We received dozens of entries for our prize draw to win a copy of Lord Woolf’s new autobiography, An Uncommon Lawyer. For which many thanks, and commiserations if you didn’t win.

Woolf book

‘A book to remind lawyers, be they students, practitioners or scholars, of the power and importance of law,’ it says here. First out of our virtual hat was Richard Davison of Stokesley, Middlesbrough; followed by Liz Bowen, a senior lawyer at the Environment Agency in Warrington. And we’ll root around among the loose change to send a bonus copy to Andrew Long of Stourbridge, who reminisced: ‘I like to think that in some ways I deserve to win the book, if only to get over a 40+ year disappointment…

‘In my first ever High Court case Woolf J had listened patiently, courteously and understandingly to the arguments advanced throughout the morning on behalf of our local action group clients. He seemed fully to understand where we were coming from.

‘We lunched contentedly. He then came back in the afternoon to deliver an ex tempore judgment straight down the line for our opponents. Lesson learnt; a judge who finds against you doesn’t have to be unpleasant!’

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