Fine for barrister who said he ‘could get Stevie Wonder a driving licence’

A top barrister who claimed he ‘could get Stevie Wonder a driving licence’ on his website in a comment ‘befitting the late Bernard Manning’ was fined £1,000 today.

Michael Wolkind QC was criticised by the Lord Chief Justice for his ‘patronising’ behaviour during a murder case when he launched a series of personal attacks on prosecutor Brian Altman QC.

Wolkind accused Mr Altman, who is now the lead counsel for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, of ‘flying away from the real world on a jet plane’.

He was replaced on the trial by barrister Orlando Pownall QC who described Wolkind’s performance during the case as ‘wholly incompetent’.

Wolkind, of 2 Bedford Row, admitted six charges of professional misconduct relating to claims made on his website before the Bar Tribunal and Adjudication Service in central London.

He conceded: ‘I was too enthusiastic, I praised myself too much on that website.’

The panel said that the testimonial on his website referring to Stevie Wonder was ‘more befitting of the late Bernard Manning’.

But Wolkind was cleared of professional misconduct relating to his criticism of the prosecution case led by Mr Altman.

Wolkind described his approach as ‘relentless. He would have a go at everything and we had to combat everything that was thrown at us. It was no attack on Mr Altman at all.

‘It wasn’t Altman v Wolkind – it’s the point Altman made and the point Wolkind made.’

He added: ‘I had to fight as best I could. There were many ways to lose that case and only one way to win.’

Wolkind explained he had to ‘try to take them on on each point of circumstantial evidence.’

Finding the charge not proved, Judge Paul Lawton said: ‘Mr Wolkind accepted that directly personal criticism of counsel was unprofessional and unacceptable.

‘The sole issue is whether the comments amount to a personal attack on Mr Altman and Mr Little, as opposed to a legitimate attack on the prosecution case.

‘We accept Mr Wolkind’s evidence that this was a difficult murder case.’

Judge Lawton noted that following the murderer’s ‘calamitous performance in the witness box’ Wolkind was ‘of the view that the only prospect of acquittal thereafter was dismissal of the prosecution case piecemeal.’

He also noted a letter from Mr Altman himself, ‘who did not regard the comments as a personal attack and took them as the normal cut and thrust of high-level advocacy.

‘We don’t accept that Mr Wolkind crossed the permissible line at any stage and have no hesitation in dismissing charge one.’

Wolkind denied three further charges professional misconduct relating to making personal comments about Mr Altman, using a testimonial that he could ‘get Stevie Wonder a driving licence’ and using comments about a client’s wife in court on his website.

His website was referred to the Bar Standards Board after it came to the notice of Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd during the appeal of Wolkind’s former client Robert Ekaireb, now 42.

Ekaireb, a jeweller and property developer, was convicted in December 2013 of murdering his wife, 27-year-old lapdancer Li Hua Cao.

Ms Cao went missing while 22 weeks pregnant in October 2006 and Ekaireb was thought to have turned to The Adams Family crime syndicate to dispose of his wife’s body, which has never been found never found.

During the trial Wolkind argued that Ms Cao was not necessarily dead and had left an unhappy marriage because she was ‘bored by his lifestyle in London’.

In 2015 the Court of Appeal ruled in 2015 that Ekaireb’s conviction was safe, but Lord Thomas found Wolkind had made ‘completely unprofessional’ personal criticism of the prosecution and worked on other cases during the trial.

Lord Thomas described Wolkind’s closing speech as ‘ill-judged, patronising and contained inappropriate attempts at humour’ and also declared he was ‘surprised’ at the ‘content and tone’ of the barrister’s website.

In November 2015, the barrister’s website described him as being ‘UK’s top criminal barrister’ and the ‘UK’s top criminal QC’.

His biography featured a claim that he was ‘widely recognised as one of the UK’s top criminal trial and appeal barristers’ and featured a testimonial: ‘There are great legal minds, even greater legal minds, and then there is Michael Wolkind QC.’

He also claimed to be the top barrister for murder, protest cases, terrorism, householder self defence cases, inquests, health and safety cases and tribunals.

Addressing ‘the Stevie Wonder charge’, Wolkind had said: ‘It was the absurd hyperbole of a client who was so grateful, that is the point – that he was willing to make a statement like that showed his degree of satisfaction.’

Judge Lawton said the panel accepted that ‘the wording was indeed hyperbole’ from a client who was ‘in his own particular way trying to present a ringing endorsement’ of Wolkind.

But he added that the fact the wording was the client’s ‘does not abrogate Mr Wolkind’s responsibility’ and said the ‘ill-judged’ comments were ‘more befitting of the late Bernard Manning’.

Judge Lawton said the comments demonstrated ‘a complete lack of empathy’ for those with visual impairment and found the charge proved.

Andrew Moran QC, for the Bar Standards Board, had said Wolkind accused his Mr Altman of making ‘random attacks’ in his closing speech, adding: ‘We say that’s a straightforward attack on Mr Altman.’

Imposing a fine, Judge Lawton said: ‘We have to sentence you on the findings relating to your own website, all of which were accepted apart from charge seven.

He noted that Wolkind was a ‘highly successful barrister’ and boasted ‘glowing testimonials from the cream of the profession.

‘We take into account your early admissions and your genuine remorse.’

The panel accepted that Wolkind ‘did not set out to deliberately offend’ and that he took ‘immediate voluntary steps to take down the offending material.’

Judge Lawton also noted that he was of ‘previous exemplary character’ and was ‘more interested in the cause of justice than in financial reward.’

But he added that the charges proved were ‘likely to undermine confidence in the profession’, concluding: ‘We believe the appropriate sanction on [the six charges admitted] is a formal reprimand and a £1,000 on charge seven.’

Wolkind, who became a barrister in 1976 and a QC in 1999, represented Norfolk farmer Tony Martin in his successful murder appeal and has been described in The Legal 500 as ‘brilliant at cross-examination’.

He admitted six charges relating to claims on his website about being the UK’s top criminal barrister and the UK’s top criminal QC and also being the UK’s top murder barrister and QC.

Wolkind denied professional misconduct relating to alleged personal comments against prosecution counsel in the trial of R v Ekaireb, which was found not proved.

He also denied professional misconduct relating to comments in a harassment trial that his client was ‘unwilling to take it lying down unlike, sadly, his wife did throughout the affair’, which was also found not proved.

A charge relating to a testimonial on his website saying he could ‘get Stevie Wonder a driving licence’ was found to amount to professional misconduct.

Two charges relating to being absent from court during the summing up in the Ekaireb trial and claims Wolkind had ‘appeared as leading counsel in more murder cases than any other criminal barrister practitioner’ were dismissed as having no case to answer.
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