Murder at the Savoy, One Night Only

Marshall Hall: A Law unto Himself
by Sally Smith
Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2016, 302 pages, £25

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The best-known trial lawyers of the post-war era are fictional characters. They either originated on the big screen or got there eventually. They include Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch, Paul Newman’s Frank Galvin and Richard Gere’s Martin Vail. But in much earlier days, the celebrity barristers were real men. Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC (1858–1927) combined elements of all these later heroes of American drama: Finch’s passion, Galvin’s desperation and Vail’s conviction, almost embarrassed and hidden beneath the infuriating coolness of the criminal defence lawyer, that everyone is entitled to a fair hearing.

He had none of the cynicism of the defendant lawyer portrayed by James Mason: gifted, experienced and undeniably good at his job, but relying on technical mastery for lack of any moral appeal, and treating his own client with…