answer to that one. The line is actually a compliment to the legal profession. It is spoken by Dick in Henry VI, Part Two, Act !V, Scene 2, in response to Jack Cade’s stated aim of setting himself up as a dictator. Dick sees, correctly, that the lawyers would be the group most likely to stand in the way of the ambitions of a dictator. It is a line of which, whoever wrote it, any lawyer should be proud. And finally, may I offer a word of reassurance? We lose nothing by questioning. After all, as Shakespeare – or some member of Team Shake-Speare – put it (Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2): ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ 110 2019 Middle Templar
Years Presumed Dates of Writing of Plays Other Dates 1550 Birth of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford 1561 1564 Birth of Sir Francis Bacon 1590-1595 Birth of William Shakespeare and of Christopher Marlowe 1595-1600 Henry VI Part II (1590-1591) Death of Christopher Marlowe 1593 1600-1605 Henry VI Part III (1590-1591) Henry VI Part I (1591-1592) 1605-1610 Richard III (1592-1593) The Comedy of Errors (1592-1593) 1611-1613 Titus Andronicus (1593-1594) ¬1616 The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594) 1626 The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594-1595) Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594-1595) Richard II (1595-1596) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-1596) King John (1596-1597) The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597) Henry IV Part I (1597-1598) Henry IV Part II (1597-1598) Much Ado about Nothing (1598-1599) Henry V (1598-1599) Julius Caesar (1599-1600) As You Like It (1599-1600) Hamlet (1600-1601) Death of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford 1604 The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601) Troilus and Cressida (1601-1602) All’s Well That Ends Well (1602-1603) Measure for Measure (1604-1605) Othello (1604-1605) King Lear (1605-1606) Macbeth (1605-1606) Antony and Cleopatra (1606-1607) Coriolanus (1607-1608) Timon of Athens (1607-1608) Pericles (1608-1609) Cymbeline (1609-1610) The Winter’s Tale (1610-1611) The Tempest (1611-1612) Henry VIII (1612-1613) The Two Noble Kinsmen (1612-1613) Death of William Shakespeare Death of Sir Francis Bacon 2019 Middle Templar 111
LENT READING MASTER CAROL HARLOW Middle Templars in the Common Law World Master Harlow was Called to the Bar These connections can be traced back to the 17th in 1957 and was awarded Queen’s Century, a time when there was no common law world Counsel (Hon Causa) in 1996. She is a and when membership of an Inn of Court did not Fellow of the British Academy and an necessarily signify intention to become a lawyer. A group Emeritus Member of the Society of of West Country mariners then joined the Inn, notably Sir Legal Scholars. She is Emeritus Walter Raleigh, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher Professor of Law at the London School and Richard Hakluyt. They were certainly not intending to of Economics. She was made a become lawyers; rather the reverse. They were Bencher in 2009 and was Lent Reader adventurers; today, indeed, we might well call them in 2019 ‘pirates’, though in their own age, the term was ‘privateer’. Behind the explorers stood Sir John Popham Every dining night, the ancient and beautiful Hall of the (1531-1617), Treasurer of the Inn 1580-1587 and created Middle Temple is home to judges, barristers and students Lord Chief Justice in 1592. Popham was also a West not only from England but also from many other common Country man, who became very rich and acted as law jurisdictions. principal promoter of the infant Virginia Company, which held some of its foundation meetings in the then new This is nothing new; the Inn has always been glad to Middle Temple Hall. Popham also helped to fund an welcome overseas applicants. We keep a Register of expedition to found Plymouth colony in Maine. In this Admissions from which it appears that, by the late 19th way, the Middle Temple was a substantial player at the Century, the Inn had admitted around 1,234 members beginnings of British colonialism. with links to as many as 65 overseas places. Members had come from throughout the common law world: Hong Linked to the affairs of the Virginia Company in a more Kong, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, legal way was Sir Edwin Sandys (1561-1629), member of a Canada and the Caribbean, Africa and, nearer home, Middle Temple family, who joined the Inn in 1586. Sandys from Ireland and Scotland. was a devout and committed parliamentarian and fierce opponent of King James I, which at one point landed him in the Tower of London. Sandys was described by Master John Colyer (who has his own long connection with the United States) as the ‘first English lawyer to use his legal skills not merely in organising colonisation but in devising government.’ In 1620, when Sandys was treasurer of the Company, he procured the appointment of a committee ‘to codify the regulations of the company to settle a form of government for the colony, to appoint magistrates and officers, and define their functions and duties’. Sandys took a Lockeian view of government as inherently limited by a notional contract between ruler and subject to which both sides were bound. His liberal ideas fed into the first Virginia Charters, drafted by him, which conferred on the colonists ‘all the liberties, franchises and immunities of English subjects’ and led directly to the ‘first representative assembly summoned in America’, modelled on the English House of Commons. It first met on 30 July 1619. It is not a great leap to the constitutionalist activities of some notable Middle Templars during the American war of independence. Four Middle Templars signed the Declaration of Independence (Edward Rutledge, Thomas Maynard, Thomas Lynch and Arthur Middleton). Two Middle Templars, John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney, played a major part in drafting the American Constitution and seven Middle Templars (Charles Pinckney, William Livingstone, John Blair, John Dickinson, Jared Ingersoll and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney) signed it. The beliefs that drove the constitutionalists owed much to William Blackstone, Called to the Bar by the Inn in 1746. 112 2019 Middle Templar
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England were by the Inn in 1871, rose high in the Indian Civil Service a massive success both in England and, significantly, in before returning to England as lecturer in Indian History America. We know that his first Oxford lectures were at University College London. Behari Lal Gupta, Called by attended by American students and that 1,000 copies of the Inn in 1871, was appointed the next year as the first the English edition had been sold in the American Indian Chief Presidency Magistrate and Coroner of colonies before the first American edition of 1,500 copies Calcutta. This was a highly significant appointment, which appeared in 1772. His ideas certainly influenced John led to the introduction of the Ilbert Bill, intended to Marshall, first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, and authorise Indian magistrates to preside at the trials of his friend and associate John Adams, a notable supporter Europeans. The Bill passed in a storm of opposition and of the presumption of innocence and right to counsel. political controversy only in a severely truncated form. It is Blackstone believed strongly in ‘fundamental rights and regarded as a signpost on the road to Indian nationalism, positive liberties of free-born Englishmen’ – trial by jury, partly responsible for the foundation of the Indian Magna Carta and habeas corpus – and thought the National Congress (INC). It is nonetheless surprising to English constitution, based on individual freedom and find so many leading nationalists and members of the autonomy, uniquely designed to protect civil and political INC choosing to read for the English Bar. Seven of the liberties. He was also anti-slavery, believing slavery to be first fifteen INC presidents were lawyers, three of the so ‘repugnant to reason and the principles of natural law’ most distinguished being Middle Templars. Their reasons that no such state should exist anywhere. were generally practical. The Bar has always offered professional standing, the possibility of a good livelihood, When John Laurens, admitted in 1772, joined the Inn, his independence of government and the opportunity for father pressed him to read Blackstone’s works ‘as proper social mobility. Woomes Chunder Bonnerjee (1844-1906), for your Study when you are ready and disposed to Enter the first President of the INC, Called to the Bar by the upon them’ and thoughtfully provided a copy, priced at Inn in 1867, was a law clerk who had won a scholarship £1. 7s. Laurens never finished his studies. He left London to study law overseas. Returning home, he established a in 1777 to serve as aide de camp to George Washington successful practice and became president of the Calcutta and later helped to negotiate the surrender of the British Law Faculty, though he later moved to England, lived in army at Yorktown (1781), thus virtually ending the War Croydon and stood (unsuccessfully) for the Westminster of Independence. Sadly, in 1783, Lt Col John Laurens Parliament. rashly got himself killed aged 28 in a skirmish with the British army. His portrait, presented to the Middle Temple Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950), known as Sardur Patel, who in 2004 ‘to mark the continuing close bonds of the became, INC President in 1931 with the task of organising common law across the Atlantic’, hangs on the stairs in the party for important elections, was the paradigm poor the Ashley Building. boy who made good through hard work and his own efforts. Raised in the countryside of Gujarat, Patel Perhaps surprisingly, in view of his background as the son struggled for an education but managed to qualify as a of a wealthy merchant and planter who owned more than law pleader and set up a modest practice. He saved for 200 slaves, Laurens was a keen anti-slaver, who many years to achieve his ambition of travelling to maintained that Americans ‘at least in the Southern England, where he finally arrived at the age of 36 and Colonies, cannot contend with a good Grace, for Liberty, enrolled at the Middle Temple. Despite his lack of until we shall have enfranchised our Slaves’. He tried to academic background, he passed his final examinations raise a slave brigade to fight for independence but his in six terms with first class and was Called by the Inn in efforts were unsuccessful. It was left for an African 1913. He used his qualifications and Middle Temple American Middle Templar, Thomas M Chester (1834-92), contacts to build a successful practice, but under the to raise the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry influence of Mahatma Gandhi, Patel joined first, the Regiments in the Civil War. Chester was a journalist who non-cooperation movement and later, the campaign for joined the Middle Temple after the war, in 1867 and was non-violent civil disobedience. After independence, Patel Called by the Inn in 1870 as the first African American to served both as Minister for Home Affairs and as Deputy be admitted to the English Bar. Prime Minister and took primary responsibility for integrating the princely states into India. This earned him On the other side of the world, Middle Templars were the titles of ‘Unifier of India’ but also of ‘India’s Iron Man’. contributing to the building of the common law on the In 2016, a small plaque was unveiled to the memory of Indian sub-continent. At first the travel was outward. this truly great Middle Templar by Master Dominic Middle Templars presided over the Supreme Courts of Grieve, then Attorney-General. The Indian Government Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. By 1875, however, the surpassed us by erecting the world’s tallest statue, the direction of travel had changed. The Inn had apparently Statue of Unity, dedicated in his honour in 2018 by admitted around 424 members and 170 or so Indian Prime Minister Modi. nationals were Called to the Bar. There were no doubt many reasons for the steady flow of students from the The common law is of course a central part of the Indian sub-continent: the prestige of an overseas complex history of colonialism. This short article focuses qualification, the possibility of racial discrimination at only on a handful of eminent Middle Templars in its early home and on occasion perhaps the chance to circumvent days. There is a strong Blackstonian emphasis on the the Indian class system. From inside the Indian civil common law as the conveyor of ‘rights and liberties’ and service, the prestige of an overseas qualification afforded its influence on constitution-building. There is another a route for Indian-born civil servants to high office and side to this story, which I have not attempted to convey. legal qualification was encouraged by the Indian government, the Inns of Court and the Council of Legal This article is based on my talk at Reader’s Feast, Education, which granted concessions to Indian students 19 February 2019. I am grateful for help from Lesley to facilitate their training. Romesh Chunder Dutt, Called Whitelaw, Raymond Cocks and Richard Rawlings. 2019 Middle Templar 113
COIC MATCHED FUNDING AND PUPILLAGES COIC welcomes Park Square Barristers applications for matched funding Pupils are the future of the profession and vital to the for 2020-21 and survival of the independent Bar. PSQB has received matched 2021-22 pupillages funding which has allowed us to recruit 3 additional pupils since 2017. As a set dedicated to publicly funded work the The COIC Pupillage Matched Funded Scheme scheme has been vital in allowing us to grow our numbers, (PMF) helps provide additional pupillages maintain exceptional standards and secure a bright future for in Chambers, and other approved training Chambers. This has all been achieved, in an era of continued organisations, predominantly engaged in legally uncertainty and cuts, with no additional budgetary pressures aided work. Encouragingly, a growing number of for our set. Chambers are applying for COIC matched funded Simon Clegg, Director of Pupillage grants. COIC is set to support 36 pupillages in 2019. This is an impressive improvement on the Chartlands Chambers scheme’s first year of operation in 2014, when it supported 14 pupillages. We are a small provincial set predominantly with a focus on family law. We have always been dedicated to undertaking How the scheme works publicly funded work. With the cuts in legal aid, we were not in a position to take on two pupils in 2019 without the It is a prerequisite of the scheme that chambers understand COIC pupillage match funded grant. The grant was an that matched funded pupillages are in addition to those invaluable help to us in ensuring we continue to build on our they would have offered in any event. COIC match pupillage commitment in providing barristers to assist publicly funded funding already provided by chambers with a total grant of clients. The initiative is very commendable and will go a long £9,000 for 2020-21 London pupillages and £7,700 for 2020-21 way in opening up the availability of pupillages to those who out of London pupillages and, £9,450 for 2021-22 London deserve the same. We are grateful for this positive initiative pupillages and £8,050 for 2021-22 out of London pupillages, to during difficult economic times. fund the first six months of a second pupillage. Chambers are Waqas Rashid, Head of Pupillage responsible for ensuring that the total pupillage award meets the BSB’s minimum award for the year in question. Central Chambers How to apply As a small, mainly publicly-funded set the financial aspects of offering pupillage were an obvious concern when we were Applications to match fund 2020-21 and 2021-22 pupillages considering the ways in which chambers should grow but the are invited between 2 September and 21 October 2019. Pupillage Matched Funding Scheme allowed us to take a Decisions will be communicated during the week commencing chance on pupillage and, with the support of the Inns of 4 November 2019. Online applications can be made at Court, we have been able to offer this opportunity in a www.coic.org.uk/pupillage-matched-funding very restricted market. To find out more please email Samantha Anderson, Thanks to the Pupillage Matched Funding Scheme, we can COIC Secretary: [email protected] offer a further three pupillages over the next 18 months; Nathalie Lieven QC, Chair, COIC Pupillage Matched opportunities for recent graduates that simply would not Funding Grants Committee have been there without this scheme. At a time when access to the profession is of great concern to chambers, the Scheme helps small, specialist sets like ours to offer pupillage in areas being deserted by those solely searching for financial gain rather than a drive to help the disadvantaged. Joe Lynch, Head of Pupillage First in a Series of Murders which Define our Times The Postcard Murder A Judge’s Tale Paul Worsley QC ‘An enthralling account of human frailty and forensic analysis.’ Nicholas Hilliard, Recorder of London The Postcard Murder: A Judge’s Tale by Paul Worsley QC is published in November by Pilot Productions at £9.99 and is available to pre-order from Amazon and all good bookshops. 114 2019 Middle Templar
