The commercial court of Mr Justice Andrew Smith was stuffed with barristers last Thursday, but one QC was the main focus of attention. The case was the challenge to bank charges that could affect every bank current account holder in Britain. At the original hearing in February, Laurence Rabinowitz represented the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of eight lenders accused of levying unfair overdraft charges. It also fell to him to put the lead argument to the court for all the banks, saying that the alternative would be to charge on every transaction.
Mr Justice Smith’s ruling last week was hailed as a first-round victory for the customers. But the banks, who are likely to appeal, also won key points. Rabinowitz will be back in the public eye.
The son of a South African lawyer, Rabinowitz was an Oxford Rhodes scholar. Sydney Kentridge, QC, who left South Africa in 1977 and joined the English Bar, provided a role model as to what could be done. Called to the Bar in 1987, Rabinowitz chose One Essex Court “because it was different”. He was attracted by the personalities. “Sam Stamler, an astonishing man, and Tony Grabiner set the tone. It was very informal, things were focused on what you could do, rather than who you were. It was meritocratic — as the Bar as a whole has become. The other commercial sets had more of an establishment tinge around them. The model that we adopted worked and is working.”
As a pupil he was sent to a criminal chambers to get experience. After some misunderstanding, a cantankerous criminal judge told him: “You know that pink ribbon, you’re supposed to unwind it and read the papers.” He threw his pen at young Rabinowitz. “I thought: ‘Crikey, if this is what being at the Bar is like, maybe I should find another job.’ Until fairly recently, I have been terrified on my feet.”
Fear, he believes, is important: “Fear of failure, fear of exposure and fear of letting down people: fear creates an adrenalin, it keeps you on your toes. I suspect it’s similar to the sensation that sportsmen have when they’re playing. You feel that you’re on a high — in a zone of some sort. When it finishes, sometimes you can’t really work out how you did what you did.”
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