BIOGRAPHY

Childhood

I was born in London in 1948.  My father, George, was a theatre historian and performer of puppets and the toy theatre. My mother, Mary, originally an art teacher, worked at the Museum of London. The family home in Kew Gardens was  full of theatrical prints and puppets. We put on abbreviated versions of Shakespeare plays at home.   

We had no television but listened a great deal to the radio. I loved hearing dramatisations of famous trials. By the age of 10 I had decided that I wanted to become a barrister. I have never wanted to pursue any other career.

I was educated at St Benedict’s School, Ealing.  I loved debating.  The school’s two-man team comprising Peter Ackroyd and me reached the final of The Observer Mace competition.   I then became the national Chairman of the Schools Debating Association, which organised the competition.    

Student

I went to Lincoln College, Oxford, where I read history.

During my first year Paris erupted with the 1968 student insurgency. The mood reached Oxford:  I watched appalled as left-wing student demonstrators stormed the Clarendon Building in Oxford, where the university administrators had offices, forcing open ancient iron gates by the force of numbers surging against them. In the 6th form I had supported the Liberal Party, but this disturbing political climate in the university led me to become a convinced and active conservative.

I became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association, and in due course national Chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students.

In that era of student revolt, when we conservatives were a beleaguered minority in British universities, I found kindred spirits amongst activists in like-minded groups on the mainland of Europe, including the student sections of the German Christian-Democrats, the French Giscardiens and the Swedish Moderate Party. The thinking of European Christian-Democracy seemed to provide the best answer to Marxism, which in different ways was the inspiration of both the student revolutionaries and communist regimes which still ruled the eastern half of Europe; it also linked my politics with my Catholic faith.

It was, therefore, natural for me enthusiastically to support the UK’s accession to what was then the European Community.  I became national Chairman of the Youth Board of the European Movement (UK), and was a member of the Executive Committee of Britain In Europe, the pro-Europe campaign group in the 1975 referendum.

In this period of my life I also formed a fond relationship with the United States of America. I had the good fortune to be selected to tour the USA with Stephen Milligan as the Oxford Union debating team in 1970. I was struck with admiration for the energy and free spirit of the country, and the genuine commitment of its citizens to the principles of liberty in its constitution.

Then in 1976 I attained a place in a good set of chambers in the Temple. I turned my energies to the profession I loved, and largely forgot about politics for more than 30 years.

Career at the Bar

I was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1973.  I obtained a tenancy in the common law chambers of Michael Parker QC at 6 Pump Court.   The work there included crime, often in the Kent Crown Courts, family and a range of civil cases. I had the excitement of successfully defending a West End actor at the Old Bailey whilst still a pupil; and of being in a murder case which went all the way to the House of Lords.

Whilst enjoying that variety, I was keen to develop a specialist area: an opportunity to do so arose with collaboration with my chambers colleague Gregory Stone. We co-wrote a book The Law of Defective Premises, and co-edited The Architects Journal Legal Handbook, which under an marginally different title I have continued to edit to this day. This writing slowly led to more substantial work in the field of construction disputes. To pursue that line in 1987 I moved to the chambers of Michael Morland QC at 12 Kings Bench Walk.

At one level construction cases, which frequently involve expert witnesses, are on such questions as whether an architect or engineer is liable for negligent design when tree roots have caused subsidence damage to a recently built house.  At another level construction work at the Bar concerns the two great common law fields – the law of contract, and the law of tort especially in respect of professional negligence.  In recent years I was spending much of my time on the Construction Act payment rules, an issue of mind-bending legal intricacy, and on inadequately fire-resistant cladding, one causing great public concern. I found construction a rich and varied speciality.

Following a merger the character of the KBW chambers became increasingly focused on personal injury work, which was of less interest to me. I then had the great fortune to be offered a place in the wonderful chambers at 4 Pump Court, where I happily spent the rest of my career. 

Whilst construction law always remained the largest part of my practice, I never ceased to receive work in some other civil areas. One was the regulation and discipline of professions. Few cases gave me greater satisfaction than when asked to represent other barristers who were facing charges before a professional tribunal. I also became interested in financial services regulation and the Financial Ombudsman Service, whose activity at times seemed to me hardly compatible with the rule of law. Another line of work which I greatly enjoyed was acting for gypsies and travelling showmen in planning inquiries.

I was elected a member of the Bar Council on which I served for a total of 8 years. I held various Bar Council posts, including Chairman of its Access to the Bar Committee, where I oversaw the introduction of direct access to the Bar. I was Chairman of the Editorial Board of Counsel, the journal of the Bar of England and Wales.

In 1995 I was appointed a QC. In 2004 I was elected a Bencher of Middle Temple.

I retired from the Bar in the summer of 2021.

Politico-legal interests

The first decade of the 21st century saw a rise in judicial activism both at home associated with the Human Rights Act, and in the European Court of Human Rights. I was troubled by this trend, which seemed to me at variance with the traditions of the English common law which I had grown to love. I started to take an interest in politico-legal developments. Between 2009 and 2013 I served as Chairman of the Carlton Club Political Committee.

In 2011 I was invited to be a member of the Government’s Commission on a UK Bill of Rights. I relished the chance for in-depth discussions with some of the greatest British experts on human rights, with whom I agreed on many matters, but differed on the one crucial question of how far courts should erode legal certainty by venturing into the territory of democratic legislatures and governmental policy-making. 

From 2016 to 2020 I was Chair of Research of the Society of Conservative Lawyers.

Family

In 1991 I married Gabrielle Kooy-Lister, an actress.  We have three children: Edmund, Isabella and Lawrence.

Pastimes

I founded and for 10 years ran the Common Lawyers Cricket Club, which was essentially a group of friends who enjoyed playing in English villages.

In my early 30s I learned to ride. I bought a hunter, Mollie, and adored long winter days in the saddle with the South and West Wilts Hunt. For four seasons I was an owner-rider in Point to Point races on my race-horse Alfred Tower. 

I wrote and acted revues at home with my great friend Richard Gordon KC.

I get exercise and fresh air tending to vegetables in our garden. I enjoy going to the theatre with my wife and actress daughter; and going with my sons to watch football at Craven Cottage, and cricket at the Oval.