WELLBEING AT THE BAR AIMEE STOKES Wellbeing at the Bar Aimee Stokes was Called to the Bar wellbeing topics. For example, stress management, in 2018. She is the Secretary of the self-injury awareness and addiction issues at the Bar. My Middle Temple Young Barristers blog post focuses on the general day to day attitudes we Association. She sits on the Social have as barristers and ensuring that when we feel we Mobility Committee for the Criminal need to rant and be negative, which is of course natural, Bar Association and the Wellbeing we do it conscious the Bar (WATB) at the Bar Council. of those whom we are around. Linking back to what I said Currently completing her pupillage at the start of this article, whilst the topic of wellbeing is at 9 King’s Bench Walk, practising now spoken of, many barristers still do not feel entirely primarily in criminal and confident in sharing their circumstances. It therefore does regulatory law. not hurt to stop and think about what your colleagues might be going through before speaking negatively. The topic of maintaining our wellbeing, in the fast-paced I would highly recommend taking the time having a world of the Bar, is more discussed than ever before. This read of some of the stories and blog posts on the is important as it will, in the long run, encourage those at WATB website as they are very honest and generally the Bar to speak about their challenges more openly and highly relatable. confidently. It is also crucial for ensuring that the key outlets, for those facing challenges and needing support, WATB is chaired by Nicholas Peacock of Hailsham are promoted. Chambers. Nick is always welcoming of new proposals, suggestions and feedback in relation to the progress This year, as Secretary of MTYBA, I also sit on the the Bar Council has already made. Two of Nick’s key Wellbeing at the Bar Working Group Committee at the aims for this year are: Bar Council. This committee sits every few months to discuss key issues relating to wellbeing and what the Bar 1. to ensure that all barristers are aware of and have Council can do to help move those issues forward. The looked at the WATB website. This website encompasses committee was established with three key aims: a variety of resources for barristers. Spreading the word is key to not only contributing to the conversation of 1. To provide barristers and chambers’ personnel wellbeing but actually encouraging people to take the with the information and skills they need in order to first step in seeking support. stay well; 2. to secure a wellbeing lead in every set of chambers, 2. To support members of the profession through someone who can be responsible for things like a difficulties that affect a barrister’s professional life; and monthly wellbeing email or acting as a link between chambers and external resources. 3. To provide assistance to those responsible for or who are supporting those in difficulty. Both of these aims, along with everything the committee is working to achieve, are invaluable to the progression of The main resource provided by WATB is the website: our awareness of the topic. The Bar is an ever-increasing www.wellbeingatthebar.org.uk. This website is a fantastic high-pressured environment with very little time to pause resource and has sections for when you as a barrister and breathe. Hence, it is essential barristers know what need help, if you wish to help a colleague, top tips on support is available to them and how to access it. The staying well whilst in practice, real stories and experiences WATB website should be your first port of call for support from other barristers and more. One section that I have but please do get to know who are the wellbeing reps in contributed to this year is the blog post section. Here your chambers, Inns and SBAs. practitioners can voice their opinions on all kinds of Middle Temple Counselling During 2019/20 The Inn will continue to offer a free and confidential counselling 115 service on site to all student and junior members of the Inn to 7 years’ call. The service offers support with both personal and professional issues from a qualified and experienced therapist. For more details about the service including how to gain access please contact: Christa Richmond, Director of Education Services. [email protected] 2019 Middle Templar
HALL COMMITTEE JULIETTE LEVY Hall Committee An Essential Voice for the Inn Juliette Levy was Called to the Bar Our primary objective is to help you navigate and unlock in 1992. She practises from Cerulean the opportunities that being involved in Inn life have to Chambers, where she specialises offer you from cradle to grave. Some of our activities from in commercial, chancery and 2018-2019 are detailed below. telecommunications law. She relishes the opportunities that working with Social the Inn and on the Hall Committee bring her, particularly working The most effective way of breaking preconceptions is to with barristers from a wide spectrum engage on a social basis with each other. To this end, we of practice areas, experiences offer members a selection of social activities throughout and stages of practice ranging the year. from student to senior members of the Judiciary. Annual Dinner – Dame Rosemary Squire Welcome to Hall Committee (‘HC’) On 16 May, we hosted the Annual Dinner that marked the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, which HC represents the views and interests of the majority of allowed women to enter the legal profession and enable Inn’s members, i.e. any non-Bencher. We represent a them to become students of the Inns of Court and be broad spectrum of members from students to Judges Called to the Bar. Middle Temple has the distinction of and our members come from an equally broad spectrum being the first Inn of Court to admit a female student. We of practice areas, including members from the self- were lucky enough to secure Dame Rosemary Squire, a employed and employed bars, MTYBA and MTSA. We trailblazing and glass ceiling breaking, entrepreneur, are a dynamic committee that takes a very active role in impresario and theatre owner, who is the most prominent the governance of the Inn to ensure that our member’s and powerful woman in British theatre. Next year’s Annual needs are addressed. We involve ourselves in all aspects Dinner will be on 14 May 2020 – and I advise early of Inn life and consider it our duty to assist the Inn in any booking, to avoid disappointment! way we can to meet its objectives and serve its members. New & Upcoming Events Evolution of Hall Committee Last year we introduced two new events for members, I have had the privilege of being involved with HC for both of which are back this year by popular demand: St over seven years, two of which I served as Vice-Chair and Andrew’s Night Ceilidh and Oktoberfest beer tasting in four of which I have served as Chair. During this time, our Taskers. The Ceilidh was introduced to offer younger Committee has evolved into one that is given unlimited members a less expensive option to Burns Night. It was a scope to become involved in and influence all of the Inn’s roaring success, with a live band, reeling, food and much committees and initiatives. This evolution has gone hand merriment, and will be taking place on 29 November in hand with a considerable increase in participation in 2019 this year. All kilt and non-kilt owners welcome! our HC annual elections. Oktoberfest offered, sausage, sauerkraut and even beer. As a new event, we trialled it in Taskers. The event was a So – what does Hall Committee actually do? huge success and demand for tickets was so high that it has now been rebranded ‘Templefest’ and will be in Hall Many people I meet ask me the same questions: what on 8 November 2019. is HC, and what do we actually do? We have set out to define our role by some of the following objectives: Other Events 1. De-mystify the Inn to members so as to enable Karaoke them to appreciate the value of active membership throughout their professional lives; This event was the brainchild of Master Dyson and was introduced in 2017. It was a great success in its inaugural 2. Support the professional and social interests year and an even bigger success last year. It provides an of the members of the Inn, in particular the opportunity for anyone, from staff member, student to younger members; Bencher, to show off their vocal skills or their capacity for good humoured public humiliation. It is fantastic fun and 3. Promote social engagement and collegiality with a great stress antidote. This year’s event will be in Hall on members of the Inn, so as to engage them to play a 15 November. Pick a tune and croon to your heart’s content! full part in the life of the Inn; 4. Increase diversity and social mobility of future members of the Inn. 116 2019 Middle Templar
Bake Off EDSM & Outreach Please join us for MTBO#19 on 18 October in the Master’s At the Annual Dinner last year we launched a crowd funding Garden at 18:00 where we will be judging the winners of initiative in order to raise awareness of and funds for the the Middle Temple Bake Off. There will be heats followed Inn’s scholarship, Access to the Bar and outreach by a final. There will also be drinks and a chance to sample programmes. This was then rolled into the Sir Paul Jenkins the cakes! Don’t worry, the evening will only be the Fund and, in honour of the 100-year centenary this year, at judging, so no high stress moments trying to get your this year’s Annual Dinner we launched an appeal to raise icing to set in front of a marquee audience. £10,000 for this fund, representing just £100 for every year since women were admitted as students to the Inn. If you Any budding bakers keen to show off their skills please haven’t donated yet, please do www.middletemple.org.uk/ email [email protected] to confirm your sir-paul-jenkins-fund-leaflet-nov-2018 entry and please bring your final bake to the Membership Office in the Ashley Building by 16:00 on 18 October 2019. LGBTQ+ Forum Other Work Members of HC are committed to EDSM and Outreach and are actively engaged with the Inn in initiatives to demystify BSB Consultations the Bar and encourage students from all backgrounds to consider the Bar as a career choice. Members of the Hall As part of our commitment to working with and assisting Committee have also spent 2019 working on the creation the junior Bar, and our members, we provide detailed of an LGBTQ+ Forum. Working closely with the Inns’ EDSM responses to relevant BSB consultations. Last year we Committee, the Forum will provide support to LGBT+ worked on the Future Bar Training consultation, with a members of the Inn. Like Middle Temple, the Forum will be particular emphasis on the importance of the Inn to welcoming and inclusive, ensuring that support is available students and all members. If you have any issues you to those who want or need it. consider we should address relating to any BSB consultation please do let us know and share your Talk to Us! views with us. We have set up a number of membership communications Junior Bar initiatives. Last year we set up a HC twitter account @MTHallCommittee in order to cultivate and encourage We continue to examine the crisis resulting from the more direct engagement with you. We really do want to chronic lack of pupillages, leaving talented aspiring hear from you and encourage your participation! barristers with no route to practise at the Bar, and Please follow us, engage with us and look out for our consider initiatives to increase pupillage opportunities. tweets. You can also contact any of our members listed on the MT website, or by contacting me by email: Employed Bar [email protected] In addition, we are now including HC relevant updates Our members at the Employed Bar make up a vital in the MT e-news. contingent of our membership and we are currently working on a variety of schemes to engage and connect HC Elections with them, so please look out for these and let us know your views. Our annual elections will be held in December. If you would like to participate more actively in the Inn via HC, please Mentoring Scheme consider standing for election. If not, please participate by voting for candidates. In the past few months, Hall Committee volunteers, with the helpful assistance of Lia Jhala in the Membership And goodbye… Office, have re-started the Mentoring Scheme. This programme matches junior tenants or employed This will be my last year as Chair of HC. Being a member barristers with more experienced practitioners for of HC has been one of the most rewarding experiences of specific mentoring tasks. Currently the scheme has my career at the Bar. If any of you are hesitating about made eight matches but we are always looking for whether they should become involved with the Inn, don’t, more Mentors, especially those from diverse or just do it! Finally I would like to thank the members of our non-traditional backgrounds. For more information, committee, all the members of staff at the Inn (particularly please see the webpage and application form Colin Davidson, Oliver Muncey, Glen Newman and James at www.middletemple.org.uk/members/ Rogerson), Dame Rosemary Squire, our fantastic archivist, inn-initiatives-and-events/mentoring-scheme Lesley Whitelaw (just retired after 29 years of service to the or contact [email protected] Inn) and last but by no means least, our Under Treasurer. 2019 Middle Templar 117
MTSA BENJAMIN JOSEPH Middle Temple Student’s Association 2018-19 Benjamin Joseph is the President of information and tips to level the playing field for those the MTSA for the 2018-19 academic unfamiliar with the process. In June we hosted the Jobs year. He is passionate about and Opportunities Fair with MTYBA, welcoming a wide representing student voices in the Inn, range of organisations offering pro bono and paid making the BPTC year more social opportunities to BPTC graduates looking to work with and mutually supportive, and some great causes, enhance their CV and earn some increasing diversity at the Bar through money. the provision of resources and information necessary to succeed Last year we organised a Christmas party with a twist. in the intense pupillage process. We welcomed two compelling speakers, Julie Bishop He completes the BPTC this year and Mr Justice Knowles, highlighting serious deficiencies and starts Pupillage at Quadrant in universal credit and legal aid, and emphasising our Chambers in October 2019. ability and responsibility to make a tangible difference. The night raised money for charity and later featured a It has been an immense privilege to serve as MTSA Christmas Quiz, music and dancing. The Spring Social in President this year. I have felt proud and humbled to be a May allowed students to relax and celebrate completing part of the Inn and its diverse, friendly and engaged the BSB set exams of the BPTC. We have been working student body. One of the unique aspects of the Inn is the with other Inns’ student associations to set up a series responsibility and trust it puts in the students and MTSA. of inter-Inn social events to foster a more friendly We sit on four committees at the Inn, including the atmosphere on the BPTC, where Inn Student Associations executive committee, and have a wide discretion over the take it in turns to host, starting October 2019. events we put on. The MTSA has represented student voices and interests This year’s MTSA committee has been bookended by two on a number of key issues this year, ranging from the particularly special events. In October 2018, organised by introduction of a harassment policy at the Inn, to the the outgoing President Emma Hughes, we celebrated provision of the BPTC at the Inns of Court (starting Black History Month in Hall. The speakers were October 2020), to spearheading the creation of an LGBT captivating and the atmosphere in an overflowing Hall Forum. We submitted a joint response with MTYBA and that evening was completely unique. We are pleased to the Hall Committee in support of plans to convert the say that whilst it may have been the first Black History basement of the Ashley Building into an ambitious new event in Hall, it will not be the last. Save the date for 23 social space with the aim to make the Inn become a October 2019. In June 2019, we celebrated Pride Month social focal point for students and members alike, with MTYBA in Hall. This was the first Pride event ever including a café/bar with garden access. held in an Inn Hall. We heard four inspiring barristers from a wide variety of backgrounds talk about their I want to say a massive thanks to my wonderful experiences at the Bar, and the path ahead for the LGBT committee – Nicole Choong, Lettie Egan, Eidvile community, in front of a packed Hall. Bainyote, Adrian Yalland, Nick Mellis, Genevieve Vaughn, Neo Wen Yang, as well as last year’s committee and We have organised mooting and debating workshops especially Emma Hughes the President for all of their throughout the year that give students a chance to learn brilliant work and help. Thank you to the staff at the Inn and finesse skills crucial to succeed in pupillage – particularly Christa, Sally, Colin, Oliver, Alexandra, and interviews and at the Bar and beyond. On 26 July, the all the events team for making it all possible. Thank you MTSA revived the Monroe Cup, a debating competition to MTYBA with whom we have worked so well this year, that has not been run for five years, offering three rounds and especially Michael Harwood for all his support. Thank of knockout debating. The response was emphatic with a you to the Hall Committee and Juliette Levy. Thank you long wait list. to every friendly face at every committee meeting, and every person that has come to our events. We also wanted to provide resources and opportunities for students and ran two popular pupillage seminars. The Come October we will have organised 15 diverse, first, aimed at applications, heard a panel of barristers engaging and well-attended educational and social from pupillage committees discuss what those who sift events, and consistently stood up for student interests through the applications are looking for, and how to and voices. I am proud of what we have achieved, and avoid classic pitfalls. The second, aimed at interviews, encourage students reading this to stand for election heard from a panel of recently successful applicants to and get involved. Elections take place 9 October 2019. demystify the pupillage interview and provide some basic 118 2019 Middle Templar
