Where are they now? part 3

Last week we looked at George Carman QC who died in January 2001. George had been a Manchester-based barrister until he took silk. Not only was he in high profile criminal cases but because in his libel cases he acted for and against the newspapers who consequently reported his cases in some detail) that increased his celebrity status. There was an action which took place once in Manchester in which George was cross-examining Arthur Scargill. (Scargill was a charismatic left-wing firebrand miners union leader, a gifted rabble-rouser who was not one to shy from confrontation, and his public profile as a militant, overlapping the pre-Margaret Thatcher election period and continuing into it meant that as a union leader in those days he had both power and a profile which it is difficult to imagine today). With this being a cross-examination of such a man by the legendary George, everyone wanted to see it. Dozens of barristers, having finished their court work for the day, turned up in the public gallery one afternoon to watch this cross-examination. I can think of no better tribute to an advocate that his powers of cross-examination were so highly regarded that his fellow barristers would turn up just to watch. I am quite sure that had this confrontation being televised it would have had a good chance of topping the weekly ratings.

George has been the subject of a biography by his son Dominic, "No Ordinary Man". To say that this is a "warts and all" book is putting it mildly. Often such books written by the son of a famous father consist of a sanitised eulogy. This is anything but that and included material which many people regarded as distasteful and suggested should have remained private. One reviewer effectively wrote that it was astonishing that anyone would have written such a book, still less the son of the subject. However no one reading the book could fail to realise that whatever issues he had with his father, Dominic was to some extent in awe of his father's abilities. The justification for the book is that unless you know the full story you cannot really understand what drove such an extraordinary man. Whilst understanding the viewpoint of those who have criticised the book, I suspect that in the longer term this will be regarded as a classic of its kind. Complex characters require complex stories. I am not sure that a heavily edited version would have allowed one to understand what drove him and what price he paid for his success. It may well be that the very nature of the book in the longer term will help to preserve the memory of his father's gifts far better than any other sort of book would.

Every barrister is different and each has his or her different ways of coping with the stresses and strains of the job (or as the case may be not coping with such strains). Nonetheless a book which shows the full impact on a person and his family of the stresses and strains which both drove him towards success and then how they affected him once he attained it is I think a valuable one for those contemplating a career in the law. The most important thing it illustrates the individual approach to preparation, motivation and litigation. Just as people are different, so their methods differ. We shall explore this further next week.