Anthony Edwards
| Anthony Edwards | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1949 or 1950[1][2] London, England |
| Other names | Tony Edwards |
| 🏫 Education | University of Bristol (law) |
| 💼 Occupation | Solicitor, solicitor-advocate, legal writer |
| 📆 Years active | 1972–2019 |
| 👔 Employer | TV Edwards |
| Known for | Criminal defence and legal aid practice; practitioner texts on criminal procedure; Law Society Gazette criminal law column |
| 👪 Relatives | T. V. Edwards (uncle) |
| 🏅 Awards | Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year – Outstanding Achievement (2008) |
Anthony Edwards (born 1949 or 1950), also known as Tony Edwards,[3] is a retired English criminal defence solicitor and legal writer. He spent his whole career at TV Edwards, the East End of London law firm founded by his uncle, T. V. Edwards, joining as an articled clerk in 1972 and serving as its senior partner for fifteen years until 2015.[4][2]
Edwards held a number of national roles in criminal justice. He was a member of the Sentencing Guidelines Council throughout its existence, served for seven years as the non-executive commissioner of the Legal Services Commission responsible for the Criminal Defence Service, and sat for ten years on the Law Society's criminal law committee.[2][5] He wrote the criminal law column of the Law Society Gazette from 1991 until his retirement in 2019, and is the author or co-author of a number of practitioner handbooks on police station advice, criminal defence practice, sentencing and legal aid.[6][7] In 2008 he received the Outstanding Achievement award at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards.[8]
Early life and education
Edwards was born in London and was educated in Middlesex and Wiltshire before reading law at the University of Bristol.[2] As a boy he accompanied his uncle, T. V. Edwards, on his rounds, carrying his briefcase.[9]
Legal career
TV Edwards
Edwards began his professional training in 1972 at his family's firm in Whitechapel and qualified as a solicitor in 1974.[2][4] He remained with the firm for his entire career, specialising in criminal law and also practising in licensing law; he later recalled that he had "licensed the whole of Canary Wharf in a single application".[2] He practised in the magistrates', Crown and appeal courts, mainly on legal aid cases as a police station and court duty solicitor,[2] and became a solicitor-advocate with higher rights of audience in the criminal courts.[1][10]
Edwards was senior partner of TV Edwards for fifteen years until 2015.[4] In a 2008 Law Society Gazette profile he described continuing to do overnight police station duty twice a month and spending around four months of the year training solicitors and police officers, while leaving the management of the firm largely to its managing partner.[1] As senior partner and head of the firm's criminal department, he oversaw a period of expansion between 2008 and 2011 in which TV Edwards absorbed a series of London practices, including Taylor Nichol, Blacklaws Davis, Dundons, Bennett Wilkins, Sheratte Caleb, JB Wheatley & Co and Mark & Co, making it one of the largest legal aid firms in London. Edwards described the strategy as a necessary response to the "drastic government cuts" to legal aid fees.[11][1]
In 2011, after the firm was refused permission for an advertisement on the side of its Mile End Road offices, Edwards commissioned the artist Mychael Barratt to paint a mural of figures from the history of the area on the wall instead. Both Edwards, depicted as a boy, and his uncle appear in the mural.[9][12]
Edwards retired from the firm in October 2019, when he received a special award at its annual general meeting.[4] He has continued to do a small amount of advice work in retirement.[2]
Public and professional roles
Edwards was a member of the Sentencing Guidelines Council, the body that issued sentencing guidelines for England and Wales between 2004 and 2010, for the whole of its existence.[2] He was one of its four non-judicial members, who between them brought experience of policing, prosecution, criminal defence and the interests of victims, and was listed simply as "Anthony Edwards (Solicitor)" alongside the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Igor Judge and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald.[5]
He served for seven years as the non-executive commissioner of the Legal Services Commission responsible for the Criminal Defence Service, and for ten years on the Law Society's criminal law committee.[2]
Edwards has also been a member of the council of JUSTICE, of the Law Commission's advisory group on criminal law, and of the editorial boards of the Criminal Law Review and Cordery on Solicitors.[1][10] He said in 2008 that section 49 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 owed "quite a lot" to papers he had written.[1] In 2006 he submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee's inquiry into legal aid reform.[13]
Writing and teaching
Edwards began writing about criminal law for the Law Society Gazette in 1991 and continued until October 2019; on his retirement the Gazette described him as its second-longest-serving regular columnist, after James Morton.[6][14] His articles have also appeared in Archbold News and the Criminal Law Review.[10]
He is the author or co-author of practitioner texts published by the Law Society, Sweet & Maxwell, Oxford University Press and the Legal Action Group, including Advising a Suspect in the Police Station, Criminal Defence: Good Practice in the Criminal Courts (with Roger Ede), Blackstone's Police Station Handbook and Criminal Costs: Legal Aid Costs in the Criminal Courts.[7][15] He also wrote editions of Blackstone's Magistrates' Court Handbook and co-wrote books on youths in the criminal courts with Mark Ashford and Naomi Redhouse.[7][10]