MTYBA MICHAEL HARWOOD Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association Michael Harwood was Called to On top of this MTYBA continues to provide a voice the Bar in 2012 and is the current for the junior Bar within the Inn on issues affecting the President of MTYBA. Michael is a wider profession, including expanding the Inn’s lawyer at HM Treasury and has wellbeing initiatives, and being active participants in undertaken several roles as a legal the implementation of the results of the Inn’s adviser to government. Michael is Disability Survey. committed to representing the interests of all the Inn’s junior At the time of writing we still have more to deliver members, with a particular focus on through the busy autumn-winter period, including: promoting positive mental health providing support for new pupils, our annual advocacy and wellbeing. competition, working with Advocate for Volunteers Week, more social and professional development events and of As ever MTYBA has worked hard in 2019 to combine our course our Christmas Party. Our Annual Dinner, now in its existing programme of events and opportunities with fourth year, has quickly become a calendar highlight and new, relevant and exciting initiatives for the junior Bar. we are delighted that human rights activist and ‘Guildford Providing support for wannabe and current pupils Four’ lawyer, Gareth Peirce, will be the guest speaker on through panel events and mock interviews continues to 25 October 2019. be one of our most important and popular offerings, and as always I was pleased to hear from those members who I wish to thank the many volunteer panellists, judges, were successful in their applications for pupillage and interviewers and speakers without whom we would not tenancy this year. Social events in spring and summer be able to put on many of our events, and the Inn and its allowed members at all stages to get together outside wonderful staff for their support in ensuring these events of work and our annual Jobs and Opportunities Fair are able to run. attracted a good number of post-Callees to explore their options and build their CVs. On a personal note, the close of 2019 will see the curtain fall on six years of involvement with MTYBA, the last two Two new initiatives this year had a clear focus on of which I have been delighted to serve as President. celebrating diversity at the Bar. As part of the efforts in I hope to continue my involvement with the Inn and the the profession to mark 100 years of women in law, in April junior Bar through other guises, but for now I am happy we held our panel event ‘Women of the Bar: Successes, to reflect on the important place MTYBA holds in Challenges, Goals’ with a star-studded line-up. In June providing a home and a voice for those in the early years MTYBA teamed up with MTSA to host the Inn’s first ever of practice at Middle Temple. I have been lucky to work Pride event ‘Taking Pride’, as an equally impressive panel with many wonderful committees, not least the troupe for inspired and challenged a packed Hall to support our 2019: Richard Reynolds, Lauren Suding, Matthew Withers, LGBT colleagues. James Gould, Sarah Taylor, Matthew Howarth, Aimee Stokes, Maham Qureshi, Merlene George, Ariana Caines, A further new development has been the coming Michael Brett and my ever-reliable deputy, Michael Polak. together of the four Inns’ young barrister associations Thanks all for your hard work and dedication. into a Young Bar Working Group, which has met quarterly to discuss issues touching the junior Bar as a whole, and successfully held joint social and professional development events. Long may this fruitful collaboration continue. In Manchester our northern annex continues to work hard in recruiting converts to the MTYBA and Middle Temple cause, providing advice and support for pupillage applicants and social events for our colleagues on the Northern Circuit. MTYBA’s two flagship awards schemes received many strong applications. Congratulations to Shanzé Shah and Georgina Rea on being awarded our Intern Awards to help fund their internships abroad, and to Monica Feria-Tinta and Julia Lowis on receiving Practice Development Grants to support the growth of their practice. www.mtyba.org 2019 Middle Templar 119
OVERVIEW OF THE ESTATE IAN GARWOOD Overview of the Estate Ian Garwood is responsible for the Running in tandem with these works is the five-year Inn’s extensive Estate and portfolio programme to test all electrical circuits in our buildings. of historic properties, covering all Under current regulations, every building has to be aspects from asset management, inspected and tested on a five-year cycle so, effectively, building repair, major refurbishment this is a never-ending programme. projects and property acquisitions to tenant management. Through a joint arrangement with Inner Temple, he is also responsible for maintaining the fabric of Temple Church on behalf of both Inns. Initially studying for a Diploma in Architecture, he joined the Inn in 1979 as Assistant Surveyor and after a change in career direction went on to qualify with an Honours Degree in Building Surveying. He was appointed as Surveyor to the Middle Temple in 1998 and subsequently Director of Estates in 2004. He still maintains his passion for Architecture and is keen to ensure that the Inn maintains its historical heritage whilst meeting the modern day needs of the Bar. It is difficult to believe that 12 months have passed since my previous article for this Magazine. At that time, we had just completed works to renew the Hall roof and I am pleased to say that, despite a number of good downpours, the persistent leak that plagued the old roof has not returned. The project has been split into two phases with Phase 1 (1 & 2 Garden Court) programmed for completion in March 2020 followed by Phase 2 (Blackstone House) due for completion in February 2021. Since last July, we have replaced the boiler plant feeding 1-4 Middle Temple Lane. This was a particularly difficult project as the plant is unusually contained on two levels in a very confined plant room. This meant that individual boilers and some of the larger ancillary plant had to be dismantled and then reassembled just to get it inside the room. Despite all of these problems, we now have more efficient plant with an improved layout to assist servicing. As you would expect on a large and complex estate, there are always works to test, certify, upgrade and replace all manner of service installations. We currently have phased programmes in place to renew all of the fire alarm systems in our buildings. The advent of reliable wireless systems has meant that we can undertake these installations fairly quickly with minimal disruption to occupiers and at the same time extend the coverage to include all rooms. 120 2019 Middle Templar
Buchan Suite Security installations are a key part of lower ground floor rooms, the installation of two new keeping us all safe and these basically scenic lifts and new services throughout including cover access control and CCTV coverage. comfort cooling. Externally, two platform lifts will be New electronic locks have been installed installed at each end of Garden Court to provide on specific garden gates to allow tenants step-free access from QEB Car Park to Fountain Court. and members access to the gardens. Refurbishment of Blackstone House will include Unfortunately, it is not possible for these installation of an additional lift, formation of a new 6th locks to all installed on all gates due to a floor conference suite, new roof mounted plant and number of technical issues. internal modifications to provide access links to the new atrium at the upper levels. Several years ago, we commenced a programme to upgrade all of our We are also looking at options to convert the current analogue security cameras to digital basement bookstack in Ashley Building to form a operation, providing high definition common room, with direct access to the main garden. images and improved low light coverage. This project is very much at the initial design stages but, We are about 80% through this if implemented, will provide an ideal location for all programme and expect to complete it in members of the Inn and those using the Library to relax the next 12 months. These systems, plus in a pleasant welcoming atmosphere, with all the a good many more, controlling necessary facilities expected. everything from emergency lights to boiler plant management, sit on a new Whilst we have successfully completed a number of site wide fibre-optic network installed in schemes to provide step-free access to some our the last year. buildings, work is still to be completed on the more difficult buildings, and those which require extensive In addition to all of the above works, modifications. We are currently in discussions with the which can generally be classed as routine City Planners to raise the pavement level to the front maintenance, we have number of larger of 4 Brick and 5 Essex Court to provide level access to projects running at any one time. The both buildings. The greatest challenge is the 17th largest of these is the project to refurbish Century buildings, where many have external steps 1 & 2 Garden Court and Blackstone and small internal entrance lobbies. The inability to House, including a new enlarged atrium install lifts due to listing restrictions combined with link. As many of you will have noticed, unacceptable external modifications from an historic works started on site in March this year listing perspective may mean that step-free access with QEB Car Park now given over to a may never be achieved to some of these buildings. site compound for the contractor, However, the Inn will continue to review the options in Willmott Dixon Interiors. The project has consultation with the statutory authorities. been split into two phases with Phase 1 (1 & 2 Garden Court) programmed for As always, I would like to conclude this article by completion in March 2020 followed by reminding readers of our overnight lodgings in Phase 2 (Blackstone House) due for 3 Middle Temple Lane. These are available for the completion in February 2021. The works exclusive use of all members of the Inn and may be to Garden Court will include internal booked for short stays, directly through our website modifications to improve room layouts, www.middletemple.org.uk, at prices ranging from works to remedy damp penetration in the £125-£175 with special rates for weekend usage. 2019 Middle Templar 121
EVENTS TEAM The Master of the Kitchen Invites you to meet the Catering & Events Team The Catering and Events team manages every event for every client, from the initial enquiry through to the last plate being washed up. The Events Sales team handles all enquiries, produces brochures, gives tours to prospective clients and sometimes a menu tasting session. Once a booking is confirmed the team issues a contract. All details of the event details are loaded onto order forms and passed to the Kitchen and Operations teams for planning and implementation. The Operations team creates a detailed plan including staffing, organising the right equipment to be in place, liaising with the Estates office to move or rearrange furniture. Beverages? Our Cellar Supervisor ensures that there is sufficient stock to meet the client’s requirements. This includes the allocation of beverages on the day, stock control, and returning unused stock to the cellar. The Kitchen team orders the food, prepares and cooks every dish to perfection. Included in the Kitchen team are the kitchen porters who are responsible for all of the necessary equipment required by the waiters to lay the tables. They also wash up and clean the kitchen after each event. Our daily lunch buffet and themed lunches are created and prepared by the Kitchen team, and serviced by the Hall service team. Tours of the Inn and reservations for tour groups and lunch groups are managed by the Events Sales team. They also manage all filming enquiries. They are responsible for ensuring all relevant parties are informed throughout the process, working in collaboration with the Estates Office and Security. When it comes to communications, the Events team is responsible for Marketing, PR, Social media and managing the Events website. 122 2019 Middle Templar
Anne Atkinson Tessa Clingham Head of Catering and Events Head Chef I am responsible for… I am responsible for… I take great pride in being the first ever female Head of I am responsible for the running and operations of Catering and Events in the Inn’s history, and I oversee any events and banquets that require catering. This the entire department. Our mission is to deliver includes working with the Executive Chef to create first-class planning, execution and servicing all of the and write our menus, dealing with suppliers, daily events that take place at Middle Temple. With an lunch service, and leading the kitchen team. average of 1000 bookings each year, we host business meetings, corporate events, daily lunch service, gala My typical day includes… dinners, garden parties and weddings, all of which are My typical day includes staff briefings, preparing and unique in their requirements. On the catering front, we cooking food, and liaising with our chosen suppliers. serve more than 75,000 meals over the course of 12 I take a lead role in supporting and encouraging our months. team members to be the best they can be and to deliver exceptional food in a fast-paced, high-energy My typical day includes… environment. Anyone who works in Events will know that there is no typical day. It is my job to ensure the team delivers My most memorable moment at the Inn is… their vision down to the very last detail no matter how I think that everyone who comes to the Inn for the first unusual – and there have been quite a few strange time has the same reaction…wow! When I walked requests over the years! through the imposing wooden doors to the Hall on my first day it was like stepping into another world, My most memorable moment at the Inn is… one that has such incredible history and an amazing Asking me to pick out my most memorable moment is atmosphere, it was hard to believe I was still in central more of a challenge than organising an event for 750 London. I fell in love with the building and surrounding guests – there are just too many to choose from! I look gardens immediately, and still get goosebumps forward to working on Grand Day as it a glamourous when I arrive at work every day. event where we see our members dressed up to the nines. We also serve the most wonderful food and the The best part of my job is… best vintages from our wine cellar, and that helps make I am honoured to be the first female Head Chef at Grand Day unique. Middle Temple, and seeing the enjoyment on the faces of our guests when they taste our food is the The best part of my job is… best part of my job! I also love that I can pass my Delivering the dream! There’s nothing more satisfying knowledge on to younger, less experienced, members than seeing happy clients and guests on the day, and of the team and watch them improve over time, as getting exceptional feedback after every event. well as learning new things myself. What would you be doing if you were not What would you be doing if you were not working with Middle Temple? working with Middle Temple? Working in events is a specialty, and once you’ve got I would definitely be working in the catering industry the bug there’s seemingly no going back! I’ve been as it’s more than just a career to me – it’s a life-long doing this for over 20 years and have never become passion. It would have to be a venue that creates jaded by the industry. I would definitely be doing the outstanding food and where talent is appreciated! same job at another venue. Jean Murray The best part of my job is… Waitress I really enjoy talking to the barristers, but most of all I love working with my colleagues. We have become a family I am responsible for… and care for one another outside of work too. Waitressing, setting up the tables for lunch in Hall, cleaning all the cutlery to a high standard and stocking up the What would you be doing if you were not coffee machine. working with Middle Temple? My typical day includes… I’d like to see my friends a lot more often and go on nice I wake up and get ready for work. I jump on the bus at half holidays with my husband. If I wasn’t at Middle Temple, past eight and get a train into Temple. I like to get to work this is a hard one as I have never imagined of working early. Once I have finished for the day, I jump on the train somewhere else. I think I would like to work in a charity and my bus to get home. shop or for an organisation that helps elderly people, or retire as I have worked at Middle Temple for over My most memorable moment at the Inn is… 40 years now. I have memories of waiting for some of our most prominent members today, but back then they were just baby barristers. Master Treasurer was one of the baby barristers who would sit in my section. I have so many memories over the years that I can’t just pick one. 2019 Middle Templar 123
Catering & Events Team Kristina Schmidt Mark Taylor Sales and Marketing Manager Kristina joined in June 2016. Previously Commercial & Operations Director she worked as Events Manager at the Mark began to oversee Events in Sheraton Skyline, Heathrow. 2016, after four years as the Inn’s Head of IT. When not at the Inn, Chloe Bernard Mark likes to cook and walk, and is a keen weekend cyclist. Events Sales Executive Chloe joined in June 2018 and is Anne Atkinson focusing on the organisation of large events within the Inn while Head of Catering & Events prospecting new clients. Anne joined in September 2015. She previously worked at The Dean West Petersham Hotel, where she was Deputy General Manager. Events Sales Coordinator Dean joined in February 2018. as the Jordan Andrews Events Administrator. Previously he studied an Events Management and Executive Chef and Events Film BA at Regent’s University. Operations Manager Jordan joined in November 2015 as Tessa Clingham Executive Chef and was promoted in January 2019. He moved from Head Chef (Banqueting) Australia four years ago and has a Tessa joined in July 2014, following a background in 5*hotels, restaurants previous role in a Mitchelin-starred and the world’s largest cruise ship. restaurant. She enjoys creating food and menu ideas and outdoor activities. Darren Latty Simon Finn Food Services Manager Darren joined in May 2014. He has Head Chef (Lunch) worked in the catering industry for Simon joined in September 2017. over 15 years delivering a customer He passed his Apprenticeship in experience driven by fresh food and a Catering in Australia, and has since fully engaged front of house staff. worked for hotels in Brisbane and Melbourne before moving to the UK Andreea Micutiu where he worked as an area chef in Gastro pubs around London. Events Finance Administrator Andreea joined in March 2018. Rachid Bakhlakh She holds over 10 years’ experience in accounting and human resources Back of House Manager working in Romania. Rachid joined in July 2002. Melodie Ledent Frederic Konan Events Supervisor Cellar and Beverage Supervisor Melodie joined as a casual member of Freddy joined in February 2016 as staff in 2016. She became a permanent the Cellar Attendant. He previously member of staff in April 2019. worked for Conrad London, St James Hotel; Alyn Williams, The Westbury Kolela Minganu Hotel and Gordon Ramsay, Royal Hospital Road. Events Supervisor Kolela joined in March 2018. She graduated with a degree in Business with Law from the University of Hertfordshire. 124 2019 Middle Templar
