What Makes a Good Lawyer? Panel: Sir Anthony Hooper

The Right Honourable Sir Anthony Hooper

After 10 years teaching law in England and Canada, I practised mostly criminal law on the South East Circuit for 20 years, prosecuting and defending.
 I was Chair of the Race Relations Committee and helped in the preparation of the 1994 Equality Code for the Bar.
In 1995 I became a High Court Judge in the Queen’s Bench Division, hearing criminal, civil, public law and employment law cases. I was a Presiding Judge of the Northeast Circuit for 4 years. I presided over the first Hillsborough trial and the first Damilola Taylor trial.

In 2004 I was appointed to the Court of Appeal and spent a good deal of my time presiding in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division. Following my retirement from the Bench in 2012, I joined Matrix Chambers.

In addition to advising private clients and acting as an arbitrator and mediator, I have investigated corruption within what is now World Athletics, chaired a Commission on whistleblowing, advised the GMC about whistleblowing, prepared and taught courses on money laundering and the recovery of the proceeds of crime in East Africa, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and the West Balkans. For three months in 2018-19 I lived in Kyiv as Chair of a panel of foreign experts assisting in the appointment of judges to the new anti-corruption court of Ukraine.