Sir Edwin Geoffrey Bowman, KCB, KC (Hon) (born 27 January 1946), commonly known as Sir Geoffrey Bowman, is a British lawyer and retired parliamentary draftsman.
Born in 1946, Bowman attended Roundhay School before he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, [1] graduating in 1967 with a BA in law, and then completing a postgraduate LLB the following year. [2]
Called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1968, [3] he practised privately for three years before joining the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in 1971. He was promoted to be a Parliamentary Counsel in 1984, [1] and between 2002 and 2006 he served as First Parliamentary Counsel, the head of the OPC (permanent secretary grade). He had previously been seconded to the Law Commission for England and Wales and drafted the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980. [3] On retiring, it emerged that Bowman's pension was worth £2.6m, among four public-sector "pension pots" worth over £2m in 2006. [4]
Bowman was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the New Years Honours 1991, [5] and was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order in 2004. [1] He was made an honorary Queen's Counsel on retirement in 2006. [6] He became a bencher at Lincoln's Inn in 2002, [1] and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the School of Advanced Study at the University of London in 2007. [3]
Sir Shridath Surendranath Ramphal, often known as Sir Sonny Ramphal, is a Guyanese politician who was the second Commonwealth Secretary-General, holding the position from 1975 to 1990. He was also the foreign minister of Guyana from 1972 to 1975, and assistant attorney general of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962.
Mary Howarth Arden, Baroness Mance,, known professionally as Lady Arden of Heswall, is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Before that, she was a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Nicholas Addison Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, is a British former senior judge.
Peter Anthony Grayson Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, was an English barrister, Conservative politician and author. He served as Member of Parliament for Epsom for 23 years, from 1955 to 1978, and held the offices of Solicitor General (1962–1964) and Attorney General for England and Wales (1970–1974) and for Northern Ireland (1972–1974). Had he been appointed Lord Chancellor, as seemed likely during the mid-1970s, he would have been the first Roman Catholic to hold that position since Thomas More in 1532.
Horace Davey, Baron Davey, PC, FRS, FBA was an English judge and Liberal politician.
Igor Judge, Baron Judge, is an English former judge who served as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the head of the judiciary, from 2008 to 2013. He was previously President of the Queen's Bench Division, at the time a newly created post assuming responsibilities transferred from the office of Lord Chief Justice. In 2019, he became Convenor of the Crossbench peers in the House of Lords.
Sir Geoffrey Edwin Pattie is a former British Conservative politician and Member of Parliament.
Henry Burton Buckley, 1st Baron Wrenbury, PC, was a British barrister and judge.
Fergus Dunlop Morton, Baron Morton of Henryton, MC, PC was a British judge who was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1947 to 1959.
Robert John Anderson Carnwath, Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill, Kt, CVO, PC, is a former British Supreme Court judge.
Sir Geoffrey Robert Rowland, KC, was the Bailiff of Guernsey from 2005 to 2012.
The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) is responsible for drafting all government Bills that are introduced to Parliament. Established in 1869, the OPC has been part of various departments and is currently part of the Cabinet Office. Led by Elizabeth Gardiner, the First Parliamentary Counsel and Permanent Secretary, the OPC consists of 60 members of staff, 47 of whom are lawyers and 13 of whom are support staff. The lawyers who work in the office are referred to as Parliamentary counsel or Parliamentary draftsmen.
Sir Jean-Pierre Frank Eugene Warner was a jurist who served as the first British Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice after Britain's entry into the European Community in 1972. Warner was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, serving as an officer of the Rifle Brigade during the Second World War before starting his career as a barrister. Appointed Advocate-General in 1972, he returned to England in 1981, where he was made a judge of the High Court of Justice, retiring in 1994 and dying in 2005.
Sir Stephen Charles Laws, is a British lawyer and civil servant who served as the First Parliamentary Counsel between 2006 and 2012.
Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn were constructed from 1774 to 1780. The architect was Sir Robert Taylor. Stone Buildings is a Grade I listed building. Stone Buildings appear in Anthony Trollope's novel The Prime Minister.
Roger John Laugharne Thomas, Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd, is a British judge. He served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017.
David Lloyd Jones, Lord Lloyd-Jones, PC, FLSW is a British judge and legal scholar. He has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom since 2017, and has also served as a member of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and as a chairman of the Law Commission prior to joining the Supreme Court.
Sir Samuel Burgess Ridgway Cooke was a British barrister and High Court judge. He served as the second chairman of the Law Commission between 1973 and his death in 1978.
Sir Constant Hendrik de Waal, KCB, QC, known as Sir Henry de Waal, was a British-Dutch lawyer and parliamentary draftsman.
William Rodolph Cornish was an Australian legal scholar and academic who was based in the United Kingdom. He was Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Cambridge from 1995 to 2004.