*/
‘I got a phone call from the Leader’s office. I
was going to be made a peer. I thought, “Nice, I might be able to do something
useful with that.”’ John Hendy QC, labour law expert, on the moment he learned
he was to receive a peerage in PM Theresa May’s Resignation Honours List on the
recommendation of the Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn. ‘In 2017 I and my good
friend, Professor Keith Ewing were asked to advise the Labour front bench on
changes to industrial relations law. We were delighted, having spent decades
advocating such changes.’ Lord Hendy was well placed to offer advice, having
co-written A Manifesto for Labour Law as chair of the Institute of
Employment Rights, a labour movement think tank. He has spent a lifetime
working in the industrial relations field and been dubbed ‘barrister champion
of the trade union movement’.
A Londoner, John was brought up in a left-wing political
family, his mother the youngest daughter of a hereditary peer (‘I didn’t know
his politics – he died before I was born’) – and his father a communist
electrician and trade unionist: ‘self-taught, read all the classic political
texts and went to university on a trade union scholarship in his late 30s’.
John was schooled at a comprehensive in Hayes, then a grammar in Ealing. Promotion?
‘No, trading down. The comprehensive was light years better; aspiration was
unlimited; you could become anything. Education at the grammar was, with
honourable exceptions, a process of undermining confidence. The careers adviser
told my mum, “He’s tall, he might make a policeman.” No fan of the police, she
went spare. She and dad wanted me to go to university. I wanted to be a film
director…
‘I did badly at school but managed to get in to do law at
Ealing Technical College.’ Why law? ‘Dad had done a law degree whilst an
electrician and now lectured on labour law there. I inherited his interest. I
thought if I got a degree, I could try films afterwards.’ This strategy was
repeated in a master’s degree at Queen’s, Belfast – ‘a unique course in British
and Irish trade union law; I was absolutely enthused by TU law’ – and then to
the Bar. ‘I thought: no point messing about – I must be in the front row rather
than the second.’
Pupillage followed at Old Square, and an offer of a
tenancy, but instead he took a job, not in films, but to do a three-year stint
establishing a new law centre in Newham. ‘A good salary and wonderful
opportunities to set the philosophy, hire the staff and buy the desks and
pencils.’ Then, after a year’s lecturing at Middlesex Poly and becoming
disillusioned with academic committees, he ran into the clerk at Old Square.
‘Why not come back to us? “Not a bad plan,” I thought.’ He did everything:
petty crime, shoplifting, defective brakes, and a lot of personal injury.
‘Wretched cases in the West Ham mags sharpened me up.’ More significantly for
John’s future, ‘I did a lot of employment tribunal and hence Employment Appeal
Tribunal cases as the law developed in the 1970s and 80s.’ Many were reported
in the new specialist employment law reports (‘an advantage because judges see
your name’). ‘At the end of the 70s I was lucky to be in some leading trade
union cases and my course was set.’ [Duport Steels Ltd. v Sirs [1980]
ICR 161; 1 AER 529; IRLR 112 (HL) and Express Newspapers Ltd v McShane
[1980] AC 672; 1 AER 65; IRLR 35 (HL).] Then the Miners’ Strike: ‘I did nothing
but NUM for 18 months. I think the judges and Bar respected me even though many
thought my client [the NUM led by Arthur Scargill] was the Devil Incarnate.
Quintin Hogg [Lord Hailsham] gave me silk in 1987.’
Little did the clerk know, but he had just recruited a
future head of Chambers. ‘Being head was relatively easy. We had a democratic
constitution; everybody did their bit. After nine years I was pleased to have
passed on the responsibility and even more pleased with how Chambers has
developed since. We have expanded enormously whilst preserving the original
egalitarian, non-hierarchical, supportive ethos.’
As a senior advocacy trainer at Gray’s Inn, what for him is
advocacy? ‘The art of persuasion. I enjoy the mixture of strategy and tactics,
how a case can best be put, the order in which submissions are made, sculpting
the questions in cross-examination, the use of analogy to illustrate a point,
the skill of adapting your presentation to interventions of the court. As a
trainer I make the point that advocates should adapt their style to their
personality. If charm is your stock in trade, don’t try to be a heavyweight
bruiser. Don’t hum and ha; keep your hands still; be still. Empathy is
also part of the skill of being a barrister. Watch, listen and learn from
opponents, leaders and juniors. I’ve seen hundreds of advocates over a
professional life, if not thousands, and I learn from them all, constantly
acquiring new tricks and dumping others.’
Like me, John has retained traces of a North West London
accent. ‘There’s an element of bilingualism here: the choice of words in court,
the patois of a barrister. But I spend much time addressing trade unionists,
hopefully in language people can understand and relate to.’ It is his practice
when appearing in group litigation such as the Potters Bar, Ladbroke Grove and
Southall train crash inquiries to hold a daily ‘mass meeting’ at the end of
every day for the families or the workers to debrief them about what has
happened that day – ‘remember that a lot of it could have been conducted in
Chinese as far as the lay clients are concerned’ – and to explain what to
expect next. When he won the case of the two-year strike at Friction Dynamics
‘we had a hundred Welsh speaking workers and needed an interpreter for the mass
meetings.’
