updated on 22 March 2012
The latest theme of our Take 5 feature, which linked sets of chambers through their historically significant namesakes without deigning to provide the slightest detail or explanation about said namesakes, may have proven impenetrable to some. Compiled by yours truly in the full knowledge that the nation's students wait eagerly by their laptops every Tuesday for their weekly slice of firm-name-based legal fun, the potential failure of this week's Take 5 to amuse, inform and inspire millions is more than I can stand. Therefore, I will make amends by providing an explanation below.
The latest edition was difficult to put together because many chambers are simply named for their street address, which rather limited the options. However this would seem a good opportunity to elaborate on the aim of the Take 5, which is to prompt further research for those who are interested in the firms and chambers that are featured. And frankly, if you are the kind of person who has no interest in opaque historical allusions, shameless punning and laboured references, then you are boring and should stop reading now - get back to socialising, enjoying the sunlight or whatever it is that you do! Plus you never know, this knowledge could help you impress if you're interviewed by one of these chambers.
Without further preamble then, some details explaining the latest Take 5, which linked chambers which all share a namesake with a radical reformer from history:
Thomas More Chambers: This chambers' namesake is of course the Renaissance lawyer, politician, philosopher and humanist Sir Thomas More. Venerated by both Protestants and Catholics (a maverick achievement in itself, for the time), More's other great radical and progressive contribution to history and human thought was his work Utopia, which was a political treatise imagining More's ideal nation state. Utopia has since been referenced in everything from Shakespeare's Tempest and Aldous Huxley to TV pseudo-nonsense Lost.
Dr Johnson's Buildings: Named of course, after the Renaissance man's Renaissance man, Dr Samuel Johnson, who can count among his achievements the compilation of the preeminent English dictionary which continues to have a profound influence on the English language to this day. Dr Johnson also managed to find the time to effectively found modern literary criticism, and remains perhaps the greatest literary critic to have ever lived.
Maitland Chambers: Frederic William Maitland, though not a household name like the two gentlemen above, directly influenced the legal profession. A jurist and historian, he is generally credited with founding modern legal history and legal academia in general.
Wilberforce Chambers: William Wilberforce devoted the majority of his adult life to campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Radically opposing the prevalent attitudes of the era, Wilberforce's commitment to the emancipation of slaves helped force the abandonment of the terrible practice by the British Empire. He was also a great social reformer in other ways - campaigning for better working conditions in more hazardous jobs and also for prison reform. Wilberforce Chambers is named after a great man.
Atkinson Bevan Chambers: This namesake is more tenuous. Though Atkinson Bevan Chambers is not named after him, it does share half its name with one of the greatest reformers in British history, Aneurin “Nye” Bevan. A lifelong champion of the rights of working people and social justice, Bevan is best remembered for his work in the post-war Attlee government, during which he drove forward the establishment of our National Health Service. He'd be horrified at what the coalition is now doing to one of the greatest social achievements the world has yet seen - an achievement in which he played a leading role.