Anthony Robert Julius (born 16 July 1956) is a British solicitor advocate known for being Diana, Princess of Wales' divorce lawyer and for representing Deborah Lipstadt. He is the deputy chairman at the law firm Mishcon de Reya and honorary solicitor to Foundation for Jewish Heritage. He is a trustee for the Institute of Jewish Studies. He holds the chair in Law and Arts in the Faculty of Laws at University College London and teaches courses on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Kant, and William Empson. He is also a visiting professor to the Haifa university.

Life

The son of a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

menswear retailer who died young from a brain tumour, Julius was educated at the

City of London School The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for Single-sex education, boys in the City of London, England, on the banks of the River Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, ...

. He studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in 1977 with a first class degree; in the mid-1990s he completed a PhD in English literature at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

under the novelist and academic Dan Jacobson. He joined the

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

law firm Mishcon de Reya in 1979, becoming a partner in 1984. Currently, he is deputy chairman of the firm.

Activities

Julius is a commercial litigator. He is a specialist in the fields of defamation, international trade disputes, and media law. He has been a solicitor advocate since at least 2001, which allows him to act as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

in so far as he can now appear in the High Court and the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

. He was selected by Diana, Princess of Wales, as her legal representative when she divorced

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...

, in 1996. He was vice-president of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, until it closed in 2012. He was one of the charity's founding trustees and its first chairman until 1999. He represented Deborah Lipstadt, successfully defending her in '' Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt'', with Richard Rampton QC, against a libel suit brought against her by the Holocaust denier David Irving. Lipstadt and her publishers were vindicated by the judge's ruling in April 2000. A feature film about the case, '' Denial'', with Andrew Scott playing Julius, was released in 2016. Julius is legal advisor to the Foundation of Jewish Heritage. Julius is an advisory editor at the current affairs journal '' Fathom''. He was a founding member of both Engage and the Euston Manifesto. From 2011 to 2014 he was chairman of the board of '' The Jewish Chronicle''. From 1996 to 1998 he was a part-time lecturer at the Law Faculty of

. In 2017 he rejoined University College London as the inaugural chair in Law and the Arts. He was previously chairman of the London Consortium and visiting professor at

Birkbeck, University of London Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a Public university, public research university located in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London. Establ ...

. He serves as trustee to English PEN, the founding centre of a worldwide writers' association. Julius is also chairman of the trustees of Phenomen Trust. Between 2007 and 2013, Julius played an active role in the campaign against the academic boycott of Israeli universities. In a '' Guardian'' article co-authored with historian Simon Schama, Julius wrote "This is not the first boycott call directed at Jews. On 1 April 1933, a week after he came to power, Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores." Julius's other activities in this context included representing Ronnie Fraser in an action against the University and College Union (UCU). Fraser, who was a member of the union, complained that it had created an "intimidating", "hostile", "humiliating", and "offensive" environment for Jews. After a 20-day hearing the tribunal rejected his claim, harshly rebuking Julius for "misusing the legal process". Scorn is also invoked for Julius's decision to pursue certain points, with complaints variously dismissed as "palpably groundless", "obviously hopeless" and "devoid of any merit". The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), criticized the rejection.

Private life

He married Judith Bernie in 1979; the couple had four children, but later divorced. In 1999, he married Dina Rabinovitch and had one child with her. Rabinovitch died in 2007 from breast cancer. In 2009, he married Katarina Lester, and is step-father to her two children. They had a son together in 2011.

Selected publications

* ''T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form'' (1st edition

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

1995, 2nd edition Thames & Hudson 2003), based on his PhD thesis * ''Idolising Pictures'' (Thames & Hudson 2000). * ''Transgressions: The Offences of Art'' (Thames & Hudson 2002). * "Dickens the lawbreaker" in ''Critical Quarterly'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) * "Love Poetry and the Art of Advocacy" in ''Critical Quarterly'' (

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

, 2003) * "Art Crimes", in ''Law and Literature'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

1999) and in ''Dear Images: Art, Copyright and Culture'' (Ridinghouse 2003). * '' Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England'' (Oxford University Press 2010; paperback edition, with fresh material, 2012). . * ''Bentham and the Arts'' – co-editor, and contributor ("More Bentham, Less Mill") * ''Whither liberal Zionism?'' * ''The Rebirth of Antisemitism in the 21st Century: From the Academic Boycott Campaign into the Mainstream'' Contributor - (Studies in Contemporary Antisemitism) * "Psychoanalysis and Free Speech,
Ernest Jones Memorial Lecture, 2023
British Psychoanalytic Society. * "Abraham: The First Jew" – a volume in the Yale Jewish Lives Series, to be published in Winter 2024; (3) Shameless Authors – a study of censorship of the arts - to be published by OUP in 2026.

Life

Activities

Private life

Selected publications

Articles

References

Sources

Further reading