Brian Leveson: A Captivating Career in the Law

By Joshua Scott

On Thursday 7 November, the University hosted their second annual law talk with Sir Brian Leveson. The event was split into three sections, the pre-talk, then the actual talk itself, and then the post talk networking. Sir Brian’s career spanned over the course of five decades, and has encompassed significant changes to the law, as well as being the driving force in trying to change the law, in what was a captivating career and talk. 

The talk was opened by Eleanor Scarlett, Director of the Legal Advice Centre, who introduced Sir Brian Leveson, and the other benefactors of the event. In the audience we had solicitors from Birketts, the President of the Suffolk and North Essex Law Society, former law students, faculty of law from the University and Judges. 

The talk itself was incredibly interesting, and funny as well. During his discussion over the Leveson Inquiry, he spoke about being “incandescent” over former PM Lord Cameron cancelling the second part of the inquiry, and not fully implementing the recommendations he made. He mentioned how, that due to the lack of support from Cameron’s government in implementing his recommendations, which was an external investigative ethics committee for the press, this opened Leveson to attacks from the press who accused him of wanting state regulation of the press. 

He spoke about coming up from chambers in Liverpool as a defence barrister, to becoming a prosecutor in cases such as Rose West and Ken Dodd.   

At the end of the talk Sir Leveson opened a Q&A to the floor which gave us a bit more access to what kind of workload and views he took on during his work as a barrister, Judge and President of the Queen’s Bench Division (currently the Kings Bench Division) and finally to the position he currently holds as Investigatory Powers Commissioner, which oversees the granting of warrants for the entirety of the country. He referred to it as “double-locking” the warrants issued by powers such as MI5 and GCHQ and other organisations, to ensure that the granting of the warrants are justified and legal before they are finally issued, stating that before they could be acted upon his team must review the warrant. 

I asked the question if he believed the law failed victims in any way, and whilst he didn’t say no, or yes, he did say that there are aspects of the law that need to change, to give victims the results they need. This was insightful to us as an audience and law students who whilst learning to read the law, may not entirely pick up on aspects of the law that are unfair to anyone.  

As first year Law students, I believe this talk is a huge help in understanding our criminal law module. As whilst reading the law, there will be topics, in all modules but more so within criminal law, that require changes to be made, to represent the values of society and the fact that Sir Brian pointed out that the law does need to evolve is helpful at this point in the module to show that the punishment isn’t necessarily the best action, for the victim or the victims’ families. Which is where he implied that the length of the law reform process is failing the system and victims and their families.  

After the talk we had a chance to talk to the attendees of the event, and gain knowledge of what they do, and if they offered work experience such as vacation schemes or mini pupillages. I spoke to a solicitor from Birketts who spoke to me about working in the law with a disability, and how even if I am limited in movements, I'm not limited in my career path, and don’t have to be restricted to one specific path.

There was also a chance to speak to a number of prosecutors from the East Anglian Crown Prosecution Service, who spoke to me happily about applying for the CPS Ipswich Crown Courts mini pupillage. This was similar to the conversation we also had with the solicitor from Birketts who mentioned that if you don’t get into the vacation scheme on the first try, keep trying because as a nationwide firm, each regional office is competitive in their acceptance onto the programme. We were told that, if you don’t get in first try to carry on trying until you have success.  

Overall, the talk was informative and wonderful to experience. Sir Brian kept the audience engaged and was insightful with his knowledge of the profession. His talk was such a captivating experience that the talk and Q&A ran over by an extra half hour. Which shows the expansiveness of Sir Brian’s career, and his time advocating on both the defence and prosecutions sides which he said made him a better judge as he saw both sides of the argument.