Jolyon Maugham

Jolyon Toby Dennis Maugham QC (/mɔːm/; born 1 July 1971)[1] is a British barrister, as of 2019 practising in tax law at Devereux Chambers.[2] He is the founder and director of the Good Law Project, through which he has played a key role in bringing to court a number of legal challenges to the Brexit process, which he opposes.[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]

Jolyon Maugham

QC
Born
Jolyon Toby Dennis Maugham

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

Life

Early life

He is the son of David Benedictus, although they did not meet until Maugham was seventeen. He was brought up in New Zealand by his mother, Lynne Joyce Maugham, and his adoptive father, Alan Barker.[1][7][8]

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.[9] 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 sexism, and was awarded damages.[10]

Career

Maugham completed his pupillage in the chambers of Lord Irvine.[10] He became a QC in 2015.[2]

Involvement in politics

Maugham's cases include defending the rights of British expatriates in Europe,[11][12] a case to clarify whether the Brexit process can be reversed by Parliament,[13] and a legal challenge to referendum spending by Vote Leave.[14][15]

Affiliations to political parties

Maugham had advised the Labour Party on tax policy under Ed Miliband.[16] He is last known for being on the advisory council of liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, which advises the Conservative Party.[17]

In April 2017, Maugham reportedly contemplated forming a new centrist political party, "Spring",[18] and standing for election against Prime Minister Theresa May in her constituency of Maidenhead,[19] but decided against it.[20][21][22]

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. He also criticised the television programme Question Time for allowing Hartley-Brewer to appear as a panellist. 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.[23]

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[24]

On the morning of 26 December 2019, Maugham stated in a Twitter post that he had killed a fox by means of 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,[25][26][27][28][29] 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".[30]

See also

References
  1. "Maugham, Jolyon Toby Dennis". Who's Who. Oxford: A & C Black. 2015. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U283232. ISBN 9780199540884.
  2. "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. 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.
  8. Maugham, Jolyon (31 July 2017). "We're too fixated on class. What matters is our ability to understand others". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  9. Moyes, W.A. (1996). Hatfield 1846-1996: A history of Hatfield College in the University of Durham. Hatfield College Trust. p. 315. ISBN 9780903324014.
  10. Stuart, Liz; Ram, Natasha (6 January 2001). "Jobs and Money: Barristers". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  11. O'Carrol, Lisa (17 January 2017). "Britons tell Dutch court their EU rights cannot be removed". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  12. Maugham, Jolyon (1 March 2018). "Our rights to EU citizenship are worth fighting for – despite Brexit". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  13. O'Leary, Elisabeth (20 March 2018). "Court rules in favour of case on Britain's ability to reverse Brexit". Reuters. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  14. George, Hannah (23 March 2018). "Anti-Brexit group wins challenge against 'Vote Leave' spending". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  15. 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.
  16. Swinford, Stephen (8 April 2015). "Labour's non-dom adviser represented celebrity tax dodge film schemes". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  17. "Advisory council". brightblue.org.uk. Bright Blue. 8 July 2018. Archived from the original on 8 July 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  18. 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.
  19. Maugham, Jolyon (17 April 2017). Spring The Party (PDF). Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  20. "Statement of persons nominated - Maidenhead". Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  21. McDonald, Karl (9 April 2018). "All the centrist parties that have already failed since Britain voted for Brexit". i. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  22. "Jolyon Maugham QC". Legal Cheek. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  23. Bond, Kimberley (10 October 2019). "Julia Hartley-Brewer to feature on Question Time despite boycott". Radio Times. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  24. 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.
  25. "RSPCA investigates after lawyer Jolyon Maugham kills fox with baseball bat". BBC News. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  26. Gayle, Damien (26 December 2019). "Prominent lawyer Jolyon Maugham clubs fox to death while wearing kimono". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  27. Gayle, Damien (27 December 2019). "RSPCA investigates after lawyer Jolyon Maugham kills fox". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  28. Dearden, Lizzie (26 December 2019). "Prominent lawyer sparks backlash with tweet about 'killing fox with baseball bat'". The Independent. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  29. Doherty-Cove, Jody (27 December 2019). "Sussex windmill owner 'killed fox with baseball bat'". The Argus. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  30. "Fox-killing lawyer Jolyon Maugham will not be charged, says RSPCA". BBC. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
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