Midland Circuit Society

Etymologies are telling. Magnanimity means not just generosity and compassion but great soundness. The Latinate compound applies, in abundance, to the late Master Igor Judge.

Like the best of judges, he had that rare quality of magnanimity, combined with crystal clarity, verbal precision, conceptual economy and the precisely nuanced registration and mapping of how whatever audience he was addressing would be left feeling. He spoke ‘fluent human’.

It was the great, good fortune of the Inn that it was Middle Temple who Called him to the Bar in 1963; and of the greatest fortune for the Midlands that his chosen Circuit was the Midland and Oxford. Starting out in Nottingham in 1987, I was conscious of his affection for the city, the Shire Hall and how he had ‘cut his teeth’ there and around Circuit. 

I recall Recorder Igor Judge QC (as he then was), sitting in Court 7 at Canal Street – a less appealing successor to the Shire Hall – telling my pupil-master, gently but emphatically, that he would ‘have to exceed the wildest hopes of Edward Marshall Hall’ to persuade him that the claim should be dismissed for want of prosecution – a line delivered with that wonderful, seraphic grin. 

1987 is the year he was elected Leader of the Midland Circuit. Amongst so many other distinctions to follow, from 1993 until 1996, Master Judge was Presiding Judge for the Midland Circuit, a role he took great pride in. And what enormous pride, the Middle Temple Midland Circuit Society in time was to take in having Master Judge as its founding President.  

In the role, he continued to show those hallmarks of being a champion of the young, ever encouraging, humane and wise, generous also with his time.

The Society’s 2023 annual dinner took place on Friday 24 November, but a fortnight after Master Judge’s death. It proved to be a celebration worthy of the man and the qualities he exemplified. In the usual way, a Qualifying Session took place shortly beforehand at St Ives Chambers: Tom Lawal, an experienced private children and housing law barrister (and Deputy District Judge) provided hints and tips on how to secure pupillage, covering all aspects from the application process to interview stage. After dinner, a simple, heartfelt tribute was given to Lord Judge by Master Michael Stephens (the founding Chair of the Society). The tables, of which there were many, were thronged by Benchers, Hall members, students and guests. It was just the occasion Master Judge would have envisaged when lending his considerable support to our Society.

One of his lessons about advocacy to intending pupils, was drawn from the opening lines of The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling:

I keep six honest serving-men

   (They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When 

   And How and Where and Who.

The Society continues to thrive and prosper under its current Chair, Master Blondel Thompson but enough, I hope, to leave it there with the simple message that our first President was the best of us – and a lodestar for the Society.

Patrick Limb KC

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