Legal London

choi

Reggie Nadeoson, Let Your Wig Down You've seen it in films and on TV. Now plan a trip to London's legal district, to eavesdrop as barristers unwind in buzzy wine bars and historic pubs. Wall Street Journal, Sept 22, 2023, at page D7.
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/tr ... gal-london-417befeb

Excerpt in the window of print: The legal profession is a thirsty one-- and always has been.

Note:
(a) "at Noble Rot, a restaurant and wine bar on Central London's Lamb's Conduit Street, I met one of England's most distinguished legal professionals for lunch. Helena Kennedy, KC (indicating King’s Counsel, the most senior ranking of barristers, or trial attorneys"
(i) Per its website (noblerot.co.uk), Noble Rot restaurant started in Bloomsbury in 2015 (and thereafter established two additional branches in London.
(A) The restaurant name comes from noble rot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_rot
("Grapes typically become infected with [the fungus] Botrytis when they are ripe. If they [grapes] are then exposed to drier conditions [ie, weather] and become partially raisined, this form of infection is known as noble rot. Grapes picked at a certain point during infestation can produce particularly fine and concentrated sweet wine")

If the weather is wet, grapes rot (caused by the same fungus).
(B) Bloomsbury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsbury
(section 1 History, section 1.1 Origins and etymology)
(C) burh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burh
(or burg; section 1 Name: "Byrig * * * developed into 'bury' and 'berry,' which were used to describe manor houses, large farms, or settlements beside the [Anglo-Saxon] fortifications")
(ii) Central London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_London
(iii)
(A) Lamb's Conduit Street
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb%27s_Conduit_Street
("Lamb's Conduit was named after William Lambe, who in 1564 made a charitable contribution of £1,500, an enormous sum in those days, for the rebuilding of the Holborn Conduit. The Conduit (a cistern) was fed by a dam across a tributary of the River Fleet")
(B) Holborn Conduit. London Remembers, undated
https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/holborn-conduit
("Built on a tributary of the River Fleet to bring clean water to London. Its precise location is not clear, but one source places it at what is now the junction of Snow Hill, Cock Lane and Smithfield (nowhere near the plaque)" shown to the right)
(iv) King's Counsel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Counsel
(" appointed by the monarch of the country")


(b) "Inns of Court, the professional associations that date to the Middle Ages. Every barrister in England and Wales must belong to one of them [but NO solicitor does]: Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Middle Temple or Inner Temple. Each has a campus of its own, where grandiose architecture is rivaled only by the lavish gardens, open to the public for select hours of the day.   Also visitable is the Hall in Middle Temple, which hosted the first recorded performance of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' in 1602."
(i)
(A) The word lawyer in England cover both barrister and solicitor.
(B) Currently, in order to become a lawyer in England and Wales, a high school graduate goes to a law school, and three years later he receives LLB (Latin: Legum Baccalaureus; English: Bachelor of Laws).

Latin-English dictionary:
* lex (noun feminine; genitive plural legum): "law, statute"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lex
(ii) Ins of court
(A) legal education in England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_education_in_England
("In the 14th century, the Lawyer's Inns formed. Originally these were inns of residence [ie, housing] primarily used by apprentices and other lawyers. These inns [as time passed started] training future lawyers. * * * In the Tudor period, the inns remained the dominant form of legal education. * * * the [Inn] system eventually collapsed after the inns were abandoned due to civil war [between Charles I and Parliament]. * * * Throughout the 18th century, to the late 19th century, formal legal educational was very disorganised and future lawyers relied on self-directed apprenticeships of varying quality" with lawyers)

There is no need to read the rest.
(B) Joshua Krook, A History of Law Schools: A Battle Between Law as a Science and Law as a Liberal Art. New Intrigue, Feb 21, 2018
https://newintrigue.com/2018/02/ ... w-as-a-liberal-art/

Quote:

"The history of law schools is one of transformation. From the Inns of Court in London to the modern university * * * Early Law Schools in England: From the Inns of Court, to the Apprenticeships and University Law Schools [which is sectional heading]: * * * The history of legal education in the common law began at the Inns of Court in London in the 1200s. Established as institutions providing “legal training” to aspiring lawyers, the Inns were residential premises located conveniently close to Fleet Street and the royal courts.[7] Students were trained by “observing proceedings in court” by barristers while debating each other in residence, holding moots and mock trials. The training provided was informal * * * Legal education at the Inns ended at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, to be replaced by apprenticeships in barrister's chambers and law firms. * * * By 1729 English law required attorneys and solicitors to spend five years in a legal office before being admitted to practice. * * * The [American] colonies never had an Inn of Court equivalent, and from 1700, legal education was exclusively done by apprenticeship.[26] Despite the informality of this system, some of the most famous names in American history were taught under the apprenticeship model in the 1700s: John Adams, John Marshall, Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few. * * * Queen's College Birmingham created a law department in 1849. The college offered the first English LLB, taught under the Charles Rann Kennedy. * * * Following the experiments at Queen’s College, degrees at the other universities soon followed. A B.A. in jurisprudence began at Oxford in 1852, followed by an LLB at Cambridge * * * The first law school in America was established at the college of William and Mary in Virginia in 1779.[78] As governor of Virginia, it was Thomas Jefferson who established the first school

