MJBQC

Compelling, dazzling, breathless … a vivid, fascinating account of a richly diverse life, full of interest, charm and wit.

Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Michael Beloff, previously QC, once described as ‘the Bar’s Renaissance Man’, has had a distinguished career as advocate, arbitrator, and judge. An outsider of mixed Russian Jewish heritage with four immigrant grandparents and an immigrant mother, he had an insider’s education as a scholar at Eton and Oxford, with a professional life culminating in his offices as President of Trinity, one of the most famous of the historic Oxford Colleges, and Treasurer of Gray’s, one of the four medieval Inns of Court.

In this candid story, he reflects on the development of his vocation through its various staging posts from his childhood to his swan song as a barrister after fifty years in practice, highlighting his most important cases, in particular, those with a political dimension as well as a quintet of high-profile libels. He uses his personal experience to illuminate the arts of both advocacy and judging, to evaluate how the Bar and the law have reformed during his professional lifetime, and to predict and assess the likelihood of future changes.

Familiarly called ‘the Godfather of Sports Law’, he has had, both as Counsel and Panellist, involvement in some of the major sporting scandals of the age, and gives special insights into the areas where sport and law intersect – doping, corruption, match-fixing, and transgender participation. On these issues as well as those born of his university experience, such as the Oxford admissions system and freedom of speech on campus, he expresses views which, if sometimes unfashionable, are always honest.

His portfolio roles have led to his encounters with many interesting people, from Blair to Bolt, from a two-term President of the USA to the then heir apparent to the throne of the UK (and now King), tales of which provide the icing on the cake of this intriguing memoir.