Peter Lyons RIP ... Leverhulme's trackside send-off ... "Advokkacy forever" ... York as Shangri La ... Racehorses ... Training lawyers ... Poetry ... A huge fan club at the parade ring ... Funeral notes from Simon (Capability) Brown KC
Leverhulme: Peter Lyons with Frankel, the unbeaten champion thoroughbred ... Juddmonte stud Newmarket
Thursday, June 29 was a beautiful sunny day here in Blighty. A good crowd gathered at the Parade Ring restaurant of the historic York racecourse (the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus introduced horse racing here just a few years ago in 208 AD).
The going was good for the last race of the legendary Australian legal trainer, Peter Lyons, aka Leverhulme to you possums.
There were eulogies beforehand by his longstanding partner, Chris Taylor; Professor Nigel Savage, his two-times employer before he went freelance; and Carol Sowers, an American friend who was also one of his team of advocacy trainers along with her husband, Judge Mark Drummond, the doyen of trainers, gourmands and raconteurs.
Each of the excellent eulogies illuminated his myriad of attributes – intellect, learning, humour, wit, kindness and generosity to highlight a few.
Chris told us of his move to England in 1994. His first job was as a lawyer at Wiltshire County Council in the rural West Country, where he was soon followed by Will Hodgman, son of Peter's mentor Michael Hodgman QC and later Premier of Tasmania.
I sat next to Peter's former boss and landlady who told me about some of the japes and practical jokes they got up to that I had not heard before – all hilarious, typical of him but best unreported in this august journal read by the legal cream of Oz.
The following year he took a lecturing job at Nottingham Law School where he met Chris - one of his first students (in those halcyon days you were allowed to fraternise with your students).
It was an excellent eulogy: witty and informative, focusing on their life together in England.
Nigel explained why he gave this "Tassie Tiger" the job – it was because he was one of those rare and now extinct marsupials.
"I've worked with Aussies for many years and agree with the eminent historian Manning Clark's summary. I'm drawn to them because they love mocking pomposity and smugness, taking the p*** out of people, cutting tall poppies ... they are larger than life, sceptical, iconoclastic, egalitarian yet suffer fools badly and above all are defiant."
He eulogised:
"Peter's skills were legendary, both in terms of advocacy training but also as a writer, creative teacher, scholar and wit."
However, such an uproarious talent required management - by his boss Ian McLachlan and later Chris when they ran their own business.
His career burgeoned, as he helped to develop an innovative LLM in Advanced Litigation based on case studies, weekend retreats and brainstorming sessions more akin to the MBA courses then lucratively sprouting up.
Peter was also a pithy poet, not just an exacting writer like his equally pithy journalistic father:
Shall I compare thee to the MBA?
Thou art more drunken. More intemperate.
Tough things dost our McLachlan choose to say,
And written work hath all too short a date.
Submissions die or waste through many wines.
And often ist the bloodshot vision dimmed,
The brainstorm through neglect sometimes declines,
And cross-examination lies untrimmed.
But thy eternal lustre shall not fade
In spite of testing hours so rudely packed.
The noise and heat of Strathdon where we stayed
At least their mineral water kept intact.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, thou art the course for me.
The course was an enormous success, with many distinguished lawyers attending as students and senior judges invited as guest lecturers. Peter typically redrafted the objectives of the LLM in his inimitable style:
Objectives
By the end of the LLM you will have:
• A degree
• A hugely increased tolerance of alcohol
• Realised how little sleep you can function on
• Learnt to brainstorm at will and for no apparent reason
• Made your loved ones sit through you opening statement across the breakfast table
• A full understanding of Australian language and culture
Whilst at Nottingham, Peter developed an engaging double act with the Floridian advocacy trainer Dan Simons - the two of them known irreverently by colleagues as the "Two Fat Laddies".
In 1996, Nigel became the CEO of the very staid closed shop College of Law for trainee solicitors, based in London, Guildford, Chester and York.