Bogdan Neaga Dilmer Torres Cueva Chef de Partie Kitchen Porter Bogdan joined in February 2017. Dilmer joined in April 2019. He He previously worked for Brasserie previously worked for Inner Temple. Joel and has 7 years’ experience Dilmer enjoys spending time with his within catering. family and swimming in his spare time. Joao Marques Jean Murray Chef de Partie Waitress Joao joined in October 2017. Jean joined the Inn in December 1979. He previously worked at the Harley Jean is the team’s longest serving staff Street Clinic as a Chef for 14 years. member as a result of this she was Joao enjoys playing football and invited to a Buckingham Palace tennis in his spare time. Garden Party in 2019. Michal Cerny Patricia Saunders Chef de Partie Cashier Michal ioined in November 2015. Pat joined in 2006. He worked for several contract caterers in London including the Tatjana Parahonko offices of Facebook. He enjoys a healthy lifestyle and recently began Waitress cycling everywhere. Tatjana joined in 2006. Alexandra Simion And of course Julie Freeland is still here. Demi Chef de Partie Alexandra joined in June 2017. She previously worked for Brasserie Joel and has 6 years’ experience within catering. Aaron Woods Commis Chef Aaron joined in December 2016. Prior to this he worked for Baxterstorey for one year and has 5 years’ experience within the kitchen. Bruno Alves Da Silva Commis Chef Bruno joined as a permanent Kitchen Porter in June 2015 and has since been promoted to Commis Chef. Jevgenijs Parahonko Kitchen Porter Jeff joined in August 2006. 2019 Middle Templar 125
NEW STAFF AND LEAVERS New Staff Mark Johnston Andrew Durden Estates Security Officer Front of House Officer Mark received a BA in History Andrew joined the front of and a MA in Marketing and is house team in April 2019. He currently studying for his TEFL previously worked for Athenaeum qualification. He previously hotel Piccadilly for 21 years as a worked in Corporate and luggage porter and Buckingham Strategic Marketing Management Palace as a Footman. Andrew for UK and NZ/Australian based enjoys reading, cooking and companies. In his spare time cycling in his spare time. Mark enjoys reading, art and going to the theatre. Iain Crane Carly Lench Gardener Bench Events and Membership Coordinator Iain joined the Inn in May 2019 as a part-time gardener. He studied Carly joined the Membership horticulture at Capel Manor Department in February 2019 College over several years, as the Bench Events and and has worked at Highgate Membership Coordinator. She Cemetery and Myddelton previously worked as an Events House, along with private clients. Assistant at the Royal College of Outside work, Iain enjoys art, Surgeons after graduating from music, languages and travel. the University of Birmingham with a degree in French with Spanish. When not at work she enjoys reading, baking Rosalie Bower and going to the gym. Education Office Assistant James Kritikos Rosalie joined the Education Plumber department in May 2019. She previously worked at Certara James joined the Estates Simcyp as a Library Assistant for department in March 2019. 2 years after graduating from He received an NVQ level 2 in the University of Sheffield with plumbing and previously worked a degree in English Literature. for Platinum Mechanical as a When not at work Rosalie enjoys plumber for a year. James enjoys reading, baking and going to the theatre. spending time with friends and family and going to the cinema in Erin Markcoons his spare time. HR Administrator Paul Ormesher Erin joined the Human Resources Plumber Department in July 2019 as the HR Administrator. She Paul joined the Estates obtained a degree in Business department in March 2019. Management from the University He received an NVQ level 2 in of Greenwich and prior to joining plumbing and previously worked Middle Temple She worked for for Metropolitan plumbing as a Twenty Recruitment. Erin enjoys plumber for around a year. Paul travelling, cooking and time with enjoys keeping active in his spare friend and family. time and playing golf. Beth Flerlage Assistant Librarian Beth joined the Library department in April 2019 as an Assistant Librarian. She was born in Kentucky and has a master’s degree in Library and Information Science. Beth previously worked for Clermont County Public Library as the Adult services Librarian. Beth enjoys staying active, visiting museums and volunteering in her spare time. 126 2019 Middle Templar
Leavers and Retirements The Inn thanks the following members of staff who have retired or left Middle Temple for all their hard work and wishes them well for the future. Philip Herte Bernadette Keeley Porter/Cleaner Supervisor Librarian – UK & US Collections Christopher Bates Kathryn Beck Scholarships Officer Assistant Gardener Daniel Kelleher Christian De Iulio Estates Security Officer Electrician Elizabeth Alderson William Kervick Administrative & Ecclesiastical Librarian Surveyor Melissa Tucker Tony Braddick Records Officer Handyman Stephen Brown Migena Toci Accounts Assistant (Events) HR Officer Keith Kilmurry Lesley Whitelaw Front of House Officer Archivist Paul Clark James Rogerson Front of House Officer Membership Officer James Snape Siobhan Cawkwell Plumber Events Manager THE DAME FRANCES PAT TERSON MEMORIAL LECTURE Law & Politics: A Reply to Reith Kings Chambers & 39 Essex Chambers cordially invite you to attend the inaugural lecture to be delivered by Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC – President of the Supreme Court. This will be held on Tuesday 8th October 2019 at 5.00pm in Middle Temple Hall, Temple, London EC4Y 9BT and will be followed by a drinks reception. Essex R S V P Email: [email protected] We look forward to welcoming you. chambers 2019 Middle Templar 127
A TRIBUTE TO LESLEY WHITELAW MASTER MICHAEL ASHE Lesley Whitelaw Retires of records. At the heart of maintaining an archive is the decision as to what to keep and what to discard. It is not after nearly 30 Years of Service simply a place in which to hide a document. Master Ashe was Called to the Bar in Lesley has had the task these three decades of not only 1971 and took Silk in 1994. He deciding what to keep for the future but also to sort out practises at the Chancery Bar from 9 and catalogue the many documents from the past which Stone Buildings Lincoln’s Inn and also were largely unsorted on her accession to the post. practises in Ireland where he is a Coupled with developing the electronic side this has Senior Counsel. He is a Recorder of enabled the archive to be more accessible to members. the Crown Court in England and Wales. He Master of the Archive at the When the Inn decided to dedicate the attic in the Ashley Inn and was made a Bencher in 1998. Building to provide a temperature controlled repository for the archive and rare books it was a great advance that The retirement of Lesley Whitelaw as the Archivist of Lesley contributed to enormously in terms of planning, Domus after 29 years in office marks a significant change design and sheer energy. in the life of the Inn. Lesley was recruited on a temporary contract to look after what outside experts had An archivist manages information but a great archivist acknowledged is a most important archive nationally and must have that rare ability to reason backwards like a the most complete in the four Inns of Court. Prior to detective, commencing with the evidence and work Lesley’s appointment there had been no full-time archivist to the underlying events, the reality and the meaning and indeed to the best of my knowledge the post, when of documents with a huge sense of history and an it was occupied at all, was held by a volunteer under the appreciation of the context in which those documents direction of the Librarian. were created. Lesley is a great archivist and we will miss her. A decade after Lesley’s arrival her temporary post was made permanent and I think it fair to say that over the the Inns’ memberships such as pupils, barristers, Queen’s period of her career in Middle Temple Lesley has Counsel and Benchers. The Middle Temple team worked acquired a knowledge of the Inn and its history that is hard over several months, taking one of Shakespeare’s second to none. admittedly less well known plays and turning it into an hour’s crowd (and judge) pleasing productions. The result was a An archive unlocks doors to the past. Fundamentally, it is play with both humour and darkness of which the whole cast a working tool of an organisation for preserving records and crew can be immensely proud. but it is much more than a filing system or management The esteemed judging panel on the evening included Master Temple Shakespeare Cup Peter Cowell and Master Nigel Pascoe, flying the flags for their respective Inns. They were joined by acting royalty COLIN WITCHER David Gooderson (Dr Who, Touch of Frost, Lovejoy) and Rhashan Stone (Royal Shakespeare Company, All About Eve Colin Witcher was Called to the Bar and Finding Faith). The Head Judge was Hollywood Actress in 2010 having been awarded the Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense, Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Jules Thorn Scholarship by the Inn. Lost) and, of course, the daughter of our Master Anna He practises from Church Court Worrall. It was clear that the judges enjoyed both Chambers, London, specialising in productions as much as the sell-out audience. general crime, corporate crime and financial regulation. In 2014, he was After thoughtful deliberations, Ms Williams declared on awarded the Pegasus Scholarship and behalf of the judges that Middle Temple’s production in 2015 was elected to the Executive of Cymbeline was victorious, although gave high praise to Committee of the CBA followed a both Inns. year later by the Executive Committee of the SEC. The success of the evening proves that there remains a great appetite within the Inns of Court for Shakespeare On a warm summer’s evening, Inner Temple Gardens had and drama. It is hoped that the Temple Shakespeare Cup been the setting for an acting duel between Inner and will return next year and become a repeating fixture on Middle Temple. The prize, the inaugural Temple Shakespeare the Inn’s calendar. A dash of healthy competition is always Cup to add to the winning Inn’s silverware collection. The welcomed, especially when the right Inn wins! rules were simple: each Inn were to produce, direct and act an hour of Shakespeare and be judged by a celebrity panel. Inner Temple chose Much Ado About Nothing, Middle Temple chose Cymbeline, both Inns opting for modern interpretations although staying faithful to the words of Shakespeare. Both productions were unique in that the casts were not limited to student members, but included the full range of 128 2019 Middle Templar
NEW MASTERS OF THE BENCH 2018-19 New Masters of the Bench 2018-19 These Masters of the Bench were all Called to the Bench between September 2018 and July 2019, following their election by Parliament. They are Called by Master Reader in a ceremony held in Hall attended by their guests, fellow Benchers, members of Hall and students. After dinner, each of the new Benchers is introduced by Master Treasurer and gives a brief address. Bench seniority is determined by date of Call to the Bar for members of the Inn, and at the Treasurers’ discretion for Honorary Benchers. This list is in order of seniority, with the most recently called Bencher, ‘Master Junior’, at the end of the list. At each Inn event, ‘Master Junior’ replies to the Treasurer’s toasts to The Queen, Domus and Absent Members. A full list of Masters of the Bench can be viewed on the ‘Members’ section of the Inn’s website. The Hon. Mr Justice The Hon. Mrs Justice Michael Stuart-Moore Audrey Campbell-Moffat Called to the Bar in 1966 and took Called to the Bar in 1987 and in Silk in 1990. He first commenced Hong Kong in 2000. Appointed as practice at No 1 Hare Court, where Senior Counsel in 2013. Formerly an he remained for 27 years. In 1993, officer in the WRAF, she he moved to Hong Kong on commenced practice before appointment to the High Court moving to the Fraud Investigation Bench. He was appointed to the Group. In 1992, she moved to No 1 Court of Appeal in 1997 and later High Pavement in Nottingham but became Vice President of that Court. He retired from the left in 1999 to commence private practice in Hong Kong. In post in 2009 and continues to sit in Hong Kong as a Deputy 2013, she was appointed one of only two female criminal High Court Judge. Silks in the jurisdiction and in 2016 was appointed as the first female Silk to the High Court Bench. A founding member of Ian Pennicott Esq QC SC the International Advocacy Training Council and has returned to the UK on a regular basis to teach on the South Eastern Called to the Bar in 1982 and in Circuit. Hong Kong in 1984. He took Silk in 2003 and was appointed Senior Professor Diamond Ashiagbor Counsel in Hong Kong in 2014. He (Honorary) is in full-time practice at Des Voeux Chambers, Hong Kong and an Professor of Law at the University of International Tenant of Keating Kent, and Senior Associate Chambers, London. Specialises in Research Fellow at the Institute of domestic and international Advanced Legal Studies, University construction, infrastructure, and oil & gas disputes. He has of London; formerly Professor of sat and is sitting as a Chairman, party-appointed or sole Law at SOAS University of London Arbitrator in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Paris and and Reader in Law at University London. He has extensive knowledge of other forms of ADR, College London. A graduate of the in particular, mediation and adjudication. A member of the University of Oxford (Brasenose College) and has a PhD from CIArb and a Member and Past Chairman (2015-16) of the the European University Institute in Florence. Visiting Scholar Society of Construction Law Hong Kong. at Columbia Law School, New York; Senior Fellow at Melbourne Law School; and Genest Global Faculty at The Hon. Mr Justice Osgoode Hall Law School. Recipient of a US-EU Fulbright Derek Pang JA Research Award and a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. Called to the Bar in 1986 and Derrick Dale Esq QC Called to the Bar in Hong Kong in 1987. 1987-97 Legal Department, Called to the Bar in 1990 and took Hong Kong Government (1987-89 Silk in 2010. He studied law at Crown Counsel, 1989-93 Senior Emmanuel College, Cambridge Crown Counsel, 1993-96 Acting and Harvard Law School and was a Assistant Principal Crown Counsel, Queen Mother’s scholar. He has 1996-97 Deputy Principal Crown practised throughout his career at Counsel); 1997-2000 Deputy Principal Government Counsel, Fountain Court chambers where he Department of Justice; 2000-09 District Judge, Hong Kong was the Head of Pupillage over a 10 Judiciary; 2009-15 Judge of the Court of First Instance of the year period (2007-17). His areas of High Court; 2015- Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal practice include general commercial litigation, arbitration, of the High Court. Senior Assistant Commissioner, Civil Aid banking, insurance and professional negligence. He also sits Service, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as an arbitrator and is a contributor to Simpson on Government; President, The Friends of Scouting, Scout Professional Negligence. Association of Hong Kong. 2019 Middle Templar 129
The Hon. Fabian Picardo QC Jon Turner Esq QC MP, Chief Minister of Gibraltar Called to the Bar in 1988 and took Called to the Bar in 1994 and took Silk in 2006. He studied law at Silk in 2014. Educated in Gibraltar Cambridge and Harvard Law before graduating in Jurisprudence School and supervised in law from Oriel College, Oxford in 1993. part-time for four years at Girton Partner in the Gibraltar law firm College, Cambridge. His practice Hassans he was elected Leader of areas include EU, competition/ the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party regulatory, public and (GSLP) in April 2011 and became environmental law. He sits as a Chief Minister on 9 December 2011. He has continued as deputy High Court judge in the Queen’s Bench Division. Chief Minister following his second General Election win on 27 November 2015. Dr Tessa Green CBE Paul McGarry Esq SC Called to the Bar in 1994. Her career started in communications as Called to the Bar in 2012 and to the Head of corporate affairs for Bar of Ireland in 1996. He was FTSE 100 Carlton Communications appointed Senior Counsel in 2010. Plc. Following a second degree in He was Chairman of the Bar of law, she qualified as a Barrister, Ireland from 2016-18. He practises developing an interest in healthcare mainly in commercial, public and and clinical governance. Chairman EU law. Accredited mediator and of the Royal Marsden NHS international arbitrator. Has served Foundation Trust 1998-2010, a member of the advisory on many boards and authorities. boards of BUPA and Healthcare UK, and is a Trustee of the Head of Irish delegation to the CCBE (2018-20) and co-chair Royal Foundation. Appointed as the Chairman of Moorfields IBA Forum for Barristers and Advocates (2018-20). Eye Hospital in 2016. The Hon. Mr Justice The Hon. Mr Justice Peter Lane Edward Murray Called to the Bar in 1979, he Appointed a High Court Judge in became a solicitor in 1985. His October 2018 and was assigned to career includes five years in the the Queen’s Bench Division. He was Office of the Parliamentary Counsel formerly a partner in the and 16 years in private practice in international law firm Allen & Overy Westminster. He held a number of LLP, where he specialised in judicial tribunal posts, culminating derivatives and structured finance. in the Presidency of the General He was appointed a Recorder in Regulatory Chamber and (currently) the Upper Tribunal, 2009 and a Deputy High Court Judge in 2013. Admitted to the Asylum and Immigration Chamber. He was appointed to the Inn in 2018 following his appointment as a High Court Judge. High Court in 2017. Professor David Howarth The Hon. Mrs Justice (Honorary) Clare Moulder DBE Professor of Law and Public Policy, Studied law at Clare College, University of Cambridge, and Cambridge and she spent most of Fellow of Clare College, her career as a solicitor with Cambridge. Member of Parliament Linklaters. She became a Recorder for Cambridge 2005-10 (Member of in 2010, a Deputy High Court Judge the Justice Select Committee and in 2013 and in 2015 a Specialist shadow Sec. of State for Justice). Circuit Judge (Mercantile Court) in Author of Law as Engineering: Manchester. In 2017 she was Thinking about what lawyers do and Textbook on Tort as well appointed to the High Court (QBD) and sits in the as articles on topics in both private and public law; editor of Commercial Court. She was admitted to the Inn in 2018 Hepple and Matthews on Tort. following her appointment as a High Court Judge. Nicola Mackintosh QC (Hon) His Honour Judge John Hillen (Honorary) Called to the Bar in 1976, he read Sole Principal of Mackintosh Law, a History at Oxford. Practised in practice specialising in community Crime on the South-Eastern Circuit. care and mental capacity casework He became a Recorder in 2000, a in the Court of Protection and Circuit Judge in 2005, and Resident Administrative Court. The Co-Chair Judge at Blackfriars in 2014. He is a of the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Trustee and Director of the BBA. He Group and a member of the Law is engaged in the Inn’s marshalling Society Council. Appointed scheme and in the advocacy Honorary Queen’s Counsel in 2014 for her work for disabled training of pupils. people and access to justice issues. Co-Chair of the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group. In 2016-17, she was a member of the Bach Commission led by Lord Bach which recommended urgent changes to the legal aid system and a new ‘Right to Justice’ Act. 130 2019 Middle Templar
