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In the 1990s, law professor Dennis Turner was offered an opportunity to learn about the British legal system. He sent his resume to Northgate Chambers in Winchester, England, to be considered for a pupilship with a practicing barrister. Giles Adam-Smyth accepted him. Taking a year’s sabbatical from Dayton College, where he taught, Turner and his family moved to Winchester, in the court originally established by King Alfred, for a year. There Turner read law under Adam-Smyth.
An American Yankee in King Alfred's Court, by Dennis J. Turner, relates his experiences during that year, professionally and personally.
In England, criminal law is handled exclusively by barristers. Civil law is conducted by solicitors, who engage barristers when clients need legal assistance in a criminal case. To become a barrister, an individual with law training apprentices under a barrister as a pupil. The book shows how Turner fared under that system and adjusted to the differences between the legal conventions in the United States and Great Britain.
Turner initially feared he would be Adam-Smyth’s flunky, fetching and carrying. He was appalled by Adam-Smyth’s dowdy chambers, at odds with the barrister’s sophisticated appearance. Turner soon learned barristers never meet clients in chambers. While Adam-Smyth initially assigned Turner some legal scutwork, it was to familiarize Turner with the British legal system. The two became friends and partners, Dennis and Giles.
Dennis describes becoming acclimated to the British legal system. He describes how he becomes an accredited barrister and how he takes increasingly more responsible roles as Gile’s health deteriorates. Dennis also tells of his and his family’s adventures in Europe, many of which take place with Giles. The book is a travelogue as much as a legal memoir.
It is also a book about people. Dennis illustrates the differences between the US and British social systems. Class plays an important role in Britain (as education often does in the US). Birth and connections are important. Giles uses his old school ties (from public school rather than universities) to obtain experts on several of his cases. Giles’s access is guaranteed because they attended the same public school (the equivalent of the US middle and high schools) as the expert witnesses he needs.
An American Yankee in King Alfred's Court is a story about friendship, loyalty, and family, and the importance of all three. It examines the role of tradition and ritual in the law and in everyday life.
“An American Yankee in King Alfred's Court,” by Dennis J. Turner, Dennis Turner, February 2026, 324 pages, $16.99 (Paperback), $5.99 (E-book)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Discussion (5)
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I don’t think so. Barristers have rights of audience and appear in court. Solicitors deal with clients but don’t appear in court. (Recently this has become slightly muddied.) Because barristers are the ‘experts’ in what a court will decide, heavy legal opinions come from them (via solicitors).
For those not used to a split profession it can be a bit disconcerting when you are informed by your expensive law firm partner that you need to hire someone else to tell you what the legal position really is.
Like most things English it’s a class thing.
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About 15 years into my career, I was given an opportunity, via the ABA's then international legal exchange (ILEX) program, to spend a month as a "guest" lawyer in an international commercial firm in Paris, France. My wife, our 9-year old daughter, and I spent that month in a tiny two-room apartment in a three-hundred-year old building in the 7th Arrondisement, a very nice neighborhood.
While the girls went sight seeing, shopping daily at the market (our apartment had a tiny fridge and a two-burner hotplate, so . . .), I spent half a day five days a week at the office, often struggling to keep up with the rapid French I heard, but as the firm was international, it had French, Belgian, German, Chinese, and American partners, and plenty of English speakers. In fact, my "job" (being a guest, I had no responsibilities and no compensation) was to edit their international arbitration briefs, all of which were in English.
I also got a look at the French legal system, attended a trial in the commercial court, and learned how very different it is from our Anglo-American system. It was one of the very highlights of my career.
So when I read this review, I had to go immediately and buy the book from Amazon, because I can't wait to see how the author's experience in an English barrister's chambers compares.
Thanks, @Seawriter !
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Now that I have
readdevoured this book, a comment or two. It is a fun, informative, and very entertaining read. I learned a great deal.One note of caution, however, arises from my surprise upon opening the book to find a disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, all names having been changed to disguise the identities of real people, both legal and lay, whose real legal matters and other encounters have likewise been disguised before being set out. Does this distract from the pleasure of the story? It does not.
Highly recommended.
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Well, it was written by a lawyer.
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Who needs alternative timelines when we have Europe?