A few weeks back, I came across an obituary in the paper for Sir Nicholas Stadlen which really amazed me. (Can be read on Daily Telegraph).
He was a v. successful barrister and High Court judge; but he also had an extraordinary formative stint in the United States. He was around when Martin Luther King was assassinated and also worked for Senator McCarthy.
I especially enjoyed reading about his advocacy at the Bar. I had already heard of the late Gordon Pollock QC (from two different barristers) and he seemed like another amazing personality at the Bar.
He was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1976 and obtained a tenancy in Tom Bingham’s chambers at Fountain Court, the leading commercial set previously headed by Leslie Scarman and Melford Stevenson. Stadlen’s pupil master there was Denis Henry, later a Court of Appeal judge.
Stadlen took Silk in 1991, and seven years later featured in a newspaper list of QCs reported to have earned more than £1 million gross during the previous year.
For his junior counsel, it could be arduous getting him ready for court as he liked to leave no stone unturned. Several days might be spent over a single paragraph in a skeleton argument. However, his team relished the moment they unleashed him on the court, and – even more so – on the other side. Stadlen was at his best when he departed from any prepared script and went into free flow, often in response to a question from the judge. His unchained advocacy was a sight to behold and, with his wonderfully mellifluous speaking voice, mesmerising to listen to.
Nick Stadlen’s keen intellect and sense of justice were allied to immense powers of concentration and a seemingly inexhaustible capacity for case preparation, the often chaotic state of his room belying his complete mastery of any brief by the time it came to court, affording him apparent foresight of every conceivable counter-argument to his submissions and enabling him to perform fearlessly and persuasively on his feet with barely a glance at his papers.
His advocacy was never more thorough and effective than during his 119-day marathon speech in 2004/05 at the Royal Courts of Justice, opening the case for the defence on behalf of the Bank of England against a compensation claim brought by the liquidators of the collapsed bank BCCI.
It was the longest speech in British legal history, easily beating the previous record set by his opponent in the same case, Gordon Pollock QC, who had spent 79 days setting out the case of the liquidators.
When Pollock eventually concluded his opening remarks, Stadlen rose to his feet in July 2004 to address the bench: “After six months,” he began, “the empire strikes back.”
During Pollock’s opening, there had been a real sense that the Bank of England and 22 of its employees might be in trouble, but by the time Stadlen finished his epic reply in May 2005, the dismissal of BCCI’s claim seemed inevitable.
After the plaintiffs eventually conceded defeat that December, the judge Mr Justice Tomlinson rebuked their counsel for his “sustained rudeness” during the case to Stadlen, to whom, by contrast, he paid abundant tribute: “Your address to me was a tour de force, if I may say so, and no doubt it is something for which your clients are deeply grateful, but I am deeply grateful to you for your very great assistance given to me throughout this case.” The judge subsequently granted Stadlen a £100 million costs order.
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