Professor Imelda Maher Robert Weir Esq QC (Honorary) Called to the Bar in 1992 and took The inaugural Sutherland Full Silk in 2010. He attended Christ’s Professor of European Law at the College, Cambridge as a medical UCD Sutherland School of Law and student and converted to law. He is currently the Dean of Law. She is specialises in personal injury work an elected Member of the Royal and was Chair of PIBA from 2016 to Irish Academy where she was 2018. He has practised at Devereux formerly the Polite Literature and Chambers since 1998. He is an Antiquities Secretary. A former Editor of Kemp & Kemp, a President of the Society of Legal Scholars her scholarship is practitioner’s textbook on personal concerned with the law and governance of the EU. Having injury damages. been an academic in England for 16 years before returning to Ireland in 2006 from the LSE, she has a keen interest in the Professor Richard E Myers relationship between the two jurisdictions. (Honorary) Her Honour Judge The Henry Brandis Distinguished Lesley Newton Professor of Law at the UNC School of Law. He teaches Criminal Law, Called to the Bar in 1977 and Criminal Procedure, and Ethics, and practised in Manchester. Appointed is Director of Trial Advocacy. Before as a Circuit Judge in 2001 and teaching, he litigated for O’Melveny Designated Family Judge for & Myers, LLP, in Los Angeles, then Manchester in 2014. Former prosecuted white collar and violent member of the Family Justice crimes as a federal prosecutor in Council, Course Director for family California and North Carolina. law at the Judicial College and President of the Council of Circuit Judges. Andrew Onslow Esq QC David Mildon Esq QC Called to the Bar in 1982, and took Silk in 2002. He read Classics at Called to the Bar in 1980 and took Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He Silk in 2000. Practises at the English practises at 3 Verulam Buildings, Bar with an emphasis on litigation particularly in the fields of and international arbitration in the commercial fraud, white collar energy sector. He also sits as an crime and art and cultural property. arbitrator on Tribunals in the Far He was a Chairman of Bar East and in Europe and as chair of Disciplinary Tribunals, and is shortly to become an disciplinary tribunals in the financial AIM Disciplinary Committee Chairman. He is a Council sector in London. member of JUSTICE. The Hon. Mr Justice Miss Suzanne Ornsby QC David Waksman Called to the Bar in 1986 and took Called to the Bar in 1982, he Silk in 2012. Studied law at became a Recorder in 2001 and University College London. She took Silk in 2002. In 2005, he was practises from Francis Taylor made a Deputy High Court Judge Building and specialises in planning and then in 2007 a judge of the and environmental law. Governor of Manchester Mercantile Court, Notre Dame School (where she was transferring to London in 2015. He educated) since 1999. Regularly became a High Court Judge in involved in public inquiries into 2018, and is a judge of the Commercial and Technology and major infrastructure proposals relating to water and electricity Construction Courts. supply, including the UK’s first desalination plant on the River Thames and promotion of statutory water plans that ensure Miss Araba Taylor London does not run out of water. Called to the Bar in 1985. Practises Judge James Tayler from Fenners Chambers in Cambridge, doing Chancery work. Called to the Bar in 1989 and In 2013, she was appointed a educated at Wadham College, Deputy District Judge (Civil) and Oxford. Practised at Devereux has been authorised to sit on the Chambers from 1990, specialising in specialist Chancery lists at Central employment law. Appointed as a London County Court. Has been salaried Employment Judge in involved with Education and 2007. Acts as a Diversity and Training at the Inn since 1992 and sat on the Hall Committee Community Relations Judge and is 2009-12. Through Bar in the Community, she volunteered as an active member of the Equality, a charity trustee for the Croydon Association for the Young Diversity and Social Mobility Single Homeless. Charity trustee of JustUs Homelessness Sub-Committee. Advocacy in Bedford. 2019 Middle Templar 131
Miss Sam King QC Alexander Nissen Esq QC Called to the Bar in 1990 and took Called to the Bar in 1985 and took Silk in 2018. Educated at Silk in 2006. A barrister in Keating Woodhouse Sixth Form College Chambers, specialising in and Selwyn College, Cambridge. construction, energy, engineering Family Law practitioner who and infrastructure disputes, whether specialises in children law. in litigation, arbitration, Contributing author to Rayden and adjudication or mediation, both in Jackson on Relationship the UK and internationally. He also Breakdown. sits as arbitrator, Recorder and as a deputy High Court Judge in the Technology and Miss Rachel Crasnow QC Construction Court. He was, for some years, Vice-Chair and then Chair of the Technology and Construction Called to the Bar in 1994 and took Bar Association. Silk in 2015. A leading equality Silk at Cloisters, appearing at all levels Miss Elaine Banton to argue complex discrimination and human rights cases. As well her Called to the Bar in 1996. long running involvement in the Specialises in employment, judicial pensions litigation, she is equalities and discrimination law. often involved in cases involving Co-author of the chapter on legal status. She sits as a part-time ‘Human Rights and Employment judge and is also works as a mediator and an investigator. In Law’ for Tolley’s Employment Law. 2018 she won the award of Diversity Champion, recognising Named a ‘Pro Bono Hero for 2009’ her commitment to greater inclusivity at the Bar. by the Attorney General’s Office. She is a current member of the Bar The Honourable Council Equality Diversity and Social Mobility Committee and Mia Mottley QC MP of the Temple Women’s Forum. Called to the Bar in 1987. She Ms Lisa Osofsky became Barbados’ first female and eighth Prime Minister on May 24 Called to the Bar in 1997. Became 2018 after leading the Barbados the Director of the SFO in August Labour Party to a 30-0 victory at the 2018. Before the SFO, she helped polls. First elected in 1994, she is to build a risk, governance, and now into her sixth term as an MP compliance company, from a staff and her third decade in politics. Her of two to over 500. She served as current responsibilities include Finance, Economic Affairs and EMEA Regional Chair, focusing on National Security. the AML and Sanctions monitorship of HSBC Bank and other Her Honour Judge compliance work in Europe. She has been Deputy General Laura Harris Counsel and Ethics officer of the FBI and the Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Goldman Sachs. She has Called to the Bar in 1977. In also served in key prosecutorial roles at the US Department chambers in Queen Elizabeth of Justice. Building from 1978-99. In 1999, she co-founded Coram Chambers, now Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London a leading family law set. Appointed (Honorary) a Deputy District Judge in 1990 and a Recorder in 2003. Became a Elected Mayor of London in May Circuit Judge in 2008 and now sits 2016 winning the largest personal at the Central Family Court. mandate in the history of British politics by securing the support of Ms Charlotte Draycott SC 1.3 million Londoners. Prior to becoming Mayor, Sadiq was the Called to the Bar in 1981 and Member of Parliament for Tooting. admitted to the Hong Kong Bar in He attended Cabinet and served as 1988. Educated King’s College Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Minister for London. London and Inns of Court School of Born and raised in London, Sadiq began his legal career as a Law. Was a tenant at 3 Fountain trainee solicitor. He was made partner in three years and was Court Birmingham 1982-88. Has vice-chair of the Legal Action Group and chair of the civil specialised in Criminal Law from liberties group that became Liberty. 1988 to date. Head of Central Chambers Hong Kong 2006 to date. Appointed as the first European woman Senior Counsel in Hong Kong. 132 2019 Middle Templar
The Rt Hon. & Rt Revd Dame Vikram Sachdeva QC Sarah Mullally DBE, Bishop of London (Honorary) Called to the Bar in 1998, and took Silk in 2015. Studied at Clare A former nurse, Bishop Sarah had a College, Cambridge, and New distinguished service in the NHS College, Oxford, and taught Law at before ordination, culminating in both universities. He specialises in her appointment as the Public Law and Human Rights, government’s Chief Nursing Officer Medical Law, General Commercial for England in 1999. She was Law, Tax, and Regulatory and ordained in 2001 and served her Disciplinary Law. He is Chair of the curacy in Battersea. In 2004 she took up full time ministry, CPBA and Vice Chair of ALBA. becoming a Team Rector in the London Borough of Sutton in 2006. In 2012, she was installed as Canon Treasurer at Kheshoe Parsad Matadeen Salisbury Cathedral and was the fourth woman bishop to be GCSK QC, Former Chief appointed by the Church of England. She was confirmed as Justice of Mauritius the 133rd Bishop of London on 8 March 2018 and is a member of the Privy Council and House of Lords. She was Former Chief Justice of Mauritius. installed as the Dean of HM Chapels Royal on 12 July 2019 He retired from that post in March and awarded the Freedom of the City of London on 25 June 2019 after a career of over four 2019. She was made a Dame Commander of the British decades at the Attorney-General’s Empire in 2005 in recognition of her outstanding contribution Office and on the Bench of the to nursing and midwifery. Supreme Court. He has also served as Judge of Appeal in the Bronwen Maddox (Honorary) Seychelles and on the COMESA Court of Justice, which sits in Zambia. He is also a former member of the UN Human The Director of the Institute for Rights Committee. Government, a leading independent think tank. From Joanna Cherry QC MP 2010–16 she was Editor and Chief (Honorary) Executive of Prospect magazine. Previously she was Chief Foreign Currently the MP for Edinburgh Commentator, Foreign Editor and South West and the SNP’s US Editor of The Times, an award spokesperson for Justice and Home winning reporter at the Financial Affairs at Westminster. She is a Times and a Director of Kleinwort Benson Securities. She is a non-practising member of the non-executive board member of the Law Commission. Faculty of Advocates. She was admitted as an Advocate in Catherine McGuinness Scotland in 1995 and took Silk in (Honorary) 2009. She previously held the offices of Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government and Advocate Depute. Chair of the Policy & Resources Committee at the City of London Corporation. She is a Board Member of TheCityUK, London & Partners and London Councils. A solicitor by training, she practised in financial services law for several years. She studied PPE at St Anne’s College, Oxford. The Rt Hon. Professor the Lord Kakkar PC (Honorary) Professor of Surgery, University College London, as well as: Chairman of University College London Partners Academic Health Science Partnership, Consultant Surgeon at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Director of the Thrombosis Research Institute. He has served as Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission since 2016. 2019 Middle Templar 133
BECOMING A BENCHER LAUREN MCHARDY Becoming a Bencher: A Guide Why become a Bencher? (and what it involves) How to apply The Masters of the Bench, or Benchers, are responsible In order to apply, candidates must have a proposing for the governance of the Inn. Ordinary Benchers Bencher, who will speak for them at Parliament. The (Benchers who were Called to the Bar by the Inn) are proposer must complete Form A of the nomination form elected by their fellow Ordinary Benchers. For most and the candidate Form B. Both forms can be found on Benchers, their election is seen as a platform from which the website: www.middletemple.org.uk/members/ they can renew their contribution to the life of the Inn, or masters-bench/ordinary-bencher-nomination-forms a way in which they can give something back, having received support from the Inn at the outset of their After the Election career. There are many varied ways in which Benchers can contribute to the Inn, including: advocacy training, It is possible that a candidate may not be successful at attending Inn events, participating in the work of an Inn first attempt and there is no embarrassment in this. committee, involvement in MT Circuit and Overseas BSAC will often put the candidate forward again at Societies, performing in Revels, or acting as a scholarship a subsequent Election Parliament at which they are interviewer. then successful. Election process As and when a candidate is elected to the Bench, the painful part is that there is a one-off fee, currently £1,750, Each application for election to the Bench is first which must be paid prior to Call to the Bench. Commons considered by the Bench Selection Advisory Committee amounting to £600 pa are charged following Call to (BSAC), which meets three times a year to put forward a the Bench. short list of candidates for consideration by Parliament. There are three Election Parliaments each year. Each Questions candidate’s proposer speaks on his or her behalf and Parliament then elects a pre-determined quota of the If you have any questions about the process of becoming candidates put forward. a Bencher, or would like to get more involved at the Inn but do not know how to go about doing so, please Eligibility Criteria contact me at: [email protected]. The Inn is happy to answer all queries and please do not be shy In order to be considered as a Candidate for election to about getting in touch or putting yourself forward. the Bench as an Ordinary Bencher, candidates must have been Called to the Bar for at least 15 years. In considering And Finally… candidates, BSAC looks at all the following factors: The stereotypical image of the typical Bencher is of a • The candidate’s high reputation in their relevant area of white, male, Oxbridge-educated Silk or Judge and there practice or work and their commitment to support the are many that fit that description. Nonetheless, the Inn once elected; and/or composition of the Bench is changing. This is demonstrated by the fact that, for the first time in the • Any significant contribution to the Inn which they will Inn’s history, Parliament has thus far in 2019 elected continue once elected; and/or more female Benchers than male Benchers. Progress can be sedate at the Inns, but the pace does seem to • Any significant contribution to the profession made by be picking up! the candidate, and commitment to support the Inn once elected. The key message for anyone thinking of applying is that participating in the Inn’s life as a Bencher can be In taking account of these factors, BSAC also seeks to very rewarding. promote diversity in terms of sex, age, location, ethnic and social background. 134 2019 Middle Templar
OBITUARY: MASTER JAMES TOWNEND THE TELEGRAPH Master James Townend 1938 – 2018 It was with considerable sadness that James will be remembered by all who knew him as a both current and former members powerful and fearless advocate, gifted with remarkable of Chambers and staff learned of eloquence, a brilliant turn of phrase and a considerable Master James Townend’s death. courtroom presence. Between 1986 and 1988, and following in the footsteps of former members of Born in Deal and educated at Tonbridge and chambers, Anthony Ewbank QC and Anthony Hollis QC, Lincoln College, Oxford, a spell of National Service he served as Chairman of the Family Law Bar Association. followed before he was Called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1962. In 1987 he played a prominent part in the Cleveland Child Abuse Inquiry. Following the elevation to the Bench of Mr James took Silk at just 16 years’ Call in 1978 and Justice Hollis in 1982, James assumed the mantle as the became a Recorder of the Crown Court the following Head of Chambers of 1 King’s Bench Walk, a position he year. For many years he also sat as a distinguished held for a full 17 years. deputy High Court Judge of the Family Division. Naturally, he soon became a Bencher of the Inn. Following his retirement from practice he returned to his native Deal to enjoy good wine, conversation and good James practised both in crime and family law and company, together with both fishing and some sailing, almost anything else that came his way, to include when the opportunity came its way. To the very end, he actions for professional negligence and a notable and retained his hospitable ‘open door’ policy for those who long-running inquiry into the opening of a second might be visiting those parts. terminal at Gatwick Airport. James will be greatly missed. Extracted from, and reproduced by kind permission of The Telegraph In Memoriam The Inn is sad to announce the passing of the following members in the past year. Masters of the Bench Members Alistair Mitchell France René Sir Louis Jacques Blom-Cooper QC Frederick Croft James Canlin Professor John Hopkins Robert Smith Pauline Higgins Sir Charles McCullough His Honour John Hopkin Jonathan Brettler James Townend QC Derek Wheatley QC The Hon Mr Justice Carr Her Honour Jacqueline Davies Adrian Robertson QC (Ad Eundem member) Sir George Newman Sukhbir Bassra Sir Ramesh Jeewoolall Marcel Berlins His Honour David Watling Valentine Le Grice QC Siraj Ahmed 2019 Middle Templar 135
