Geoffrey Bindman

Geoffrey Bindman
Born
Geoffrey Lionel Bindman

(1933-01-03) 3 January 1933 (age 91)
EducationOriel College, Oxford (BA, BCL)
Spouse
Lynn Winton
​
(m. 1961)​
Children3

Sir Geoffrey Lionel Bindman KC (Hon) (born 3 January 1933)[1] is a British solicitor specialising in human rights law, and founder of the human rights law firm Bindman & Partners. He has been Chair of the British Institute of Human Rights since 2005.[2][3] He won The Law Society Gazette Centenary Award for Human Rights in 2003,[4] and was knighted in 2007 for services to human rights.[5] In 2011, he was appointed Queen's Counsel.[6]

Early life

Bindman was born and brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne to a family descended from Jewish immigrants.[3] His father Gerald (1904–1974) was a GP who married Rachael Lena Doberman in 1929. Bindman attended the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, and then left Oriel College, Oxford, with two degrees in law:[7] a BA (later converted to MA) and a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law in 1956, qualifying as a solicitor three years later.

Bindman has a second cousin who owns another law firm, Bindman Solicitors LLP, trading as Bindman & Co, in Whickham, Gateshead. His brother is Professor David Bindman (born 1940), emeritus Durning-Lawrence professor of the history of art at University College London and research fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

Career

He became a legal advisor to the Race Relations Board in 1966, a job he retained for 17 years, also following its merger into the Commission for Racial Equality.[1][3] He also served as a legal advisor to Amnesty International[4] and represented satirical magazine Private Eye.[8]

Bindman was elected as a Labour councillor for Camden London Borough Council in 1971, representing St John's ward.[9][10] At the time, he was working for a solicitors' firm in Gray's Inn. Along with his fellow councillors, they funded the establishment of the Camden Community Law Centre. It opened in 1973, and Bindman was the first chairman of its management committee.[9] He did not stand at the subsequent council elections in 1974.[11]

In 1974, Bindman established Bindman & Partners as a firm with the aim of "protecting the rights and freedoms of ordinary people."[12] He has personally acted as lawyer for numerous high-profile people including James Hanratty (executed 1962),[13] Keith Vaz[14] and Jack Straw.[15]

In the late 1980s, Bindman visited South Africa as part of an International Commission of Jurists delegation sent to investigate apartheid[16] and subsequently became editor of a book on the topic, South Africa and the Rule of Law.[17] Bindman also continued his international human rights work, acting as a United Nations observer at the first democratic election in South Africa[18] and representing Amnesty International's interests in the British litigation regarding Augusto Pinochet in the late 1990s.[19]

Bindman was fined £12,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in 2001 for acting despite having a conflict of interest, as well as for breach of confidentiality. It was remarked at the time that he was the "most eminent" lawyer ever to be brought before such a tribunal.[20] In 2012, Andrew Hopper QC, who was a leading prosecutor before the Tribunal until 2002, reviewed Bindman's case. He found the main charge was at worst "a 'bare conflict' having no adverse consequence" and said the Tribunal's verdict on its seriousness was "incomprehensible". He also suggested the decision to prosecute and the level of the fine were reactions to Bindman's "robust" defence to the charges against him. Hopper sympathised with the view that Bindman was treated "disproportionately because of his stature in the profession".[21]

Bindmans became a limited liability partnership in 2008, and was renamed Bindmans LLP.[12]

In September 2012, Bindman told BBC Radio 4 he agreed with Desmond Tutu that British prime minister Tony Blair should be prosecuted on the grounds that starting the Iraq War was a "crime of aggression" in breach of the United Nations Charter.[22]

In March 2023, Bindman became a signatory [23] to the "Lawyers are responsible" Declaration of Conscience.[24]

Honours

Bindman received honorary law doctorates (LLD) from De Montfort University in 2000, and the Kingston University in 2006. He was given the Liberty Award for Lifetime Human Rights Achievement in 1999, and the Centenary Award for Human Rights by The Law Society Gazette in 2003.[25]

Personal life

Bindman is a patron of Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association).[26] He lists his recreations as "walking, music, book collecting".[25]

In 1961, he married academic scientist Lynn Janice Winton. She later became a reader (associate professor) in Physiology at University College London.[27][25]

References

  1. ^ a b BINDMAN, Sir Geoffrey (Lionel). Who's Who 2011. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  2. ^ "BIHR Trustees". United Kingdom: British Institute of Human Rights. Archived from the original on 12 August 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Carmen, Dominic (30 January 2007). "The legal profession used not to be so self-seeking..." The Times. UK. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  4. ^ a b "A War on Terror or a War on Justice?". UK: London South Bank University. 9 February 2005. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  5. ^ "2007 New Years' Honours List". Cabinet Office Ceremonial Secretariat. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  6. ^ "Appointed Queen's Counsel". The Daily Telegraph. UK. 3 March 2011. p. 28.
  7. ^ "Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC (Hon)". Bindmans LLP (en). Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  8. ^ Robins, Jon (13 November 2001). "Forty years old and fighting fit". The Independent. UK. Archived from the original on 21 October 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  9. ^ a b "The British legal profession has a duty to help ensure justice for all". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 3 June 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  10. ^ London Borough Council elections, 13 May 1971 (PDF). London: Greater London Council Research and Intelligence Unit. 1971. ISBN 0-7168-0387-9. OCLC 16192301. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  11. ^ Greater London Council. Intelligence Unit (1974). London Borough Council elections, 2 May 1974 (PDF). London: G.L.C. ISBN 0-7168-0621-5. OCLC 16281370. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Our history". Bindmans. Archived from the original on 11 February 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  13. ^ Bennetto, Jason (27 January 1997). "I'm dying tomorrow, please clear my name". The Independent. p. 8.
  14. ^ Watson, Roland (17 March 2001). "Lawyer claims human rights were breached". The Times. UK.
  15. ^ Wintour, Patrick (4 January 1998). "Named, but not shamed". The Observer. UK. p. 19.
  16. ^ Milne, Seumas (21 June 1988). "Final knock at the door of Downing Street". The Guardian. UK.
  17. ^ Brittain, Victoria (19 August 1988). "Books: third world". The Guardian.
  18. ^ "Geoffrey Bindman: Profile". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  19. ^ Bindman, Geoffrey (21 May 2009). "The bigger picture". The Law Gazette. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  20. ^ Mendick, Robert (2 December 2001). "Top Labour lawyer fined over breach". Independent on Sunday. p. 6. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  21. ^ "Hopper puts the case against 'overly aggressive' SRA". Legal Futures. November 2012. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  22. ^ "Desmond Tutu calls for Blair and Bush to be tried over Iraq". BBC. 2 September 2012. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  23. ^ "Declaration of Conscience: Signatories". Lawyers are responsible. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  24. ^ "Declaration of Conscience". Lawyers are responsible. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  25. ^ a b c "Bindman, Sir Geoffrey (Lionel), (born 3 Jan. 1933), Consultant, Bindmans LLP (formerly Bindman & Partners), Solicitors, since 2004 (Senior Partner, 1974–2004)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u7538. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  26. ^ "Our Patrons". Humanists UK. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  27. ^ "Interview with Dr. Lynn Bindman 2015, published 2018 for the Physiology Society Oral History Archive" (PDF). Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2024.