In conversation with Joshua Rozenberg

Last week at LSE, Joshua Rozenberg – Britain’s best known writer and broadcaster on law – spoke to Professor Conor Gearty about his career, and answered the audience’s questions on a wide variety of legal issues. It was a fascinating hour and a half for anyone interested in law and the media.

It was fun to hear about his difficulty over Law Society finals, his early career in a solicitors’ firm and how he became a BBC trainee; I wish there’d been more of that. But he covered a lot else, from juries and the Duggan inquest to conflicts between judges and politicians, from libel and family court tourism to legal aid, and from whole life orders and human rights to whether Supreme Court Justices are really lords. He also told us which two advocates he rates most highly. I can’t complain.

At one point Joshua Rozenberg suggested he’d now be a suburban solicitor, had he stayed in law, or even out of a job. But the way he dealt with the tricky first question made me wonder if he might also have done well in politics.

LSE hosts some terrific law-related events, and it’s impressive that they make them so accessible for those who can’t be there. I hope to be there again on February 5th for a debate about whistleblowers and secrecy – “What have you got to hide?” – with Hazel Blears MP, David Omand, Annie Machon and Matthew Ryder QC. I wonder if the Miranda judgment (Matthew Ryder appeared for David Miranda in the judicial review hearing last November) will be available by then.

If you prefer an audio-only version of the Joshua Rozenberg event, you can listen at the LSE’s website or in the player below.