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22 June 2017 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7751 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Legal services
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Making the grade?

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Will non-lawyer David Lidington cut the mustard as Lord Chancellor? Jon Robins shares a potted political history

Our new Lord Chancellor is now the fourth non-legally qualified occupant of one of the most ancient offices of state in a row. David Lidington might not be a lawyer but, as a double winner of University Challenge, it seems reasonable to surmise that he’s no fool.

A theme of commentary in the legal press of previous non-lawyer occupants of the post—certainly, Chris Grayling and Liz Truss—was that they had not been intellectually up to the rigours of the job. Lidington has the distinction of having led Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to victory in the BBC quiz in 1978 and, a second time, for a special show marking the series’ 40th anniversary.

Some of the lawyer Twitterati even commented approvingly on the legal nature of his chosen PhD topic (‘The enforcement of the penal statutes at the court of the Exchequer c1558 to 1576’). Not everyone was impressed though. ‘That’ll be handy,’ noted one lawyer facetiously.

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