Leverhulme RIP ... UK-based correspondent for Justinian dies unexpectedly ... Wonderful writer, a creative teacher, skilled advocate, scholar and friend ... Tribute to Peter Lyons ... By Richard Ackland
Columnist Leverhulme: 1959-2023
Justinian's longstanding UK correspondent Leverhulme died last Sunday (June 4).To his numerous friends, family and professional colleagues he was also known as Peter Lyons.
Peter was born on the edge of the Bass Strait at Devonport, Tasmania, in January 1959. His father was the son of Australia's 10th prime minister Joseph Aloysius Lyons and Dame Enid Muriel Lyons, the first woman elected to the House Representatives and the first female member of the federal cabinet.
She was recently set in bronze near Old Parliament House in Canberra.
In one of his last emails to me, he passed on Dame Enid's report of the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. See: Into the future.
Young Lyons started work as a court clerk in 1978 and studied part-time for a law degree from the University of Tasmania. He gravitated to Wallace Wilkinson & Webster then subsequently joined Piggott Wood & Baker, becoming a sought-after advocate in criminal and civil cases.
He fell under the spell of Michael Hodgman, a Liberal politician and father of the former state Premier. Michael was Minister for the Capital Territory in the Fraser era, a Hobart silk and horse-racing fancier - often referred to as "the Mouth from the South".
After a lifetime of Benson & Hedges Special Filters, Hodgman died of emphysema in 2011. His "most Australians would be astonished to learn ..." style of advocacy is reported here.
Peter Lyons served as the creative energy at gatherings of the Law Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Bar. His skits, songs and poems that not-so-gently roasted the big wigs of the day came as a sprightly antidote to the traditional solemn lubrications of the annual gatherings of the island's legal tribes.
In search of greater adventures, he moved to England in 1994. Even after leaving, he maintained deep connections back home with governors, premiers, judges, leading lights of the profession and other members of Taswegia's autarchy.
His capacity for friendship was one of his great qualities.
Ultimately, he took up digs in York in a building that overlooked the local racecourse, so he could observe the track with binoculars in one hand and the telephone to the bookie in the other.
As his columns for Justinian revealed, he was instinctively a funny and incisive writer, with a great eye for the peculiarities of the English.
Years ago he took me to lunch at a quaint Italian restaurant in the main street of York. Lyons was mortified that I ordered a Campari instead of a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale.
He never let up about it. Just about every conversation we had for years he reinforced that my consumption of this strange Italian herbal tipple was a sure sign of a disturbing character flaw.
You can take the lad out of Tasmania, but you can't take Tasmania out of the lad.
Lyons recognised there was an opportunity to teach advocacy skills to solicitors, associates and partners of the UK's leading law firms and patent firms.
After a stint at Nottingham Law School, he moved to the College (now University) of Law, where he co-founded the Institute of Advocacy and Dispute Management with graduates taking a Diploma in Advocacy.
With his partner Chris Taylor, he founded his own legal training business in 2005. CPD Training (UK) Limited rapidly became the country's leading specialist advocacy, communications and dispute resolution training provider.
Frequently, he would refer to "advocacy" as "advocassy" – a pronounciation he picked up when teaching in Hong Kong.
He trained arbitration lawyers at Magic Circle, City and US firms and led international advocacy programs throughout Europe.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde, where he created Europe's first LLM in Advocacy.
His book Advocacy: A Practical Guide was widely acclaimed. Lord Pannick said there was no better guide to the practicalities of good advocacy than Peter Lyons' book.
He was a marvellous, funny and warm friend. When small clusters of Australian lawyers attended media-law conferences in London, members of the High Court would wander over asking whether we knew Peter Lyons.
From time to time, visiting judges from Blighty would call for a drink or lunch in Sydney, on Lyons' recommendation, where they would share the joys of gardening in the Home Counties.
Peter was a Brexiteer, a Boris supporter, and a campaigner against political correctness – all of which is forgiven.
He died from complications associated with a blocked artery and is survived by Chris Taylor, with who he shared 28 very happy years.
Peter Lyons 1959-2023. I miss him already.