Bravely, he took both Peter and Dan on, with meetings regularly in the Knights' Templar pub in Chancery Lane opposite the London College of Law HQ.
Where do I live? asked Peter. London was too expensive. Guildford too posh for an Aussie, especially a Tassie. Chester was nearly Wales, for God's sake.
York: "You've got a Law School on a f*****g racecourse, plus x number of pubs, you do realise that's Shangri La to an Aussie."
So Peter and Chris made their lovely home in York and, with time moving, set up CPD Training (UK) in 2005, specialising in the training of Higher Rights of Audience Advocacy for Solicitors and Patent Attorneys as well as International Arbitrators.
Sadly, Dan died in 2010 but Chris ably stepped into the role of a tutor as well as administrator - well tutored as a former student by the Master!
Carol gave us alternative informative insight into Peter and his enormous influence upon peoples' lives. She said it was "not hyperbole to say that Peter changed my life", like many others including your correspondent.
She had just retired from a very prestigious high-profile job as a news anchor on CBS (very topical occupation here in Blighty BBC-land at the moment) when she encountered Peter, who immediately signed her up as his advocacy coach.
Her nervous debut was in Vienna where Peter gave her some directions as to how long she should speak and what her role was, but no more as to how she should perform it.
She learned on the job and afterwards he was complimentary but gave helpful suggestions without criticising. Carol told us:
"He was probably the most natural teacher I've ever seen. Whether he was in a lecture hall or training an individual, it seemed effortless - he presented ideas in a way that made them seem simple. He looked to elevate the skills of a polished student and encourage those who were struggling. He had an easy going, approachable manner that made students and faculty feel comfortable around him."
She enjoyed his quick-witted incisive sarcasm. She recounted the time when she told him she - a classy, well-dressed and groomed American and definitely not an outdoorsy person by her own admission - was going on a safari.
He sent a note wishing her well, ending with the observation, "It's like finding out Meghan Markle is going to a humility conference."
The beautiful service sheet ended with a photograph of Peter and Chris about to devour a plate of oysters in his beloved Tasmania.
Your correspondent has to add that he wishes he could be transported there - perhaps not Port Arthur but the magnificent Government House where we once attended a reception hosted by Peter's friend Governor Peter Underwood.
A poem written by Peter for Chris in 1996 poignantly concludes:
To the cloisters where hearts dwell in silence
To the river of beauty and pain
To the roar of the beach after sunset
To the warm dancing waves of the rain.
To the starlight of infinite heavens
To the warming embrace of the sun
To your knowing when words are not needed
To the laughter of friends; to the fun.
To your spirit; your sense of adventure
To your search for that far away shore
Never sing without singing the song in your heart
To the day when I see you once more.
The star of the "race" at the racecourse was, of course, Peter. The King of Trainers, a wordsmith, raconteur, performer, a friend and inspiration and author of the best book on the subject Advocacy - A Practical Guide.
He was also a thoroughbred Highclere (very posh) race-horse owner – or part thereof. It was fitting that his horse "Truthful" came in as a winner shortly before he died.
Pictures of him - young and vibrant, clean shaven and moustachioed, dark and silver haired but always with a smile, friends and often a glass of sauvignon in one hand - throughout his multi-faceted life, raced across the room from one TV screen above us to another. Hundreds and hundreds of them carefully compiled by Chris.
He packed a lot into his all too short life - more than any of us will ever do even if we live to a dreaded hundred. This prompted us all to exchange our reminiscences with his family and many friends from all walks of life. Mercifully, there was not a single boring lawyer amongst them either (apart from yours truly) - they would have been too scared to come. A wonderful last race here in Blighty.
Peter's life in the Tasmanian legal profession will be remembered when friends and family gather at 5pm on Friday, August 25 at the Tasmanian Club in Hobart, kindly arranged by Chief Justice Alan Blow. Do not miss it!
See also Justinian's tribute
Simon Brown KC was a London barrister before becoming the Designated Mercantile Judge of the Midlands and the Senior Circuit Judge for Birmingham