Robert Egerton
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Robert Egerton (22 May 1915 – 25 September 2000) was a legal and social reform campaigner known for his work in advocating legal aid.
Early life
Son of a Mancunian cloth manufacturer, he was educated at Oundle and Cambridge. In his early career, Egerton worked as an articled clerk on Wallis Simpson’s (of Edward and Mrs Simpson) divorce. He was later asked to work on the Kray twins defence, which he declined.
Career
His major work was in social legal reform. As a solicitor and conscientious objector he attended a course at Toynbee Hall[1] and subsequently worked as a "poor man’s lawyer" firstly in a basement in Fitzroy Square, London and afterwards at Cambridge house settlement in Camberwell. After two years of this work he saw the need for a greatly extended legal aid system. He researched in the Law Society Library and the Reading Room of the British Museum, devising questionnaires to send out to assess the existing provisions. He published his findings to form the basis of a comprehensive Legal Aid system in a book "Legal Aid" published by Kegan Paul,[2] He championed the case for a more accessible legal system through this and other writing including an article in the Spectator.[3]
Egerton attended the
Egerton also was president of the Westminster Law Society and set up the London branch of the Small Claims Court – an initiative introduced in Manchester.
References
- ^ ""Poor Man's Lawyer Service" Celebrates 115 Years | CL&J". Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
- .
- ^ "On not going to law » 1 Feb 1975 » the Spectator Archive".
- ^ "PAYNE COMMITTEE (REPORT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 24 January 1968.