Jolyon Maugham

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Jolyon Maugham

QC
Born
Jolyon Toby Dennis Maugham

(1971-07-01) 1 July 1971 (age 50)
St Pancras, London, England
NationalityBritish, New Zealander
Education
OccupationBarrister
Known forBrexit litigation
Spouse(s)
Claire Prihartini
​
(m. 2007)​
Parent(s)

Jolyon Toby Dennis Maugham QC (/mɔːm/; born 1 July 1971)[1] is a British barrister.[2] He is the founder and director of the Good Law Project, through which he has played a role in bringing to court a number of legal challenges to the Brexit process, which he opposed.[3] He has written extensively on Brexit and legal issues for publications such as The Daily Telegraph,[4] The Guardian[5] and the New Statesman.[6] In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic the organisation has brought, to date, two successful court actions relating to the award of contracts by the Government.[7]

Life[]

Early life[]

He is the son of David Benedictus, although they did not meet until Maugham was 17. He was brought up in New Zealand by his English mother, Lynne Joyce Maugham, and his adoptive father, Alan Barker.[1][8][9] At 16 he had to leave his parents' house after a dispute, and did cleaning work. He went to England and stayed with his mother's father after finishing school.[10]

Education[]

He went to Wellington High School, New Zealand.[1] He graduated with a first-class LLB in European Legal Studies from Durham University (Hatfield College) in 1995.[11] He also spent some time studying in Belgium at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and later completed an MA at Birkbeck, University of London.[2] As a student he was sent by a temping agency to carry out secretarial work at a law firm, but was sent back for being a man. Maugham sued, claiming to be a victim of sex discrimination, and was awarded compensation.[12]

Career[]

Maugham completed his pupillage in the chambers of Lord Irvine.[12] He became a QC in 2015.[2]

Involvement in politics[]

Legal challenges to Brexit[]

Maugham's cases include defending the rights of British expatriates in Europe,[13][14] a case to clarify whether the Brexit process can be reversed by Parliament,[15] and a legal challenge to referendum spending by Vote Leave.[16][17]

Affiliations to political parties[]

Maugham had advised the Labour Party on tax policy under Ed Miliband.[18] He is last known for being on the advisory council of liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, which advises the Conservative Party.[19]

In April 2017, Maugham reportedly contemplated forming a new centrist political party, "Spring",[20] and standing for election against Prime Minister Theresa May in her constituency of Maidenhead,[21] but decided against it.[22][23][24]

The Good Law Project[]

Maugham is on the Board of The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit campaign organisation that claims to use the law to protect the interests of the public.

One of the organisation's stated aims is to litigate to force the Government to "become more vigorous in tackling avoidance and evasion",[25] however Maugham has himself represented corporate interests in cases against HMRC, including Eclipse Film Partners No.35 LLP[26] a case regarding the distribution of certain Walt Disney Films[27] and Tottenham Hotspur Limited.[28] Maugham also represented Hudson Contract Services, a provider of zero-hours workers in the construction industry, in an unsuccessful bid for Hudson to avoid paying its industry training levy.[29]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the government appointed people closely connected to Conservative politicians to influential positions without interview process or open competition, and awarded lucrative contracts to companies without relevant experience. Examples include appointing Dido Harding, wife of a Conservative MP, to head the new National Institute for Health Protection, and awarding a contract for more than £250m of personal protective equipment to a Florida-based jewellery company, with a £21m payment to an intermediary, without advertisement or competitive tender process. Maugham and the Good Law Project challenged the "culture of cronyism and the highly secretive use of billions of pounds of public funds".[10]

Transgender rights[]

Maugham has been an outspoken advocate of transgender rights and as of November 2020 is representing a transgender boy in a lawsuit against the NHS over treatment delays.[30] As of June 2021, Maugham is involved in an appeal against a decision to award charitable status to LGB Alliance on the basis that it did not "meet the threshold tests to be registered as a charity";[31] Maugham has spoken publicly about the charity, calling it "a transphobic hate group."[32]

Controversies[]

Doxing of home address[]

In late 2019 Maugham accused the talkRADIO presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer of revealing his home address at a time when he was receiving death threats.[33] He also criticised the television programme Question Time for allowing Hartley-Brewer to appear as a panellist.[33] Hartley-Brewer defended herself by saying Maugham's address was already easily available online and that he had previously revealed it himself in published interviews.[33]

Killing of a fox[]

Jolyon Maugham QC Twitter
@JolyonMaugham

Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How's your Boxing Day going?