John describes labour law as being at the point of conflict
between labour and capital: ‘that’s its fascination.’ In his writings John has
described the law as politics in action and judges as ‘political actors’. But
he is full of admiration at how judges unfamiliar with labour law demonstrate
‘a remarkably quick grasp of the notoriously complex law on industrial action
and the world of industrial relations’. Did he ever want to be a judge himself?
‘I did apply once. I was told it was a strong application and a strong
interview but that there were stronger! In my heart it was the best result: I
just didn’t want to live with the possibility that I could have been a judge but
hadn’t applied. It suited me that the door was shut for me. I like being
partisan on behalf of my clients. People have largely chosen me to be on one
side rather than the other; and I like being on the side of the little guys.
Though personal sympathy with one’s client is not as important as the cab rank
rule - which I regard as absolutely fundamental to our system.’
John sees law in historical, economic, developmental and
comparative terms. ‘It’s not so much what law is but why, and how to change it,
drawing on the experience of other countries, because the issues are
universal.’ As an adviser to Laura Pidcock MP, Shadow Secretary of State for
Employment Rights, and with the election in sight when we meet, John is
enthusiastic about Labour’s programme for law at the workplace. He describes it
as wide-ranging and transformational. It centres on the creation of a new
Department for Employment Rights and the reintroduction of sectoral collective
bargaining. ‘People may have forgotten that compulsory collective bargaining
was introduced by Churchill in 1909 over minimum wages. We now want it to cover
all issues which arise at work and to extend, eventually, across all sectors of
the economy. I am full of enthusiasm for getting this project through. It would
be the pinnacle of my career in the law.’
Advice to those starting out? ‘Get other experience before
coming to the Bar. At school studying law at university can seem a good idea,
but gain experience of the world and do a degree in something else that interests
you. At the Bar you have more chance if you have done something else first.
Understanding people and the world are essential tools.’
‘As the only Hendy in the Lords I don’t have to call myself
“Lord Hendy of” anything; but I am allowed what’s called a “geographical
association” with Hayes and Harlington.’ He has never lost touch with his
roots.
‘I got a phone call from the Leader’s office. I
was going to be made a peer. I thought, “Nice, I might be able to do something
useful with that.”’ John Hendy QC, labour law expert, on the moment he learned
he was to receive a peerage in PM Theresa May’s Resignation Honours List on the
recommendation of the Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn. ‘In 2017 I and my good
friend, Professor Keith Ewing were asked to advise the Labour front bench on
changes to industrial relations law. We were delighted, having spent decades
advocating such changes.’ Lord Hendy was well placed to offer advice, having
co-written A Manifesto for Labour Law as chair of the Institute of
Employment Rights, a labour movement think tank. He has spent a lifetime
working in the industrial relations field and been dubbed ‘barrister champion
of the trade union movement’.
A Londoner, John was brought up in a left-wing political
family, his mother the youngest daughter of a hereditary peer (‘I didn’t know
his politics – he died before I was born’) – and his father a communist
electrician and trade unionist: ‘self-taught, read all the classic political
texts and went to university on a trade union scholarship in his late 30s’.
John was schooled at a comprehensive in Hayes, then a grammar in Ealing. Promotion?
‘No, trading down. The comprehensive was light years better; aspiration was
unlimited; you could become anything. Education at the grammar was, with
honourable exceptions, a process of undermining confidence. The careers adviser
told my mum, “He’s tall, he might make a policeman.” No fan of the police, she
went spare. She and dad wanted me to go to university. I wanted to be a film
director…
‘I did badly at school but managed to get in to do law at
Ealing Technical College.’ Why law? ‘Dad had done a law degree whilst an
electrician and now lectured on labour law there. I inherited his interest. I
thought if I got a degree, I could try films afterwards.’ This strategy was
repeated in a master’s degree at Queen’s, Belfast – ‘a unique course in British
and Irish trade union law; I was absolutely enthused by TU law’ – and then to
the Bar. ‘I thought: no point messing about – I must be in the front row rather
than the second.’
Pupillage followed at Old Square, and an offer of a
tenancy, but instead he took a job, not in films, but to do a three-year stint
establishing a new law centre in Newham. ‘A good salary and wonderful
opportunities to set the philosophy, hire the staff and buy the desks and
pencils.’ Then, after a year’s lecturing at Middlesex Poly and becoming
disillusioned with academic committees, he ran into the clerk at Old Square.
‘Why not come back to us? “Not a bad plan,” I thought.’ He did everything:
petty crime, shoplifting, defective brakes, and a lot of personal injury.