"The Rise of the Modern Law School [which is sectional heading]: The modern law school began under Christopher Langdell at Harvard University, between 1869-1870. Under reforms begun in 1869, Langdell taught students at Harvard Law School for the first time using the Socratic method and the accompanying case method.[100] The case method involved students finding legal principles in a case and applying those principles to a new set of factual circumstances. This is said to mirror the professional or technical work of a lawyer. The Socratic method involved quizzing students about those facts and principles in a classroom as part of an interrogation. The case method, and to a lesser extent the Socratic method, still dominate legal education across the Western world, from England and America to Australia.   In contrast to earlier lectures at law schools, apprenticeships or even at the Inns of Court, students of Langdell's Harvard in the late 1800s were taught exclusively by means of cases."

(iii) The two inns (Inner Temple and Middle Temple) got their name from Temple, London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple,_London
, which in turn got its name from a temple of Knights Templar (who were Crusaders).
(A) Clair Rider, The Inns Of Court And Inns of Chancery And Their Records. Inner Temple, 19999
https://www.innertemple.org.uk/w ... -and-their-records/

Read only the first three paragraphs.
(B) Charles E Cook, The Inns of Court in London. 1 Cleveland-Marshall Law Review 39 (1952).
https://engagedscholarship.csuoh ... ;context=clevstlrev


(c) "Kennedy took me to Scarfes Bar in the nearby Rosewood Hotel. Work by the brilliant cartoonist Gerald Scarfe [1936- ]—famous for his portrayal of Boris Johnson as a clown and Mick Jagger as a mouth—adorns the walls. A cracking collection of whiskey and gin bottles sparkled alluringly behind the bar"
(i)
(A) Scarfes Bar. geraldscarfe.com, undated
https://www.geraldscarfe.com/scarfes-bar/
("Rosewood is the 'sister' hotel to the Carlyle in New York. The Caryle was a famous gathering place for celebrities, an integral part of New York history. And that hotel's famous bar and well-known meeting place, Bemelmans Bar, is named after the Austrian writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans. The story goes that he frequented the bar and covered the walls with his whimsical drawings in payment for a year and a half's accommodation for him and his family. Now Rosewood had the idea to create a similar bar in London – Scarfes Bar (with no apostrophe) – with Gerald’s paintings on the walls")
(B) British Artist Lends Name and Art to Hotel Bar. Bar Magazine, Dec 23, 2013
https://barmagazine.co.uk/britis ... d-art-to-hotel-bar/
("The bar at the luxury hotel, which opened in October, has been renamed Scarfes Bar after the cartoonist spent several months there drawing inspiration from the atmosphere and interior design")
(ii)
(a) Boris Johnson as a clown:

Andrew Burns, Gerald Scarfe: 'I Draw What I Fear * * * World Leaders Misusing Their Power.' Big Issue, Apr 29, 2014
https://www.bigissue.com/culture ... ers-misusing-power/
(LAST CARTOON)
(b) Scarfe has a couple of cartoons depicting Mick Jagger. Search images.google.com.

Compare tongue and lips logo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_and_lips_logo
(by John Pasche)
(iii) cracking (adj): "very impressive or effective : GREAT"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cracking


(d) "Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Baileym * * * According to Richard Todd, KC, a barrister and legal historian, nothing beats the spectacle of the 'cathedral-like' Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ). 'If you think of almost any major piece of civil litigation in England, it would have been heard there,' he said."
(i) Old Bailey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bailey
(rebuilt in 1674; "commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street [Old Bailey Street] on which it stands")
(ii) Royal Courts of Justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Courts_of_Justice
(table: Opened 1082; "houses the High Court [civil only] and Court of Appeal of England and Wales [consisting of criminal and civil divisions]")

(e) "For Charles Dickens, who worked as a law clerk for a time, there was no better place for a pint than Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, still in operation on Fleet Street. The sign out front proclaims its legendary status with the least subtle of humblebrags: “Rebuilt in 1667,” it reads.

El Vino, another Fleet Street watering hole, was frequented by the late Sir John Mortimer, the barrister and writer behind “Rumpole of the Bailey,” a TV series which ran from 1978 to 1992. In it, the titular Horace Rumpole spends evenings at El Vino’s fictional stand-in, Pommeroy’s Wine Bar, quaffing claret, his wig (or “peruke,” if we must) safely tucked away in its tin box.
"
(i) Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Cheshire_Cheese
(a pub "Rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666")
(ii) Cheshire cheese
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire_cheese

But I can not find why the pub got the name.
(iii) Rumpole of the Bailey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpole_of_the_Bailey

Horace Rumpole is a fictional character.

choi

----------------text
ON A LATE summer day at Noble Rot, a restaurant and wine bar on Central London’s Lamb’s Conduit Street, I met one of England’s most distinguished legal professionals for lunch. Helena Kennedy, KC (indicating King’s Counsel, the most senior ranking of barristers, or trial attorneys) sipped Champagne and glanced at the next table where another barrister had draped his black gown over a spare chair. He had just started on a second bottle of Bordeaux.