Edwards is a visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London, where he is listed as a member of the School of Law's Criminal Justice Centre,[16] and he lectured widely on criminal law to solicitors and police officers.[1]
In retirement he turned to children's fiction. Escape from the Shades (2023), written during the COVID-19 lockdown and dedicated to his grandchildren, is set in the Victorian East End and follows two orphans through the criminal courts, drawing on his experience of criminal law in the area.[2]
Views
Edwards has been an outspoken defender of criminal legal aid. In 2008 he criticised the policies of the Legal Services Commission, arguing that they were "destroying big firms" and quality in criminal defence work.[1] On his retirement in 2019 he recalled that when he joined the profession there were only two criminal law firms in Tower Hamlets, and warned that the number of criminal defence practitioners, which had grown with the introduction of the duty solicitor schemes, was falling again; remembering the period before duty solicitors, he said that "the treatment of defendants was truly appalling".[6]
Recognition
In 2008 Edwards received the Outstanding Achievement award at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards, presented by Cherie Booth QC.[8]
Personal life
Edwards has lived in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, since 1975. He is married to a fellow solicitor and has five grandchildren.[2]
Selected works
- Ede, Roger; Edwards, Anthony (2007). Criminal Defence: Good Practice in the Criminal Courts (3rd ed.). Law Society Publishing. ISBN 9781853289248. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony; Savage, Joanne (2009). Sentencing Handbook: Sentencing Guidelines in the Criminal Court. Law Society Publishing. ISBN 9781853285691. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony (2013). Fixed Fees in the Criminal Court: A Survival Guide (3rd ed.). Law Society Publishing. ISBN 9781907698897. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony (2013). Advising a Suspect in the Police Station (8th ed.). Sweet & Maxwell. ISBN 9780414031029. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony; Hardcastle, Matthew (2015). Blackstone's Police Station Handbook. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198722663. Search this book on
- Ede, Roger; Edwards, Anthony (2017). Criminal Defence: Good Practice in the Criminal Courts (4th ed.). Law Society Publishing. ISBN 9781784460891. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony; Beaumont, Colin (2019). Criminal Costs: Legal Aid Costs in the Criminal Courts (2nd ed.). Legal Action Group. ISBN 9781912273867. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony; Hardcastle, Matthew (2021). Police Station Adviser's Handbook: Immediate Advice to a Suspect in Criminal Investigations. Legal Action Group. ISBN 9781913648275. Search this book on
- Edwards, Anthony (2023). Escape from the Shades. Austin Macauley Publishers. ISBN 9781398480070. Search this book on
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Baksi, Catherine (17 July 2008). "Day in the life". Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 "Escape from the Shades: Bishop's Stortford retired solicitor Anthony Edwards turns his criminal advocacy skills to writing a book for his five grandchildren". Bishop's Stortford Independent. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ "Tony Edwards". Legal Action Group. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "TV Edwards Celebrate 90 Years in East End of London". TV Edwards LLP. 22 July 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Consultation guideline on sentencing offenders who fail to surrender to bail" (Press release). Sentencing Guidelines Council. Retrieved 29 September 2026 – via Wired-Gov.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Anthony no longer on duty". Obiter. Law Society Gazette. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Author: Edwards, Anthony". Wildy & Sons. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Anthony Edwards presented with outstanding achievement award". Law Society Gazette. 4 December 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Gentle Author (10 September 2015). "Mychael Barratt's Mile End Mural". Spitalfields Life. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Edwards, Anthony (2019). Blackstone's Magistrates' Court Handbook 2020. Oxford University Press. About the author. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Search this book on
- ↑ Baksi, Catherine (1 September 2011). "TV Edwards reveals two new mergers". Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ "T. V. and Anthony Edwards". London Remembers. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ Edwards, Anthony (October 2006). Evidence submitted by Anthony Edwards, T.V. Edwards (LAR 159) (Written evidence). House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee.
|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ↑ Edwards, Anthony (21 October 2019). "A (final) roundup". Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ "Anthony Edwards". Law Society Bookshop. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
- ↑ "Members of the Criminal Justice Centre". School of Law, Queen Mary University of London. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
External links
- Anthony Edwards's columns in the Law Society Gazette
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