OBITUARY: MASTER LOUIS BLOM-COOPER MASTER GEOFFREY ROBERTSON Master Louis Blom-Cooper 1926 – 2018 Master Louis Blom-Cooper, for half a Hart Publishing, 2015His unique talent was to make complex cases and highly century the Bar’s most brilliant and technical legal issues comprehensible to intelligent effective maverick, has died at the laymen: he began as The Guardian’s first legal columnist, age of 92. and then, for 25 years, was ‘Justinian’ – the highly respected regular commentator in The Financial Times. His He played a leading part in developing judicial review as a legal writings were leavened by football journalism for The means of holding government to account; he ran speedy Observer, and by a growing – almost consuming – passion and coruscating inquiries into social work failures in Britain for penal reform. Roy Jenkins appointed him to the Home and high-level corruption in the commonwealth; his Secretary’s Advisory Council on Penal Reform, on which he contribution to penal reform and child protection is served from 1966 to 1978, and in 1973 he became, for 11 marked in legislation he inspired; as Chairman of the Press years, a highly effective chair of the Howard League for Council he began the yet unfinished effort to regulate the Penal Reform. Reforms reflecting modern penological media whilst upholding free speech; he pioneered legal thinking owe much to his advocacy. journalism by writing regular columns in The Guardian and The Financial Times, and was one of the founders of the Blom-Cooper took Silk in 1970, and became head of his Index on Censorship. His prolific books and articles own Chambers at Goldsmith Building. He was a mercurial reflected his passion for civil liberties, and his practice member of an otherwise staid senior Bar, representing demonstrated his commitment to the principle that if there Derek Hatton in the High Court (unsuccessfully) and Bob was a legal point capable of argument, it should be taken Monkhouse (charged with film copyright offences) powerfully on behalf of the unprepossessing and the successfully at the Old Bailey. In 1974, one of Ian Smith’s powerless. He mentored many leaders of today’s human judges, who had sentenced men to hang in Rhodesia, rights Bar. Before the Human Rights Act, it was often said came to England for a holiday. It was Louis who, at the that the last chance for those denied justice was the instance of Amnesty International, worked out how to creative, restless mind of Blom-Cooper. prosecute him for manslaughter (UDI laws being illegitimate in the UK) and even persuaded the Divisional For the legal establishment, Louis Blom-Cooper was never Court to issue a warrant for his arrest (the judge cut short ‘one of us’ – he had a doctorate from Amsterdam his holiday). He was counsel in the Confait inquiry into the University, although he had been born in North London wrongful murder conviction of mentally challenged young and had made himself exceedingly familiar with English men: the Tribunal endorsed most of his arguments and law through degrees from King’s College London and from they led to greater protection of the vulnerable in police Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College). He saw war service as a custody, and to the establishment of the Crown captain in the East Yorkshire Regiment (1944-47) and after Prosecution Service. post-graduate studies he was Called to the Bar, at his beloved Middle Temple, in 1952. His astonishing intellect was soon recognised and he was recruited as a junior for complex and difficult cases. The most famous was the libel trial of Leon Uris and the publishers of Exodus, brought by Dr Dering, who had worked quietly in the East End after participating in medical experiments at Auschwitz. He was foolish enough to sue for libel, and the case brought several of his victims, and the true emotional horror of the concentration camps, into the hitherto sedate forum of Court 7 of the Queen’s Bench. The jury awarded Dering the libel raspberry – half a penny – and Uris turned the case into a novel, QBVII. Blom-Cooper had an extraordinary capacity for work. When not crafting complex pleadings, he was writing books – on topics ranging from bankruptcy to literature (his edited collection, Law and Literature, remains a classic treatment of the subject). He wrote (with Gavin Drewry) the first comprehensive analysis of the UK’s top court, the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, and his Penguin paperback on the A6 Murder – which incisively disposed of the theory that Hanratty was innocent – sold well. 136 2019 Middle Templar
Blom-Cooper had been a ferocious opponent of the death OUP Oxford, 2009 penalty. After its abolition in the UK he frequently took cases, pro bono, for condemned men in the By 1988, when Blom-Cooper retired from the Bar to take Commonwealth whose final Court of Appeal was the on chairmanship of the Press Council, his work had (usually unreceptive) British law lords sitting in the Privy become better understood (human rights discourse was Council. In 1975 the Black Power leader, Michael X, was now in the air) and better appreciated, as the legal convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Trinidad. establishment recognised the importance of having a His friend John Lennon donated the piano on which some public advocate and an exemplar of its claims to act for the of the Sergeant Pepper songs had been composed to underdogs. His farewell party was full of judges and law fund an appeal. Louis agreed to go to Trinidad to argue it. lords, who had come to look on him almost with affection. When he failed, execution was delayed for 2 years, so he One commented, acidly but correctly, ‘this retirement has appealed to the Privy Council on the grounds that the all the hallmarks of Frank Sinatra’s’. After the demise of the delay required commutation of the sentence. Lord Diplock Press Council, he returned as an associate member of quickly shot him down: the delay was Michael X’s own fault, Doughty Street Chambers, a human rights practice for bothering to appeal. It was 20 years before the established by some of the counsel whom, in their youth, argument was successful in the ground-breaking case of he had mentored. Over the next quarter-century, he spent Pratt v AG of Jamaica: seven law-lords overruled Diplock more time writing and lecturing, but he took great pride and held that a prolonged stay on death row amounted to and pleasure in their achievements. torture, and required commutation of the capital sentence. Although Michael X had been hanged, many hundreds of He managed, in the two years he was at the helm of the men in the Caribbean were to have their lives saved by the Press Council, to institute changes in procedures that gave argument first deployed in his defence. complainants a better hearing and which sped up adjudications, and most notably he introduced a code of ‘Courageous advocacy’ at the English Bar is usually no practice for newspapers. But he could not convince the more than the ability to stand up to a difficult or dyspeptic Committee set up under Sir David Calcutt that the Press judge. The taxi-rank principle, whereby barristers proffer Council was capable of reform: too many promises in the their availability to take any case capable of argument, past had not been delivered, and Calcutt detected a fatal theoretically extends to all litigants. But when the Church flaw in an institution which purported to promote free of Scientology sought a QC to object to the then idolised speech, while at the same time purporting to offer Lord Denning - on the grounds that he had made such independent adjudication for complaints against it. Calcutt hostile remarks about Scientology in previous cases that he recommended abolition of the Press Council and its should not preside over their latest appeal, the taxis failed replacement by a Press Complaints Commission: his report to arrive. Their brief to accuse the Master of the Rolls of presaged an end to self-regulation entirely. The new PCC bias was hawked around the Temple, as QC’s claimed that turned out in time to be even less effective: Sir Louis made it was unarguable as well as unthinkable. Blom-Cooper some astute comments to the Leveson Enquiry that were took the brief without hesitation, and stood before based on his experiences in juggling the expectations of Denning himself and two other Lord Justices to remind the proprietors and the public. them of Denning’s previous attacks on the cult. To everyone’s surprise, the Court (Denning included) agreed Sir Louis was a gregarious man who was to the end of his that he had to stand down – not because there was the life to be found in attendance at events at the Middle slightest evidence that he was biased, of course, but Temple (his second home, ‘often his first home’ his because a Silk had seen fit to make the allegation in open daughter remarked), where he was a Bencher. He enjoyed court, and the public would therefore necessarily have a a happy family life, with two sons and a daughter from his perception, from the high standing of QC’s, that there was first marriage and a son and two daughters from his a basis for the accusation. It was a decision that reflected second marriage to Jane, a social worker, fellow prison the cocoon in which the legal establishment operated at reformer and devoted companion. the time: QC’s were all reliable chaps who did not break ranks. Blom-Cooper, a passionate believer in the law and its principles, could not be trusted to cover up. Blom-Cooper’s finest talent was in chairing public inquiries. His reports on the death of Jasmine Beckford and Kimberly Carlisle – abused children who died after social services neglect – were much admired, and led to important changes in the law, as did his chairmanship of the Mental Health Act Commission for England and Wales. He conducted inquiries into the killing of occupational therapist Georgina Robinson, and into Ashworth Special Hospital. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office sent him to inquire into political corruption in the Turks and Caicos, and several ministers were sacked as a result. In 1990, it put him forward to conduct a difficult and dangerous royal commission in Antigua, where he uncovered a conspiracy of James Bond proportions, in which several of the island’s corrupt politicians had conspired with the Medellin Cartel to smuggle guns from Israel and to set up a training base for terrorists on this tourist island. 2019 Middle Templar 137
OBITUARY: MASTER JOHN HOPKINS THE TELEGRAPH Master John Hopkins 1936 – 2018 John Hopkins, was a Fellow in Law at Sitting in his armchair, with pipe in hand, his method was Downing College, Cambridge, for 43 to discuss the law and events of the day, while years, during which time he taught progressing through a complex procedure to light his thousands of Law students and single- pipe, which required cleaning, filling, lighting and handedly transformed the College’s drawing repeatedly, with the match being extinguished reputation in legal education. by a flick of the wrist and thrown into a bin. Usually the process was unsuccessful and would be repeated many Downing was founded in 1800 ‘for students in law, times. Sometimes the match was not extinguished and physic and the other useful arts and learning’. When the bin caught light. It would be taken outside to Hopkins joined the Fellowship in 1961, its reputation smoulder while the supervision continued without for the teaching of Law was unspectacular. At that time comment. no sitting judge or practising Queen’s Counsel had read Law at the College. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Hopkins taught Constitutional Law, Roman Law, however, a party was thrown by more than 80 judges International Law and Equity at Cambridge, both in and QCs, all of whom had been taught by Hopkins at supervisions and in lectures, the latter while wearing his Downing; such was his influence on the College and the ancient gown; and for many years he taught the Law of legal profession. Trusts to student barristers on the Bar Vocational Course. His approach to teaching was to provide As an academic he was almost exclusively a teacher structure to complex bodies of law and to provide rather than a researcher, using the intimacy of the students with the intellectual tools to apply, analyse and Cambridge small-group supervision system to instil criticise the law. precision of legal thought and critical analysis in his students. Law students from Downing and many other He particularly engaged with the real-life stories colleges were supervised by him in his room, which was underpinning leading cases and emphasised the vital swamped by piles of papers. importance of using words properly. His favourite example, sometimes used as a question in admissions interviews, concerned the interpretation of a statutory provision that the Home Secretary had ‘reasonable cause to believe’ the subject of a decision of the House of Lords in 1941. Downing College, University of Cambridge 138 2019 Middle Templar
Could this be interpreted to mean that the Home To celebrate his 80th Secretary believed he had reasonable cause to believe? birthday a dinner was held The House of Lords held it could. Hopkins took great in the College hall and a delight in dismantling the reasoning. photograph unveiled of him supervising, in armchair, As a don he was both idiosyncratic and personable. pipe in hand, explaining A great raconteur, he had a penchant for poor jokes and the law to his students. puns which were repeated endlessly, often reflecting his The picture has been placed political predilections, even though as the years passed outside his old room, which undergraduates were increasingly unaware of the is now named after him. references (often thinking that there had once been a London airport called ‘Thatcherow’ and even a In 1965 Hopkins was elected an Official Fellow of newspaper called ‘The Daily Torygraph’). Downing College and appointed to a university lectureship. He served as Director of Studies in Law for At times politically incorrect, he often said that there 35 years and as Senior Tutor for 16. In 1981 he was was no point in having prejudices if you did not air elected as an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple. them. But the needs of his students were always paramount and many were in his debt, sometimes Although reactionary by inclination, he was always ready literally, for the support and advice he gave them when to admit when he was wrong. In his early years as Senior facing fraught personal circumstances. Tutor he expressed significant reservations about the admission of women to Downing, but soon realised his He always took great pride in mapping the legal careers mistake and considered this to have been ‘the most of his Law students. The careers of many judges, admirable and natural change in the life of the College’. barristers and partners of City law firms were determined at a meeting in Hopkins’s room, with a He had many interests outside the law, especially cricket recommendation that they should go to the Bar or to a (he wore his MCC tie at every opportunity), music particular firm of solicitors. Some did not heed this (particularly Wagner and Mozart), biography and 19th advice and went into careers outside the Law, as Century literature (he would often quote large chunks of diplomats, civil servants, politicians, journalists, clerics Trollope). But his greatest interest, in addition to his and performers: John Cleese was one of his first family on whom he doted, was his former students. students. For him personal success in legal scholarship or practice was less important than the pride of success in those he Hopkins was also for many years an admissions tutor, had educated. and he interviewed thousands of prospective students. When asked what he was looking for when making That was reflected back as pride that they had been admission decisions, he would respond by referring to taught by the man they affectionately called ‘Hoppo’. ‘Squirrels Nutkin’ rather than ‘Eeyores’, seeking those To celebrate his 80th birthday a dinner was held in the who were ‘bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’. College hall and a photograph unveiled of him supervising, in armchair, pipe in hand, explaining the John Alan Hopkins was born on 16 December 1936 at law to his students. The picture has been placed outside Hemsworth, Yorkshire. He attended Queen Elizabeth his old room, which is now named after him. He is survived Grammar School in Wakefield until the age of 12, when by his wife Cherry, and by their daughter and son. his family moved to Pontypridd. He took great pride in this mixed Yorkshire and Welsh upbringing. Following National Service with the Royal Artillery at Oswestry he read Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1960 he read for the LLB, his studies focused on international law. In 1961 he was elected to a Research Fellowship at Downing College, where he was mentored by Professor Clive Parry, the Whewell Professor in International Law, who had a profound influence on him – and who instigated his meeting with Cherry Busbridge, another researcher in international law, whom Hopkins married in 1964. The joint influence of Hopkins and Parry on the study of Law at the college was reflected much later by the creation of the Hopkins Parry Law Fellowship, which was endowed with money raised from his former students. Extracted from, and reproduced by kind permission of The Telegraph 2019 Middle Templar 139