“The wigs, the gowns can all look like pantomime,” she said. “But the formality gives the sense that something important is happening when you’re in court.”

For decades, I’ve visited London regularly but never paid attention to where its barristers and solicitors congregate, an area central to the city yet easily overlooked in favor of more conventional attractions. I knew “Legal London” best from the films and TV dramas set and shot here. On this visit, I set out to experience the real thing.

To begin, I took a stroll past the Inns of Court, the professional associations that date to the Middle Ages. Every barrister in England and Wales must belong to one of them: Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Middle Temple or Inner Temple. Each has a campus of its own, where grandiose architecture is rivaled only by the lavish gardens, open to the public for select hours of the day.

Also visitable is the Hall in Middle Temple, which hosted the first recorded performance of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in 1602. On most weekdays, lunch is served under the room’s vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows; book ahead online.

For an afternoon pick-me-up, Kennedy took me to Scarfes Bar in the nearby Rosewood Hotel. Work by the brilliant cartoonist Gerald Scarfe—famous for his portrayal of Boris Johnson as a clown and Mick Jagger as a mouth—adorns the walls. A cracking collection of whiskey and gin bottles sparkled alluringly behind the bar as we sat in velvet chairs and sipped our tea.

“You might even see a defense barrister like me drinking with the prosecution,” Kennedy said of the after-hours scene at Scarfes. I immediately thought of Netflix’s “Anatomy of a Scandal,” where the prosecution exchanges chummy barbs over lunch with the defense.

That fictional trial takes place at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, which has seen cases like that of the Yorkshire Ripper. The Bailey, open to the public, rewards the patient: Queue up by 8:45 a.m. and expect to wait an hour for admission.

According to Richard Todd, KC, a barrister and legal historian, nothing beats the spectacle of the “cathedral-like” Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ). “If you think of almost any major piece of civil litigation in England, it would have been heard there,” he said.

To get a seat at an RCJ trial, dress conservatively and refrain from wisecracks about wigs. For those whose idea of fun does not involve watching libel trials, tours delve into the RCJ’s historical bona fides. Highlights of the collection include a stunning black damask-and-gold robe and a scarlet judge’s gown made last year to mark the centenary of the admission of women to the bar in 1922.

The legal profession is a thirsty one—and always has been. For Charles Dickens, who worked as a law clerk for a time, there was no better place for a pint than Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, still in operation on Fleet Street. The sign out front proclaims its legendary status with the least subtle of humblebrags: “Rebuilt in 1667,” it reads.

El Vino, another Fleet Street watering hole, was frequented by the late Sir John Mortimer, the barrister and writer behind “Rumpole of the Bailey,” a TV series which ran from 1978 to 1992. In it, the titular Horace Rumpole spends evenings at El Vino’s fictional stand-in, Pommeroy’s Wine Bar, quaffing claret, his wig (or “peruke,” if we must) safely tucked away in its tin box.

For an education in horsehair headpieces, I was directed to Ede & Ravenscroft on Chancery Lane. In business since 1689, the store is a costume designer’s dream, a one-stop shop for wigs, gowns and ceremonial dress for barristers and judges. I spotted—and nearly bought—a pair of shoes with steel-cut buckles.

Accoutered in period-perfect barristerial kit of his own, the actor Charles Laughton skillfully inhabits the barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts in 1957’s “Witness for the Prosecution.” Based on an Agatha Christie short story and play, the film introduces Robarts, accompanied by his private nurse Miss Plimsoll, as he arrives at Lincoln’s Inn. As the Rolls-Royce drives through the gates, Miss Plimsoll gazes out the window and exclaims: “It must be perfectly lovely to live and work in the Inns of Court. How lucky you lawyers are!”

[side bar:] Legal London on Screen. London’s courts play a starring role in these shows and movies.

“Bleak House,” (2005)  The BBC’s serial adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel is true to the original’s scathing critique of the 19th-century legal system, with a meticulously detailed Legal London as a backdrop. (BritBox, Hulu, Prime Video)

photo caption: Paul Scofield in “A Man for All Seasons.” PHOTO: EVERETT COLLECTION
“A Man for All Seasons,” (1966)  Only part of this story about Sir Thomas More covers a trial. But what a trial it is, where the very soul of Henry VIII’s England is on the line. (Apple TV+, Prime Video)

“You Don’t Know Me,” (2021)  Built around the closing statement of an accused murderer, this miniseries offers moments of serious emotional heft along with glimpses of Legal London as it is today. (Netflix)

“Kavanagh QC” (1995-2001)  The actor John Thaw brings the gruff barrister James Kavanagh to life in this show about the demands of the courtroom—and the home. (BritBox, Prime Video)