I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve had extraordinary opportunities in my career. I’ve had the opportunity not just as a hands-on lawyer, but also to do some politics, to take part in the affairs of the country… I’d like to think also that I’ve helped some people in a number of ways.
There have been a lot of memorable cases. The Afghan warlord we got convicted at the Old Bailey. I suppose Caparo in the House of Lords – a huge case on auditors’ negligence. That was a tremendous result – we happened to get the result on the day of my wedding anniversary. That was quite nice.
The favourite part of my job is being in court. It shouldn’t be but it is. I like being there, I like arguing, I like winning. It doesn’t always happen. I want to put on a good show, to do a good performance, and to solve the problem. I don’t like not solving legal problems.
I’m very fortunate to have a huge amount on and I still have a political life. My family is important to me. They’re grown-ups so there’s less time. It’s unfortunate that I travel a lot although it does give a little colour to life. Hobbies? I haven’t had a hobby since I collected stamps as an eight year old boy. I like music, theatre, opera…
I’ve four kids. Two are lawyers and Jamie is the only barrister. We do talk. It’s nice to be able to talk about issues that he’s got on his case or I’ve got on mine. I didn’t try to influence whether he would go to the Bar. I was pleased that he did.
Would I have acted differently looking back on my time as Attorney General? I don’t think so. People obviously think about the high-profile issues in relation to the War on Terror. I led the charge on getting people back from the US who were being held at Guantánamo Bay because I thought that was wrong. I did a lot to try and change the criminal justice system to make it more efficient and fairer in a number of respects. But when you take that job, there are a lot of high-profile decisions you have to make and ultimately the buck stops with you. I don’t regret any of it.
‘Often, as people rightly say in politics, there aren’t any good decisions, just less bad decisions.’
Does Syria bring back memories? Of course. There’s a lot of similarities. I couldn’t help but notice that when David Cameron got up in the House of Commons and referred to the Attorney General’s advice, he was immediately asked: ‘Where is it?’ He said: ‘There’s a longstanding tradition where we don’t reveal that advice.’ I believe in that. People asked why he wasn’t revealing it all and I was slightly amused that I had been in exactly the same position. There are a lot of similarities, but there are differences [too]. Any legal basis for military action in Syria is actually quite different to the basis for Iraq.
I never came across political colleagues who I thought were just in it for themselves. But often, as people rightly say in politics, there aren’t any good decisions, just less bad decisions.
I’ve great admiration for Tony Blair. I know it’s not a popular thing to say. I didn’t know him very well before I went into government. I thought he was extraordinary in his ability to identify issues and try to solve them. He had great energy in that. I remember one occasion when he was concerned about the level of street crime and he called us all together. I wondered if it was just for a photo opportunity, but it wasn’t at all. We continued well after the cameras and the journalists were gone, week after week, examining aspects of the criminal justice system, trying to make it better. He had a great belief in what he was doing.
Preparation is everything for litigation, to understand the case, to understand what’s going to hit you, to think it through… nothing can match having a thorough understanding of the case.
Client relationships are much more important than when I started. The classic picture was of clients being led in to sit on a hard chair, balance their papers on their knees… you wouldn’t get a glass of water let alone a cup of coffee. That’s all changed.
The Bar is more approachable now; the barriers are removed. By contrast, solicitors have become more forward. They don’t sit back and wait to hear what the barrister says. The crazy days when the senior solicitor would say to the client, ‘Well, the barrister says…’ and the barrister might be 24 years old – that’s all gone. That’s very healthy.
We have much more written work in the law than before and an international comparative approach. I do a lot of human rights law and public law, and you’re looking more to see what other countries and their courts have to say. We no longer believe there’s only the English solution. That’s a great trend.
I started pro bono work as a junior tenant and started a legal advice centre in the East End. That wasn’t human rights, that was helping people with problems with the police, local authorities and housing… very basic stuff, but important precisely because it was basic. Then in 1996, I started the Bar Pro Bono unit. A lot of people signed up. When I was Attorney General, I created a co-ordinating committee so the various pro bono organisations could work better together because there’s more value in that. International pro bono work is very important. At the moment, I’m working on pro bono cases aimed at decriminalising homosexuality. There are over 70 countries in the world where it’s still illegal. I’ve argued this in Belize and I’m hoping to argue it in Singapore if they’ll admit me.
I’m not sure what other aspirations I have left. We are in a period of significant expansion of the disputes practice at Debevoise & Plimpton. I would like to grow the practice to twice the current size in three years’ time. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my career to be chairman at the Bar, Attorney General in the House of Lords and speak in parliament. I’m not sure there’s anything else… I will not win Britain’s Got Talent.
Lord Peter Goldsmith QC is chair of European and Asian litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton and served as the UK’s Attorney General from 2001-07