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Peter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith (born 5 January 1950) is a British barrister and a former
Attorney General for England and Wales His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is one of the law officers of the Crown and the principal legal adviser to sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales. The attorney general maintains the Attorney G ...
and for Northern Ireland. On 22 June 2007, Goldsmith announced his resignation which took effect on 27 June 2007, the same day that Prime Minister
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, stepped down. Goldsmith was the longest serving Labour Attorney General. He is currently a Partner and head of European litigation practice at US law firm
Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...
and Vice Chairperson of the
Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) is an institution based in Hong Kong, providing alternative dispute resolution services from administered and ad hoc international arbitration to mediation, adjudication and domain name ...
.


Biography

Goldsmith was born in
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
(now
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...
), and is of Jewish descent. He was educated at Quarry Bank School before reading law at
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...
and
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
. He was called to the Bar at
Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
in 1972, practising from Fountain Court Chambers in London. He
took silk In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or a ...
in 1987 and became a deputy High Court judge in 1994 and he was elected the youngest ever chairman of the Bar of England and Wales in 1995. He was raised to the peerage as a Labour peer in 1999, as Baron Goldsmith, of Allerton in the County of Merseyside. He was appointed Her Majesty's Attorney General in June 2001. One of his first acts was to discuss breaches of the injunction against publishing the whereabouts of the offenders in the
murder of James Bulger James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was a two-year-old boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was abducted, tortured, and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 1 ...
. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 2002. Goldsmith has also held a number of posts in international legal organisations, including Council Member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and of the Union Internationale des Avocats. From 1998 until his appointment as Attorney General he was co-chairman of the IBA's Human Rights Institute. Between 1997 and 2000 he was Chairman of the Financial Reporting Review Panel, a
non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of ...
responsible for enforcing financial reporting standards. In 1997 he was elected to membership of the American Law Institute and made a member of the Paris Bar. In 1996 he founded the Bar Pro Bono Unit (now Advocat

of which he was chairman until 2000 and remains president. He was the Prime Minister's Personal Representative to the Convention for the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR) enshrines certain political, social, and economic rights for European Union (EU) citizens and residents into EU law. It was drafted by the European Convention and solemnly proclai ...
. In November 2006, he visited a number of pro bono legal and criminal justice charities in Kenya, including Philemon Ministries. In 2006, Goldsmith gave a speech at the
Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi), registered as Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies and formerly the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, is a British defence and security think tank. ...
, calling for the closure of the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. Goldsmith called it a "symbol of injustice", and said that it did not respect the rights of liberty or freedom. In 2007 he won a High Court injunction against the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, preventing reporting of aspects of the New Labour Cash-for-Honours scandal by successfully arguing a broadcast of confidential information would have harmed a police inquiry.


Al-Yamamah arms deal controversy

In 2007, Goldsmith was accused of attempting to cover up the BAE-Saudi corruption case by ordering the Serious Fraud Office to call off its ongoing investigation into the matter, arguing that it might "compromise national security." He later admitted that the
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
had never possessed intelligence that Saudi Arabia planned to cut security links with Britain.