26 December 2019[34]

On the morning of 26 December 2019, Maugham stated in a Twitter post that he had "killed a fox with a baseball bat". Maugham claimed that the fox was entrapped by the netting surrounding a hen house in his garden. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated the matter,[35][36][37][38][39] but decided not to prosecute because a post-mortem showed the fox had been killed swiftly, meaning that "the evidential threshold needed to take a prosecution under the CPS code was not met".[40]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Maugham, Jolyon Toby Dennis". Who's Who. Oxford: A & C Black. 2015. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U283232. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Jolyon Maugham QC - Profile". devereuxchambers.co.uk. Devereaux Chambers. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  3. ^ "What we do". goodlawproject.org. Good Law Project. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  4. ^ Maugham, Jolyon (19 November 2016). "How Nicola Sturgeon could shake up 'cosy consensus' and use Article 50 to wrest back control of Scotland's future". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Jolyon Maugham". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  6. ^ "Jolyon Maugham". New Statesman. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  7. ^ https://goodlawproject.org/update/gove-broke-the-law/
  8. ^ Eleftheriou-Smith, Loulla-Mae (29 August 2017). "Katie Hopkins' attempt to shame barrister on Twitter for having an Etonian father backfires". The Independent. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  9. ^ Maugham, Jolyon (31 August 2017). "We're too fixated on class. What matters is our ability to understand others". The Guardian. Article with brief autobiography.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Adams, Tim (22 November 2020). "'I don't like acts of dishonesty by the state': Jolyon Maugham QC on Covid cronyism". The Observer.
  11. ^ Moyes, W.A. (1996). Hatfield 1846-1996: A history of Hatfield College in the University of Durham. Hatfield College Trust. p. 315. ISBN 978-0-903324-01-4.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Stuart, Liz; Ram, Natasha (6 January 2001). "Jobs and Money: Barristers". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  13. ^ O'Carrol, Lisa (17 January 2017). "Britons tell Dutch court their EU rights cannot be removed". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  14. ^ Maugham, Jolyon (1 March 2018). "Our rights to EU citizenship are worth fighting for – despite Brexit". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  15. ^ O'Leary, Elisabeth (20 March 2018). "Court rules in favour of case on Britain's ability to reverse Brexit". Reuters. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  16. ^ George, Hannah (23 March 2018). "Anti-Brexit group wins challenge against 'Vote Leave' spending". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  17. ^ Dickie, Mure; Croft, Jane (17 April 2018). "UK asks Supreme Court to rule on Scottish and Welsh Brexit laws". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  18. ^ Swinford, Stephen (8 April 2015). "Labour's non-dom adviser represented celebrity tax dodge film schemes". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  19. ^ "Advisory council". brightblue.org.uk. Bright Blue. 8 July 2018. Archived from the original on 8 July 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  20. ^ Di Stefano, Mark; Waterson, Jim (18 October 2017). "People keep trying to start pro-EU British centrist movements on Twitter". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  21. ^ Maugham, Jolyon (17 April 2017). Spring The Party (PDF). Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  22. ^ "Statement of persons nominated - Maidenhead". Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  23. ^ McDonald, Karl (9 April 2018). "All the centrist parties that have already failed since Britain voted for Brexit". i. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  24. ^ "Jolyon Maugham QC". Legal Cheek. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  25. ^ "Tax". Good Law Project. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  26. ^ "Eclipse Film Partners No. 35 LLP v Revenue & Customs [2014] EWCA Civ 184 (26 February 2014)". www.bailii.org. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  27. ^ "Eclipse Film Partners No 35 – To trade or not to trade, that is the question!". RPC. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  28. ^ "Revenue and Customs v Tottenham Hotspur Ltd (INCOME TAX - termination payments made to football player employees) [2017] UKUT 453 (TCC) (24 November 2017)". www.bailii.org. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  29. ^ "Hudson Contract Services Ltd v Construction Industry Training Board [2020] EWCA Civ 328". www.bailii.org. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  30. ^ Hunte, Ben (23 November 2020). "Trans teen in legal action over gender clinic wait". BBC News. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  31. ^ Parsons, Vic (2 June 2021). "LGBT+ groups appeal decision to register anti-trans LGB Alliance as charity". PinkNews. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  32. ^ Parsons, Vic (27 April 2021). "What we can learn from LGB Alliance, Keira Bell and the hostile anti-trans media". PinkNews. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b c Bond, Kimberley (10 October 2019). "Julia Hartley-Brewer to feature on Question Time despite boycott". Radio Times. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  34. ^ Jolyon Maugham QC [@JolyonMaugham] (26 December 2019). "Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How's your Boxing Day going?" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  35. ^ "RSPCA investigates after lawyer Jolyon Maugham kills fox with baseball bat". BBC News. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  36. ^ Gayle, Damien (26 December 2019). "Prominent lawyer Jolyon Maugham clubs fox to death while wearing kimono". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  37. ^ Gayle, Damien (27 December 2019). "RSPCA investigates after lawyer Jolyon Maugham kills fox". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  38. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (26 December 2019). "Prominent lawyer sparks backlash with tweet about 'killing fox with baseball bat'". The Independent. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  39. ^ Doherty-Cove, Jody (27 December 2019). "Sussex windmill owner 'killed fox with baseball bat'". The Argus. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  40. ^ "Fox-killing lawyer Jolyon Maugham will not be charged, says RSPCA". BBC. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020.

External links[]

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