A Tribute to Professor Sir Hugh Laddie QC


Professor Sir Hugh Laddie, QC 1946 - 2008

On 22 June, 2005 a Daily Telegraph headline announced: "'Bored' High Court judge resigns". It was an unfortunate headline because 'bored' was not the journalist's word, nor was it Hugh Laddie's word. It was the work of a sub-editor. It was an unfortunate word to use, because it is often said that only boring people get bored and the one word that could never be used to describe Hugh Laddie was 'boring'. Anyone who ever had the good fortune to come into contact with him cannot have failed to have been impressed by his enthusiasm and relentless energy.

We at Rouse were very fortunate to be the direct beneficiary of his decision to leave the High Court bench. He joined us as a consultant in October of that year. From the moment he arrived, he hit the ground running. Calls came in from far and wide for the benefit of his advice. Internally, there was some nervousness at suddenly having a High Court judge sitting among us, but he quickly established himself as a friendly and engaging source of help and encouragement at all levels from the most senior to the most junior. He wanted to get involved in our mediation practice and immediately departed on the CEDR course which he passed with flying colours. This surprised many, who thought, from experiencing him first hand in the Patents Court, that he was far too opinionated to make a successful mediator. However, as with everything he turned his hand to, he proved an immediate 'hit'.

Another area of interest to him was the development of IP law internationally. He visited many of our overseas offices and wherever he went his reputation had preceded him and he always found himself in great demand to address meetings and meet the local IP dignitaries, something that gave him the greatest of pleasure.
 
This broader IP interest he subsequently went on to develop in conjunction with UCL in his capacity as Chair of Intellectual Property Law and, more recently, Director of the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law.

To those of us who knew Hugh at the Bar, it came as no surprise when he arrived with us that he was an innately friendly, fun-loving individual with an easy and engaging manner that never failed to bring a smile to one's face. However, in his latter years as a judge in the Patents Court, he became only too well aware that he was becoming more and more frustrated and bad-tempered, which was not his nature. It was this as much as anything else, which made him realise that he was no longer suited to his judicial role.

He was also a courageous man. He never shirked what he perceived to be his duty. In one case as a junior barrister he took on the Law Society and had a Council member struck off for perjury and fraud. The opposition were represented by two of the premier Silks of the day. It must have been a nerve-racking experience, but he stuck to it and won the day. As a judge, in the Arsenal case he felt strongly that the European Court of Justice had overstepped the mark and did not hesitate to say so. Over the last year or so he has displayed another sort of courage altogether in the calm, open and dignified way in which he faced his final illness.

He is widely credited as being the founding father of the Anton Piller Order (i.e. the Search Order) and it is worth noting that his engagement with that jurisdiction very nearly went the full distance. He was counsel in the case when the order was first granted. He was counsel in the case, which went to the Court of Appeal and gave the order its original name. He was the original counsel on behalf of the defendant in Universal Thermosensors v Hibben, the case which resulted in the jurisdiction receiving a much needed review and introduction of the Supervising Solicitor. As a judge he granted these orders from time to time and, last year, we put his name forward as a potential Supervising 'Solicitor', but sadly the application was aborted and he never got the chance to see one in action.

We have lost a dear friend and incomparable colleague long before his time; nonetheless  we count ourselves privileged to have known at close hand, albeit far too briefly, someone who is rightly described by his friends in his old chambers at 8 New Square as 'one of the great figures of our field'.

Our thoughts are with his family and not least, Stecia, his wife of 38 years standing, whom he adored, his mother, Rachel, his children, James, Gideon and Joanna, his brother, Miles, his sister, Judith, and, last but not least, his grandchildren, whom he was wont to describe as the icing on the cake.