OBITUARY: MASTER CHARLES MCCULLOUGH MASTER IGOR JUDGE Master Charles McCullough 1931 – 2018 I knew and remember Master Iain members of the same Chambers would have been Charles Robert McCullough as Charlie, tarnished at the outset, if he had said nothing. Telling me not to disrespect him, but through may not have mattered to me, but it mattered to him. warm affection. Early in my career, he often led me. For a short time when I He was my friend, invariably generous to me, a man of was newly in Silk we did work against each other. He was brilliant ability, and deep humility (perhaps less generous not an easy opponent. His capacity for work was to, and over critical of himself, than he should have been). gargantuan. At 2:30am, page 650, middle paragraph, he would find a crucial sentence. He never read lightly and Charles was born in Scotland, and his was a wartime absorbed every line he read. As his junior, I would sit childhood, with all the uncertainty to which so many such working with him while we drafted and redrafted the childhoods were exposed. I was reminded of Charlie’s argument for the Court of Appeal. In the end, I would just Scottish like inability to throw anything away by his son, have to go to bed, and he always promised that he would Master Angus McCullough, who described finding in a leave Chambers shortly. By next morning our submissions deep recess of a desk drawer some carefully filed rail and were even better than they had been the night before. platform tickets from the 1940s. One of them was a third One example of this is his influence on what the law says class season ticket issued to Master ICR McCullough, valid about the impact of intoxication on criminal culpability. until 25 October 1944. Angus, being Charlie’s son, couldn’t Charlie’s submission to the Court of Appeal in R v Moore help studying the ticket more closely, and noticed that the and Sheehan provided the basis for the complexities of the ticket carried the legend, ‘this ticket must be given up on law to be unravelled, and the famous phrase ‘a drunken expiry’. I suspect that that was the last time that Charlie intent is nevertheless an intent’ was a direct lift of Charlie’s failed to spot something in the papers. opening carefully crafted submission. It was a pity that its parentage was not recognised. From school, he completed his National Service, progressing to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and then onto the In the 1970s literally thousands of men had spent their Bar and the Midland Circuit, in those happy days when the lifetimes underground in coal mines and suffered from that only specialist skill required of a barrister was skill as an evil disease, pneumoconiosis. I was a very junior member advocate. Advocacy before different courts in all sorts of of the team embarking on the most convoluted litigation. different jurisdictions, crime, civil actions, some planning We fully appreciated that some cases could be won, and here, or an inquiry or licence application there. Charlie was some definitely lost, and that for some the outcome was a powerful and persuasive advocate before every and any uncertain. The costs of litigating each and every case tribunal. would be horrific, and wasted in the legal processes. Charlie kept underlining, whether they won or lost, that all I first came across him when, having failed to be offered a these men had worked underground, and they were now tenancy after 12 months pupillage, I joined the same living hellish lives and would eventually die terrible deaths. chambers as a probationary tenant. He allowed me to do He encouraged the Union to find a political compromise, some devilling for him. As everyone always did in those not an easy task, if only to save the costs of both sides in days, he let me have copies of the drafts that he had many hundreds of cases and make the funds available for produced. But far beyond that, he would spend his very the victims. He then became involved in the political limited time on helping me by returning my draft, discussions. Eventually, the Government of the day and the thoroughly corrected, marked with helpful comments, Union agreed a fair deal, which enabled all victims of that including ( I cannot help remembering) red circles around disease to be provided with some means of easing their punctuation howlers and wavy red lines alongside suffering - and for Charlie to lose huge legal fees. Very few unfortunate syntax. However inadequate my draft had people within the profession knew anything about this been he always paid me in full at once. With his help, and amazing political compromise, and that, too, typified that of others, the quality of my work improved. Shortly Charlie. In the meantime, he served the profession and the after I became a tenant he provided me with an example law. He was a member of a very distinguished Criminal Law of the overarching embrace of what his personal integrity Revision Committee and then the Bar Council. meant to him. Over a coffee, he told me that when he heard that I was being considered for a probationary And so to the Bench. Even as a friend and admirer I cannot tenancy, he had been against it, on the basis that pretend that Charlie was an easy judge, and he would have Chambers were too successful to take on someone who been horrified if I had pretended otherwise. The truth is had failed to get a tenancy after pupillage elsewhere. He that he could be difficult, impatient. He was too apologised to me. Charlie did not need to tell me that, meticulous, more especially in the Administrative Court and I would never have known. As I came to know and than in crime, where he was an admirable trial judge. understand him better I realised that to Charlie integrity Those who did not know him could not appreciate, as I was all-encompassing. For him, our future relationship as did, that these judicial faults were a consequence of his many admirable qualities. Charlie was just as assiduous in 140 2019 Middle Templar
his pre-reading as a judge as he had been at the Bar. For her a mother of pearl button he said had belonged to his him, pre-reading was a euphemism for close scrutiny. He mother. He kept the feather in his wallet for many years had never read the papers; he had mastered them. He was and she dangled the button on her bed long after she had too modest to appreciate that just because he had spotted grown up. Their friendship is a precious childhood memory the point of the middle paragraph of page 650 it did not for her. follow that any half competent barrister should have done so. He tended to tribute this imbalance between his This was the man who loved the Temple Church and who, appreciation of the detailed facts and those of the as the Treasurer of the Middle Temple, put every ounce of barristers to unacceptable insufficiency of preparation. To energy into the interests of the Inn. Never less than every the detriment of the client. Similarly, if the case had been ounce. He could never be less than fully committed. His carefully prepared Counsel would have been able to see overwhelming concern was that the members of the staff that the particular argument of law was unsound. His should always be properly treated. No more than three or passionate commitment to the doing of justice led him to four days after I became Treasurer he came to see me, to overwork, writing and rewriting crucial paragraphs of his tell me in unequivocal language that their interests should judgements. be my prime concern during my year. An unusual example, indeed the only one of which I am This was also the man who had been lost in a trance on the aware, of this commitment occurred in the case where a day Judith and I were married, gazing into the fields where child had been brutally treated, with photographs so the newly born lambs were playing, utterly absorbed at horrific that they could not be sent to Court in advance of nature’s turning cycle. A few weeks later, he and Margaret the sentencing hearing. When the photos were shown to were engaged. They gave each other two lovely children him Charlie postponed sentence to the next day so that he and offered each other constant support, worrying would not pass sentence in anger and while he was upset. together, enthusing together, and bringing each other In other words, he identified the risk of possible injustice to endless happiness. In later years when his judicial burdens everyone involved in the case and, no doubt to great had finished, their travelling would have brought couples inconvenience, he ordered the necessary pause. Charlie’s many years younger to their knees. Walking holidays all sense of duty, his integrity, made him determined to over Europe, cycling holidays, visits to the Kingdom of guarantee perfection. It was unfortunate that the standards Bhutan, the Karakoram Highway and far western China, he required of others, and those he required of himself, each continuing to be enriched by the other. were sometimes over-demanding. It also distracted attention from the brilliance of his mind. The last months were not easy. Charlie deserved better. So indeed did Margaret. But he died at home, peacefully and Yet, this was the man who, as part of a bedtime story, so with his closest family members around him and her. This captivated our daughter (then aged about six) with his talk was a full life, by a man of fascinating character, who about birds and their beauty and their habits that when her always, but always, knew where he stood. You stood grandpa found a recently dead jay, she brought him one wherever you should, you stood wherever it was right that beautiful feather as a present, and he responded by giving you should stand. Extracted from Master Igor Judge’s address at Master McCullough’s Memorial Service on 24 January 2019 Sir Ramesh Jeewoolall 141 1940 – 2019 Sir Ramesh Jeewoolall was Called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1968 and returned to Mauritius in April 1969. He joined the Judiciary, following which he went on to have a flourishing career at the Bar. He was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1979. A keen politician, he was elected to serve the Parliament of Mauritius under the banner of the Labour Party and served successively as Member of the Legislative Assembly, Minister of the Environment, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Speaker and thereafter Speaker. He was the Chancellor of the University of Mauritius. He was the founding member and mastermind behind the creation of the Mauritius Middle Temple Association of which he was the Honorary President and has always closely followed the activities of the Association. Sir Ramesh Jeewoolall passed away on the 24 May 2019 at the age of 79. His demise is a great loss to the Mauritius Legal profession and his loved ones. Rashad Daureeawo SC President of Mauritius Middle Temple Association (MMTA) 2019 Middle Templar
OBITUARY: MASTER JACQUELINE DAVIES SALLY CAHILL QC Master Jacqueline Davies 1948 – 2019 When Jackie was in the hospice, there Both she and her practice flourished. As solicitors realised were a large number of phone calls with the power of a female advocate in criminal cases, it was inquiries about how she was, and not long before she had the reputation of being the sex whether she could have visitors. queen of South Yorkshire. By that, I mean she defended, but more usually prosecuted, serious sexual offences. When inquiring, some people asked for Jackie Davies and some for Jackie Clark. The staff at the hospice were Jackie was always a well-prepared, thorough, accurate and confused; they could not work out why she would have two considerate advocate. She never went in to court with a names. One eventually asked, ‘Does she have a criminal brief only half read, or the law un-researched. She had background?’ exceptionally high standards for herself and expected no less of others. She had none of the less admirable Jackie started life in Manchester where she went to personality traits of the Bar and did not tolerate those who Manchester Girls High School. She went on to Leeds are patronising or pompous. Jackie’s career at the Bar was University where she read Law and graduated in 1969. epic, and it came as no surprise when at the young age of There were not many girls who went to University in the 45 she was tapped on the shoulder (which happened in 1960s, and not many girls who graduated in Law. Then, as those days), and duly appointed as a Circuit Judge in 1993. so often later in life, she was a trailblazer. She was Called to Always courteous, she always listened and considered her the Bar at Middle Temple in July 1975, and so began her judgements carefully, but once she made up her mind, the long and hugely successful career in the law. It was at a decision was both well-reasoned and clear. time when the words ‘female’ and ‘Barrister’ were rarely used in the same sentence. Jackie did her pupillage in It was, however, at a Judicial Studies Board training event Leeds at 39 Park Square, under the guidance of John that her life changed, and she met Paul Clark. He was a Bullimore. On completion of her pupillage, she was taken Judge in Oxford and she in Sheffield. Jackie changed. Her on as a tenant. She was the first woman to practise from smile widened and her eyes brightened. There is no doubt those chambers. she had met the love of her life and to the great pleasure of all who had known her so long they married in 1997. It Many chambers, including 39 Park Square, had effectively was pleasing to her that Paul’s sons made her so welcome been run as a male club and the clerk had no experience as a stepmother. of working with a female tenant. His method of handing out the briefs did not go down well. For those that were Without exception, all the younger female members of the not sent to a particular member of chambers, or that were Bar and bench that I have spoken to about Jackie have being returned, he allocated them based on the seniority recounted their own experience of a kind and genuine of the male member of the chambers, before eventually senior member of the profession who helped them at all considering Jackie or me. The rationale for this was that times when help was needed. Having had her own the men had wives and children to support whilst in his difficulties as a young member of the profession, Jackie view Jackie and I could not possibly have financial did everything she could to ensure that others trod a responsibilities. Occasionally, when there what was called a smoother path. All of us here and, I suspect, not just the ‘matrimonial’ brief, Jackie might be considered higher on females, owe her a debt. the list, because ‘matrimonial’ was ‘Women’s work’. What was certain was that if the brief related to any serious At the Inn, Jackie involved herself in the education of the criminal matter, that was real work, with which women young members of the profession. She was elected as a could not be trusted. Bencher in 2004 and in 2016 was asked to be a Reader in 2018. I think the first indication to me of her illness came As Jackie’s reputation grew, and briefs began to arrive in when she unexpectedly told me that she had given the Inn her own name, the clerk struggled with the idea that she backword. It was a matter of great pleasure to her when should be let loose in the Crown or even High Court and, she learnt that the Inn had decided to put her name on the on occasion, was known to cross her name out and hand Board of Readers although she was unable to fulfil the task. the brief to a man. None of that went down well with Paul was also a Reader at Middle Temple so their names Jackie, and not surprisingly, the relationship between them will forever be on that board together. was strained. To the huge dismay of those of us left, Jackie moved to St Paul’s House chambers. They were newly set Jackie’s illness was both cruel and unfair. She never up and were run in a completely different manner. complained and even through her illness, there were Although Jackie went there as the only woman, she felt moments of fun. very much part of a team, and was treated as an equal. Here today are her daughter Gill and son in law Alex. Her grandchildren Jack and Ella, her brothers Geoffrey and David and their wives Judy and Jill. Our thoughts and condolences go to you all. Extracted from Sally Cahill QC’s address at Master Davies’ funeral on 30 April 2019 142 2019 Middle Templar
OBITUARY: MASTER GEORGE NEWMAN THE TELEGRAPH Master George Newman 1941 – 2019 Sir George Newman, who has died aged Newman also acted for the government of Trinidad after 77, was the retired High Court judge an attempted coup in 1990 when members of parliament appointed in 2014 to lead the Iraq Fatality were held captive. A resolution was eventually found, and Investigations (IFI) – independent inquiries an amnesty given to the coup leaders, but the government into civilian deaths linked to Britain’s later imprisoned them and went back on the amnesty, involvement in Operation Iraqi Freedom. arguing that it had been obtained by duress. Eventually the Privy Council upheld the amnesty, but also rejected any George Newman was born on 4 July 1941 and educated suggestion that the coup leaders should be entitled to any at Lewes County Grammar School. He read Law at St compensation for false imprisonment. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he won a Squire scholarship. Called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1965, Newman’s advocacy style was one of easy authority, with a he took Silk in 1981. Newman established his reputation in touch of self-deprecatory humour. He was a famously the late 1970s acting for representatives of the National eloquent advocate, and as a cross-examiner would ask Association for Freedom, taking on the trade unions in questions in such a way that the witnesses were not able to lawsuits that paved the way for Margaret Thatcher to clip anticipate the ultimate point to which they were being led, their wings. so they would tend to sound slightly shifty. In the case of Gouriet v Union of Post Office Workers Appointed a Justice of the High Court in 1995, Newman (1977), he acted for the campaigner, John Gouriet, in was assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, and as one of persuading the Court of Appeal to allow him to launch the judges nominated to sit in the Administrative Court he legal action against unions blocking phone calls and mail developed experience and expertise in judicial review to South Africa. Gouriet had sought an injunction under cases and matters concerning human rights. After his the Post Office Act, which made it an offence to tamper official retirement in 2007, he continued to sit as a deputy with the mail, but the Labour Attorney General Sam Silkin High Court judge. In addition he was a Judge of the Court had refused his consent, and Gouriet and Newman lost of Appeal of the Bahamas (2009-11) and, from 2013, Judge a challenge in the High Court. of the Court of Appeal in the Cayman Islands. From 2009 he was chairman of the Cabinet Office’s Security Vetting When Newman returned to his chambers that evening, his Appeals Panel, and from 2010 to 2016 served as a clerk received a call from the clerk to the then Master of Surveillance Commissioner. the Rolls, Lord Denning, who passed on the message that, as it had happened, the Court of Appeal could sit, rather In 2009 Newman made headlines when he ruled that unusually, on Saturday, if that was of any interest. It was, retrospective changes to the rules for visas for ‘highly and the next day, Lord Denning made the necessary skilled migrants’ were unlawful and ‘an abuse of power’. temporary order, which his court extended at a full hearing Under the Labour government’s Highly Skilled Migrants the following Tuesday, restraining Post Office employees Programme, introduced in 2002, tens of thousands had from acting on the union’s instructions. In the end, been encouraged to come to work in Britain on a however, the House of Lords overturned Denning’s long-term basis without a prior offer of a job. Those who decision. came were able to apply to stay indefinitely after four years. Newman’s practice was principally acting in commercial cases. As a leading practitioner in the Privy Council, In 2006, however, Home Office ministers imposed new however, he was often involved in representing rules which allowed those on the programme to apply to Commonwealth governments in challenging appeals by remain after five years instead of the original four, and only their citizens against death sentences. He also instructed if they scored sufficient ‘points’ based on their earnings in on matters of constitutional settlement on a number of Britain, their age and educational qualifications, and an occasions. English language test. Newman ruled that those who had been admitted before the changes should benefit from In Fiji he was instructed to act for the Governor-General in the terms originally promised to them – a judgment the return to constitutional order after two coups of 1987 welcomed by the then Conservative home affairs which had resulted in the overthrow of the elected spokesman David Davis. government of the Prime Minister, Timoci Bavadra, the deposition of the Queen as head of state and the In 1966 he married Hilary Chandler, whom he had met declaration of a republic. Subsequently he oversaw the aged 17. In the early 1990s they bought and renovated a setting up of a constitutional regime to enable the former chateau in south-west France and created a wonderful Governor-General to become the President of Fiji. garden there. It became a centre of their family and social life. His wife survives him with two sons and a daughter. He was Master Treasurer in 2009 Master George Newman died on 10 June 2019. Extracted from, and reproduced by kind permission of The Telegraph 2019 Middle Templar 143