Invasion of Iraq controversy

The nature of Goldsmith's legal advice to the government over the legality of the 2003 invasion of
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
was a significant political issue at the time. The government turned down repeated calls to break with tradition and have the advice made public. Goldsmith's original memo to the prime minister written on 30 January 2003 opined that UN Resolution 1441 did not sanction the use of force and that a further resolution would be required before military action. A subsequent memo written on 7 March 2003 was eventually
leak A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container. Leaks are usually ...
ed to the press, which led to its official publication on 28 April 2005. In the memo, Lord Goldsmith discussed whether the use of force in Iraq could legally be justified by Iraq's 'material breach', as established in UN Security Council Resolution 1441, of its ceasefire obligations as imposed by Security Council Resolution 687 at the end of the First Gulf War. Goldsmith concluded that “a reasonable case can be made that resolution 1441 is capable in principle of reviving the authorisation f the use of forcein Resolution 678 without a further resolution.” However, Goldsmith did concede that “a court might well conclude that operative paragraphs 4 and 12 do require a further Council decision to revive the authorisation.” In this memo he also concluded "the argument that resolution 1441 alone has revived the authorisation to use force in resolution 678 will only be sustainable if there are strong factual grounds for concluding that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity. In other words, we would need to be able to demonstrate hard evidence of non-compliance and non-cooperation." In his final advice to the government, written on 17 March 2003, Goldsmith stated that the use of force in Iraq was lawful. This advice stated Goldsmith's preferred view in more unequivocal terms than his earlier memo, without reference to the doubts expressed therein. This has led to allegations that Goldsmith succumbed to political pressure to find legal justification for the use of force against Iraq. Shortly after the leak Goldsmith released a statement in response to such allegations, saying that the two documents were consistent, pointing to the difference in the nature of the two documents and to the firm assurances he claims to have had received between 7 and 17 March that Iraq was indeed in breach of its obligations under Security Council resolutions. The controversy was heightened by the resignation of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, deputy legal adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on 20 March 2003. A full version of her letter of resignation became public in March 2005. In this, Wilmshurst stated that the reason for her resignation was that she did not agree with the official opinion that the use of force in Iraq was legal. She also accused Goldsmith of changing his view on the matter. In the course of her testimony to the Iraq Inquiry commission, Wilmshurst, even though she understood that "Goldsmith was put into an impossible position", expressed her disapproval of the way Goldsmith set about in formulating his eventual opinion. She said she thought "the process that was followed in this case was lamentable," adding that she believed "there should have been a greater transparency within he Britishgovernment" about the "evolving legal advice." On the efforts of the Attorney General to determine the nature of the alleged Iraqi breaches, she expressed her disapproval of Goldsmith relying, in part, for his legal opinion, "on private conversations he had with British and US negotiators on what the French egotiatorshad said," while "of course, he hadn't asked the French themselves." In November 2008, the former Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord Lord Bingham of Cornhill stated that Goldsmith's advice contained "no hard evidence" that Iraq had defied UN resolutions "in a manner justifying resort to force" and that the invasion was "a serious violation of
international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
and of the rule of law." Goldsmith gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry on 27 January 2010, in which he was asked to explain his position on the legality of the invasion of Iraq. In July 2017, former Iraqi general Abdulwaheed al-Rabbat launched a private war crimes prosecution, in the High Court in London, asking for Goldsmith, Tony Blair and former foreign secretary
Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...
to be prosecuted for "the crime of aggression" for their role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The High Court ruled that, although the crime of aggression was recognised in international law, it was not an offence under UK law, and, therefore, the prosecution could not proceed.


Present position

Goldsmith has been appointed head of European Litigation at the London office of US law firm
Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...
. He is the first retiring Attorney General ever to join a law firm. In August 2008, Goldsmith qualified as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales to become a full
equity partner A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...
of the firm (and so share in the firm's profits and acquire an ownership share in the firm). He is reported – by ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper on 27 September 2007 – to be remunerated at the rate of £1 million a year in his new position. The same report said that he would have expected to earn more than that if he had resumed practice at the English Bar. His former chambers are Fountain Court, from where several very distinguished lawyers have come, including Lord Bingham. Upon leaving office, former attorneys general usually return to practise at the Bar, often at the chambers which they left upon appointment as attorney. Unlike the position with retired lords chancellor, there is no prohibition on an attorney general returning to practise at the Bar. As a former minister and holder of public office, Goldsmith had to accept a number of restrictions on his freedom to practise for two years after leaving office. The restrictions are imposed by the prime minister on the advice of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, a branch of the Cabinet Office. Goldsmith's restrictions prevented him, for 12 months after leaving office, from being personally involved in lobbying government Ministers or officials. For two years after leaving office, he was required to stand aside from dealing with any matter about which he had confidential or privileged information acquired while he was Attorney General. Goldsmith was a lawyer of famous Georgian businessman
Badri Patarkatsishvili Arkady Shalvovich "Badri" Patarkatsishvili ( ka, ბადრი პატარკაციშვილი 31 October 1955 – 12 February 2008) was a Jewish-Georgian businessman who also became extensively involved in politics. He contested th ...
who spent the final day in his office, before collapsing and dying of a heart attack at his
Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...
mansion. In August 2008, Goldsmith was appointed as an independent non-executive director of the Australian property trust,
Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio ...
.


Arms


References


External links


The Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers: Attorney General
– a biography
Written answer on Iraq advice
– from ''
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
''
Announcement of Lord Goldsmith's introduction at the House of Lords
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmith, Peter 1950 births Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Attorneys General for England and Wales Attorneys General for Northern Ireland British Jews English King's Counsel British barristers Labour Party (UK) life peers Lawyers from Liverpool Living people Members of Gray's Inn Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Government ministers People educated at Calderstones School People educated at Quarry Bank High School 20th-century King's Counsel Stances and opinions regarding the Iraq War Jewish British politicians 20th-century British lawyers 21st-century British lawyers People associated with Debevoise & Plimpton Life peers created by Elizabeth II