‘Wretched cases in the West Ham mags sharpened me up.’ More significantly for
John’s future, ‘I did a lot of employment tribunal and hence Employment Appeal
Tribunal cases as the law developed in the 1970s and 80s.’ Many were reported
in the new specialist employment law reports (‘an advantage because judges see
your name’). ‘At the end of the 70s I was lucky to be in some leading trade
union cases and my course was set.’ [Duport Steels Ltd. v Sirs [1980]
ICR 161; 1 AER 529; IRLR 112 (HL) and Express Newspapers Ltd v McShane
[1980] AC 672; 1 AER 65; IRLR 35 (HL).] Then the Miners’ Strike: ‘I did nothing
but NUM for 18 months. I think the judges and Bar respected me even though many
thought my client [the NUM led by Arthur Scargill] was the Devil Incarnate.
Quintin Hogg [Lord Hailsham] gave me silk in 1987.’
Little did the clerk know, but he had just recruited a
future head of Chambers. ‘Being head was relatively easy. We had a democratic
constitution; everybody did their bit. After nine years I was pleased to have
passed on the responsibility and even more pleased with how Chambers has
developed since. We have expanded enormously whilst preserving the original
egalitarian, non-hierarchical, supportive ethos.’
As a senior advocacy trainer at Gray’s Inn, what for him is
advocacy? ‘The art of persuasion. I enjoy the mixture of strategy and tactics,
how a case can best be put, the order in which submissions are made, sculpting
the questions in cross-examination, the use of analogy to illustrate a point,
the skill of adapting your presentation to interventions of the court. As a
trainer I make the point that advocates should adapt their style to their
personality. If charm is your stock in trade, don’t try to be a heavyweight
bruiser. Don’t hum and ha; keep your hands still; be still. Empathy is
also part of the skill of being a barrister. Watch, listen and learn from
opponents, leaders and juniors. I’ve seen hundreds of advocates over a
professional life, if not thousands, and I learn from them all, constantly
acquiring new tricks and dumping others.’
Like me, John has retained traces of a North West London
accent. ‘There’s an element of bilingualism here: the choice of words in court,
the patois of a barrister. But I spend much time addressing trade unionists,
hopefully in language people can understand and relate to.’ It is his practice
when appearing in group litigation such as the Potters Bar, Ladbroke Grove and
Southall train crash inquiries to hold a daily ‘mass meeting’ at the end of
every day for the families or the workers to debrief them about what has
happened that day – ‘remember that a lot of it could have been conducted in
Chinese as far as the lay clients are concerned’ – and to explain what to
expect next. When he won the case of the two-year strike at Friction Dynamics
‘we had a hundred Welsh speaking workers and needed an interpreter for the mass
meetings.’
John describes labour law as being at the point of conflict
between labour and capital: ‘that’s its fascination.’ In his writings John has
described the law as politics in action and judges as ‘political actors’. But
he is full of admiration at how judges unfamiliar with labour law demonstrate
‘a remarkably quick grasp of the notoriously complex law on industrial action
and the world of industrial relations’. Did he ever want to be a judge himself?
‘I did apply once. I was told it was a strong application and a strong
interview but that there were stronger! In my heart it was the best result: I
just didn’t want to live with the possibility that I could have been a judge but
hadn’t applied. It suited me that the door was shut for me. I like being
partisan on behalf of my clients. People have largely chosen me to be on one
side rather than the other; and I like being on the side of the little guys.
Though personal sympathy with one’s client is not as important as the cab rank
rule - which I regard as absolutely fundamental to our system.’
John sees law in historical, economic, developmental and
comparative terms. ‘It’s not so much what law is but why, and how to change it,
drawing on the experience of other countries, because the issues are
universal.’ As an adviser to Laura Pidcock MP, Shadow Secretary of State for
Employment Rights, and with the election in sight when we meet, John is
enthusiastic about Labour’s programme for law at the workplace. He describes it
as wide-ranging and transformational. It centres on the creation of a new
Department for Employment Rights and the reintroduction of sectoral collective
bargaining. ‘People may have forgotten that compulsory collective bargaining
was introduced by Churchill in 1909 over minimum wages. We now want it to cover
all issues which arise at work and to extend, eventually, across all sectors of
the economy. I am full of enthusiasm for getting this project through. It would
be the pinnacle of my career in the law.’
Advice to those starting out? ‘Get other experience before
coming to the Bar. At school studying law at university can seem a good idea,
but gain experience of the world and do a degree in something else that interests
you. At the Bar you have more chance if you have done something else first.
Understanding people and the world are essential tools.’
‘As the only Hendy in the Lords I don’t have to call myself
“Lord Hendy of” anything; but I am allowed what’s called a “geographical
association” with Hayes and Harlington.’ He has never lost touch with his
roots.
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