A series of portraits of outstanding. members of the English Bar by Lord Binkett
4: Sir Rufus Isaacs , K.C. 1860-1935
Called to the Bar in 1887 Rufus Isaacs took silk in 1898 and became Lord Chief Justice of England in 1913. During his twenty-six years as an advocate he displayed outstanding versatility and consummate skill in a wide variety of cases. His cross-examination of Frederick Seddon in 1912 is still cited as a model of what such a cross-examination should be: cool, suave, incisive, searching but never oppressive, and unfailingly courteous. It parallels remarkably Lord Birkett's own cross-examination of A. A. Rouse nearly twenty years later.
Viceroy of India, Foreign Secretary,
Ambassador to the U.S.A.-these glittering political appointments came his way, says Lord Birkett, because of his achievements as one of the greatest advocates of his age.
Production, by Joe Burroughs