Marshall Hall: A Law unto Himself

Reviews

Canon John Twisleton

This is a lucid and gripping book summarised helpfully on its last page: ‘Marshall was the ultimate exponent of total advocacy: he lived his entire life as though the world was one huge courtroom and its inhabitants a universal jury to beguile. ’

His achievement in swaying juries linked to his harsh life experience even if, as the title warns, he was ‘a law unto himself’. Sally Smith deftly takes us back a century to times when our legal process was handled by an establishment lacking compassion and blatantly favouring the rich and powerful. Advocacy - standing by people and policies - is a fascinating topic of immense relevance to the health of society yet it’s legal side is rather closed to folk unschooled in law. His legendary capacity to entertain and distract in court, unthinkable in just process today, is resonant of how media can so often work to the detriment of the truth.

Marshall Hall rose in that establishment but the vagaries of his life lent him empathy and a passion for the underdog. His legal knowledge was complemented both by harsh life experience and a remarkable gift of oratory so that thousands gathered to await verdicts in trials he appeared at. This very readable book handed me by a friend in the legal profession opened my eyes to the heart of court proceedings. He cared little or nothing for the restraints of his profession, or for the discipline of the law; but he introduced the concept of compassion into a legal system in which it was lacking, was universally adored and trusted by those whom that system is meant to serve, made speeches of such extraordinary power that they have lived on for more than a century and, most important of all, saved many lives.