OBITUARY: MASTER MARCEL BERLINS THE TIMES Master Marcel Berlins 1941 – 2019 Master Marcel Berlins was born in He particularly fancied himself as a teasing slow bowler, Marseilles in 1941, the only child of although he was blessed with more enthusiasm than skill. Jacques Berlins and his wife, Pearl, who At the time he was working on his first books: Caught in were of Latvian-Jewish origin. the Act (with Geoffrey Wansell, 1974), a study of young offenders and their treatment at the hands of the law; They had migrated to France before the war and had Ramesh Maharaj, Barrister Behind Bars (1979), the true been running a small hotel when the country was tale of a Trinidadian lawyer’s detention; and Living occupied by the Nazis in 1940. Jacques was active in the Together (with Clare Dyer, 1982), on the legal pitfalls of Resistance, and when the Gestapo came sniffing he cohabitation. moved his wife and son to a remote village in the hills of Luberon During the year-long closure of The Times in 1978-79, Berlins was one of a group of journalists who produced In 1951, the family settled in South Africa, where Berlins Not Yet The Times. One of his contributions was a spoof completed his schooling. Only then did he start to learn law report purporting to be a judgment handed down by English, claiming to have perfected the language by Lord Denning in Grenouille versus National Union of reading Agatha Christie novels. He remained a French Seamen, in which the court held that a frog had the right citizen, writing how in the 2007 presidential election he to sue in the English courts to stop trade-union militants had voted for the first time in the country of his birth, but picketing its pond. added: ‘Part of me felt uneasy, asking what right I had to meddle in the affairs of a country I’ve lived in for a total of He did not see eye to eye with Harold Evans, who was 13 years, mainly as a child, and where I still don’t have my editor from 1981 to 1982, when the temptation of a main home.’ redundancy cheque and the prospect of writing crime novels launched him into a freelance career. The novels He read law at the University of the Witwatersrand and were not as successful as he had hoped and by 1983, he his early career was spent, in his words, ‘roaming the was writing for the newspaper once more, reviewing lower criminal courts of Johannesburg’, where he crime fiction — a subject on which he could claim to be a ‘occasionally managed to get my client acquitted, though walking encyclopaedia. His last review appeared in The not necessarily by the exercise of virtuoso advocacy’. Times in May. According to The History of The Times, Berlin’s ‘experiences of South Africa left him with a fervent His weekly legal column, meanwhile, moved to The dedication to justice in the broadest sense’. With the Guardian, which suited his political leanings. There, he political situation there deteriorating he returned to was especially withering about what he saw as the Europe, moving to Paris with an eye on becoming a ‘systematic erosion of civil liberties’ in the early 21st student at the Sorbonne. The prospect of French military Century, arguing that plans to introduce 42-day detention service, however, prompted a move to London, where he without charge was ‘part of a pattern which includes ID studied for his master of laws degree at the London cards, CCTV cameras, and a host of other measures School of Economics. Later he lectured in media law at whittling away our rights and the rule of law’. City University in London. There were two further books: The Law Machine (also Berlins made his name writing about law rather than with Clare Dyer, 1982), which explains how the justice practising it. In the early 1970s, he was working as a legal system evolved, how it operates — including descriptions assistant, compiling law reports in the Lord Chancellor’s of the trial process — and how lawyers work; and The Law Department, when he came to the attention of The and You (1986), for the Consumers’ Association, Times. The newspaper had decided in 1970 that it examining aspects of consumer law. Latterly he had been needed a legal correspondent to write about the law in a working on a memoir about his early years in France and way that would interest ordinary readers. The first one his father’s role in the Resistance. In 1988 he began lasted only a year and, after various candidates had been presenting Law in Action, the BBC Radio 4 legal affairs considered but rejected, John Grant, the managing programme, winning two legal broadcaster of the year editor, remembered Berlins. He joined the title in 1971 awards before stepping down in 2004. Three years later, and under the editorship of William Rees-Mogg he spent he became a panellist for the station’s Round Britain Quiz. a little more than a decade as legal correspondent and leader writer, covering not only his own field, but topics In 2005 Berlins married Lisa Forrell, a corporate lawyer such as cricket and pop music, including writing a leading and theatre director with whom he wrote Best of Motives article on the death of Elvis Presley in 1977. (2002), a play about how antiterrorism laws in the post-9/11 world could be used to subvert the values they Berlins threw himself into the social side of The Times, were supposed to protect. Forrell, survives him with a playing for the newspaper’s football and cricket teams. stepson and a stepdaughter, Master Marcel Berlins died on 31 July 2019. Extracted from, and reproduced by kind permission of The Times 144 2019 Middle Templar
OBITUARY: TRIBUTE TO JOAN BRYCE IAN GARWOOD Joan Bryce 1939 – 2019 Wednesday 27 July 1988 had started writing ‘I have been able to enjoy another birthday out warm and sunny with a light because of you. Thank you for saving my life’. Over nearly summer shower. As usual, I had been 31 years at the Inn, Joan saw a number of changes as out on site but had been asked to Surveyors came and went and additional staff joined the return by 10:30 to meet the new Estates Office. When I became Surveyor and then Director secretary starting that day. of Estates, Joan was always there to support me and she loved her role as PA and being involved in the numerous In those days, the Estates Office had parquet floors, which jobs and projects that we worked on together. I lost count were polished regularly, and my party piece was to run up of the number of times Joan had to reorganise the filing the stairs and then slide the full length of the office. On system just to keep pace with expansion, often recounting that particular day, my rush to get back coupled with the this process to the amusement of her family and friends. slightly wet conditions played havoc with my traction Throughout all those changes, Joan remained consistent: control. As I sped through the office in an uncontrolled always smiling, constantly ready and willing to help and state I shot past the Surveyor, Michael Murray, standing with an optimistic outlook on life. beside a very attractive lady. As I passed them all I heard was Michael Murray saying, ‘And that was Ian Garwood’. Always immaculately dressed with an effortless ease, Joan’s Having collided with the Surveyor’s desk and now in a state elegance was commented on by everyone who met her. of some embarrassment I went back to be introduced. This innate sense of style was evident when Joan took on Joan smiled that warm smile of hers and said ‘that was responsibility for choosing the furnishings and décor for quite spectacular, do you always do that?’ I forgot my the Inn’s overnight lodgings, which were an instant success embarrassment and we all laughed. That was typical of and remain so today. Joan’s professionalism and sense of Joan, everyone felt at ease in her company. right and wrong was evident in so many ways thoughout her time at the Inn. New members of staff who forgot to In those days there were only three of us in the office, wear a tie or sometimes shave were given a gentle which meant that Joan’s role inevitably covered a broad reminder by Joan that standards must be maintained. Joan spectrum of responsibilities that overlapped with mine. achieved this in such a way that people never took offence We helped each other and soon became an inseparable and thanked her for caring. I was not left out: on wearing a team and good friends or, as Joan would say, pals. After short sleeve shirt to work one day in August, Joan quietly four years Michael Murray retired and was replaced by observed, ‘I see you haven’t got your cufflinks in today’. I Geoff Parr and at the same time the Estates Officer was went back to long sleeved shirts the next day. transferred from the Treasury Office to the Estates Office. Joan now had to learn the new skill of sewing leases, As Joan’s friend you were immediately included within her something she quickly became adept at after a number family and wide circle of other friends, some she had of hilarious first attempts. known since childhood and I got to know Joan’s children and grandchildren. You just had to speak to Joan for a Within two years of his appointment, Geoff Parr suffered a short while to know that her family and friends were her life major heart attack in the office. It was at a time when the and that she had boundless love and caring for all of them. ambulance service was on national strike and the army had The following words by Albert Camus were found amongst been called in, utilising green goddess vehicles. Besides Joan’s papers and obviously meant a lot to her: ‘Don’t walk Joan, the only other person in the office was the Estates behind me, I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me, I may Officer, who as a hands-on healer felt unable to help and not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend’. simply went and sat back in his office. Realising the symptoms and seriousness of the situation, Joan contacted It is often said that no one is irreplaceable but Joan is. emergency services and was insistent that a paramedic She was quite simply the glue that held the Estates team attend. Eventually one was dispatched in addition to an together and the hub around which we all operated. ambulance. In the meantime, the Inn’s appointed first aider Tenants and contractors would often stop to have a chat had arrived in the office, taken one look at the situation with her, sitting in the armchair by her desk. There was and promptly fainted. Joan now had two patients to deal always a lot of laughter and the sense that life is for living with but she took it all in her stride. The paramedic arrived when Joan was around. That warm smile that always by motorbike some time before the ambulance and welcomed you as you entered the office can never be managed to stabilise the patient. His parting words to replaced and I know that the Estates team especially and Joan were, ‘Well done, you certainly did the right thing by all those who came into regular contact with Joan feel a insisting on a paramedic, I just got to him in time’. Geoff huge sense of loss. Parr recovered and retired on grounds of ill health but every year on his birthday, he would send Joan a card Joan loved her job and cared for the Inn and those she worked with and we will never forget her and the kindness, friendship and sense of purpose she so readily gave. Adapted from a tribute by Ian Garwood read out at Joan’s memorial in Temple Church on 14 May 2019 2019 Middle Templar 145
TEMPLE CHURCH CALENDAR 2019-20 Temple Church Special Services and Concerts 2019 2020 October January Wednesday 2 October, 5:45pm Wednesday 8 January, 5:45am First Choral Evensong of the Legal Year Choral Evensong – Epiphany Sunday 6 October, 11:15am Sunday 12 January, 11:15pm First Choral Mattins of the Legal Year Choral Mattins – First Choral Service of Term Sunday 16 October, 5:45pm Wednesday 15 January, 5:45pm Choral Evensong: St Luke’s Day Choral Evensong – Followed by Treasurers’ Wednesday 30 October, 5:45pm Reception for Benchers Choral Evensong: For All Saints Day Thursday 16 January, 5:45pm Choral Evensong – To Celebrate Helena November Normanton’s first dinner in Hall Wednesday 29 January, 5:45pm Sunday 10 November, 10:50am Choral Evensong – Candlemas Choral communion – Remembrance Sunday Wednesday 20 November, 5:45pm February Choral Evensong – USA Thanksgiving Wednesday 26 February, 5:45pm December Choral Evensong – Ash Wednesday Wednesday 4 December, 6:00pm April Advent Carol Service Sunday 15 December, 11:15pm Sunday 5 April, 11:15am Carol Service followed by Christmas Lunch Choral Mattins – Palm Sunday Monday 16 December, 6:00pm Thursday 9 April, 1:15pm Temple Church Carol Service Choral Communion – Maundy Thursday (Repeat of 15 December) Friday 10 April, 11:15am Wednesday 18 December, 6:00pm Choral Mattins – Good Friday Temple Church Carol Service Saturday 11 April, 8:00pm (Repeat of 15 December) Easter Vigil: Holy Saturday Tuesday 24 December, 11:15pm Sunday 12 April, 11:15am Choral Communion Choral Communion: Easter Sunday Wednesday 25 December, 11:15am Choral Mattins – Christmas Day June Wednesday 24 June, 5:45pm Choral Evensong – For St Peter’s Day July Sunday 26 July, 11:15am Baptism, Confirmation and Choral Communion: Last Service of the Legal Year 146 2019 Middle Templar
Congratulations! The Inn would like to congratulate the following couples who were married in Temple Church and wishes them all the best for the future! MIDDLE TEMPLETHE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF THE Alicia Jones and Christopher Bates Charlotte McCann and Samuel Edis Married at the Temple Church – – Married 16 February 2019. 1 December 2018. Jeff Oliver Photography Olliver Photography Michael Payne and Alexandra Ewence Married at the Temple Church – 24 November 2018. Paul Rogers Photography Janan Al-Asady and Andrew Gibbins Abha Pandya and Tuomo Hurri – A stunning, award-winning venue in – Married 4 May 2019. Married 25 May 2019. the heart of London, and a unique setting for a magical wedding day Clive Bennett Photography 2019 Middle Templar Contact us today to discuss your requirements [email protected] 020 7427 4820 middletemplevenue.org.uk 147
INN CALENDAR 2019-20 Middle Temple Calendar 2019-20 Monday 2 September Wednesday 9 October Tuesday 5 November Hall re-opens for Lunch MTSA Elections Middle Temple Historical Society: Helen Normanton Exhibition in Hall: Celebrating a Thursday 10 October Century of Women in Law Call Day Wednesday 6 November Advocacy Dinner Saturday 7 September to Middle Temple Midland Circuit Saturday 14 September Society Dinner (in Birmingham) Thursday 7 November Mooting Trip to North Carolina MTYBA: Advocacy Competition Monday 14 October Tuesday 17 September to Scholars Dinner Friday 8 November Saturday 21 September Hall Committee’s TempleFest Amity Visit to Canada Tuesday 15 October Moot Final Saturday 9 November Thursday 19 September Lord Mayor’s Show MTYBA: ‘Out of the frying pan…’ Thursday 17 October First Six Pupillage Evening Survive and Thrive on Circuit: Judge – Sunday 10 November Friend or Foe? (Manchester) Remembrance Sunday Lunch Tuesday 24 September Introduction Session for Private Guest Night Tuesday 12 November London Students All Inn Dining Hall Committee’s Bake Off Out of London Students Wednesday 13 November Weekend 1 Monday 21 October Survive and Thrive: Judge – Tasting at the Temple: Seven Springs Friend or Foe? Thursday 26 September Vineyard with Stuart George and Middle Temple North Eastern Circuit Stuart Maclennan Friday 15 November Society Reception (in Leeds) Karaoke Tuesday 22 October Friday 27 September Reader’s Feast: Her Honour Judge Saturday 16 November Music Night: Wandering Soul Usha Karu ‘The Current Challenges CPD Day in the Criminal Justice System’ Saturday 28 September Sunday 17 November Ordinary Dining Night Wednesday 23 October Children’s Music Concert Middle Temple North Eastern Circuit Sunday 29 September Society Reception (in Leeds) Monday 18 November Sunday Lunch Music Night: Lara Melda Black History Month Event Tuesday 1 and Thursday 21 November Wednesday 2 October Thursday 24 October Private Guest Night MTYBA: Advocacy Competition Grand Day Tuesday 26 November Out of London Students Friday 25 October Bench Call Weekend 2 MTYBA: Annual Dinner Wednesday 27 November Friday 4 October Tuesday 29 October Call Day Music Night: Palace Avenue All Inn Dining: Preparing for Practice Dance Band Thursday 28 November Wales Circuit Society Reception Call Day Saturday 5 October (in Cardiff) Ordinary Dining Night Friday 29 November Wednesday 30 October Hall Committee’s Ceilidh Sunday 6 October MTYBA: Advocacy Competition Sunday Lunch Saturday 30 November Thursday 31 October Middle Temple Northern and North Monday 7 October Honorary Benchers Dinner and Eastern Circuit Society Dinner (in York) Treasurer’s Lecture: Professor Bench Night Philippe Sands – East West Street: Tuesday 3 December A Lecture accompanied by Piano, Friday 1 November Tasting at the Temple: Marco with Guillaume de Chassy Masters of Rock: A Sir Paul Jenkins Molesini – Veneto and Friuli Wines Memorial Fund event Tuesday 8 October Friday 6 December Frances Patterson Memorial Lecture Monday 4 November MTBA: Christmas Party Treasurer’s Lecture: Professor Nick Hardwick – The Prisons Crisis: What’s gone wrong and how to fix it. 148 2019 Middle Templar
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