Jonathan Sumption
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Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, OBE, QC (born 9 December 1948) is an eminent UK barrister. He is the head of Brick Court chambers, the UK's largest set by revenue [1]. He is famous for his appearance in the Hutton Enquiry on the UK government's behalf [2], for his part in the Three Rivers case [3] and his representation of former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers and the UK Department for Transport in the Railtrack private shareholders' action against the British Government in 2005. He is known also for his works on medieval history, including a substantial history of the Hundred Years' War in two volumes, with a third volume due for publication in 2007.
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[edit] Education
Sumption was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. He graduated from Oxford University in 1970, receiving a B.A in History with first class honours .[4]
[edit] Early career
He worked in History as a Fellow of Magdalen College, before leaving to pursue law. He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1975 and has since pursued a successful legal practice in commercial law
[edit] Later career
He became a Queen's Counsel in 1986, and a Bencher at Inner Temple in 1991. He acted in the landmark Three Rivers versus Bank of England case involving the collapse of the BCCI. He is a deputy High Court judge in the Chancery Division, and a judge of the Jersey and Guernsey Court of Appeal.
He is a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission, as a representative of the legal profession, and is also a Governor of the Royal Academy of Music
He is joint head of Brick Court Chambers, one of the largest sets of barristers chambers in the UK. The Lawyer, 2005.
[edit] Earnings
He has been described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "one of the most expensive silks in Britain"[5]. The Guardian describes him as being a member of the million pound club, the elite group of barristers who earn over a million pounds year [6]. However, according to him, he earns only £1.6m a year after deductions. In a recent letter to the Guardian in 2001, he compared his "measly £1.6million a year" to the vastly larger amounts that comparable superstars in business sports and entertainment are paid [7].
For a four week trial in the UK in 2005 he charged £800,000 plus VAT to represent the UK government in the largest class action in the UK, brought by 49,500 private shareholders of the collapsed national railway infrastructure company Railtrack.[8] This was probably the case with the highest profile of the year, in the UK, and the government had a great deal, in money and reputation, at stake. The case examined some of the actions of the government, especially of former transport secretary Stephen Byers MP. Byers became the only former Cabinet Minister to be cross-examined in the High Court in relation to his actions in modern times. The UK Government won the case, even if many commentators regarded the shareholders as having won the moral argument.
[edit] Historical works
- Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediæval Religion (1975) ISBN 0-571-10339-1
- The Albigensian Crusade (1978) ISBN 0-571-11064-9
- Equality (1979, with Keith Joseph) ISBN 0-7195-3651-0
- The Hundred Years War I: Trial by Battle (1991) ISBN 0-571-13895-0
- The Hundred Years War II: Trial by Fire (1999) ISBN 0-571-13896-9
- The Age of Pilgrimage: The Medieval Journey to God (2003) ISBN 1-58768-025-4
- The Hundred Years War III (2007?) ISBN 0-571-13897-7
[edit] References
- Government calls in top QC, The Guardian, 17 September 2003
- UK 100 Annual Report
- CV
- Government's brief is a pretty expensive silk, The Telegraph, 30 April 2005.
- Ministers 'did nothing wrong' in revealing identity of Dr Kelly
- Three Rivers District Council and others v. Governor and Company of the Bank of England
- Linklaters article on Three Rivers
