Neil Lawson
Sir Neil Lawson was a British barrister and High Court judge.
He first came to notice by MI5 in 1932 when he acted for the Daily Worker in a contempt of court case and in 1933, he was closely involved with D N Pritt in the legal arguments about those falsely accused by the Nazis for the Reichstag fire. MI5's lack of sophistication in recording this has led to erroneous suggestions that Lawson defended Georgi Dimitrov in court, whereas the Communist leader ably defending himself. However, Lawson did help Pritt, who acted as the Chairman of a high-profile international counter-trial of judicial persons in a Commission of Inquiry in London from 21–28 September 1933, and, by 1938 he was Secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties. He took silk in 1955.
In 1957 he began providing legal advice to the rulers of Malaya of the Federation of Malaya and later he was also the legal advisor to the Sultan of Brunei in 1963 on constitutional matters, a job which he carried out in a notably objective manner.
Lawson was appointed a Justice of the High Court in 1971, receiving the customary knighthood. He retired from the bench in 1983.
