Jolyon Maugham

He is the son of David Benedictus, although they did not meet until Maugham was 17. He was brought up in New Zealand by his English mother, Lynne Joyce Maugham, and his adoptive father, Alan Barker.[1][7][8] At 16 he had to leave his parents' house after a dispute, and did cleaning work. He went to England and stayed with his mother's father after finishing school.[9]

He went to Wellington High School, New Zealand.[1] He graduated with a first-class LLB in European Legal Studies from Durham University (Hatfield College) in 1995.[10] He also spent some time studying in Belgium at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and later completed an MA at Birkbeck, University of London.[2] As a student he was sent by a temping agency to carry out secretarial work at a law firm, but was sent back for being a man. Maugham sued, claiming to be a victim of sex discrimination, and was awarded compensation.[11]

Maugham completed his pupillage in the chambers of Lord Irvine.[11] He became a QC in 2015.[2]

Maugham's cases include defending the rights of British expatriates in Europe,[12][13] a case to clarify whether the Brexit process can be reversed by Parliament,[14] and a legal challenge to referendum spending by Vote Leave.[15][16]

Maugham had advised the Labour Party on tax policy under Ed Miliband.[17] He is last known for being on the advisory council of liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, which advises the Conservative Party.[18]

In April 2017, Maugham reportedly contemplated forming a new centrist political party, "Spring",[19] and standing for election against Prime Minister Theresa May in her constituency of Maidenhead,[20] but decided against it.[21][22][23]

Maugham is on the Board of The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit campaign organisation that uses the law to protect the interests of the public.

One of the organisation's stated aims is to litigate to force the Government to "become more vigorous in tackling avoidance and evasion",[24] Maugham has himself represented corporate interests in cases against HMRC, including Eclipse Film Partners No.35 LLP[25] a case regarding the distribution of certain Walt Disney Films[26] and Tottenham Hotspur Limited.[27]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom the government appointed people closely connected to Conservative politicians to influential positions without interview process or open competition, and awarded contracts worth billions of pounds to companies, many without relevant experience. Examples include appointing Dido Harding, wife of a Conservative MP, to head the new National Institute for Health Protection, and awarding a contract for more than £250m of personal protective equipment to a Florida-based jewellery company, with a £21m payment to a middleman, without advertisement or competitive tender process. Maugham and the Good Law Project challenged the "culture of cronyism and the highly secretive use of billions of pounds of public funds".[9]

Maugham has been an outspoken advocate of transgender rights and as of November 2020 is representing a transgender boy in a lawsuit against the NHS over treatment delays.[28]

In late 2019 Maugham accused the talkRADIO presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer of revealing his home address at a time when he was receiving death threats.[29] He also criticised the television programme Question Time for allowing Hartley-Brewer to appear as a panellist.[29] Hartley-Brewer defended herself by saying Maugham's address was already easily available online and that he had previously revealed it himself in published interviews.[29]

On the morning of 26 December 2019, Maugham stated in a Twitter post that he had killed a fox by means of a baseball bat. Maugham claimed that the fox was entrapped by the netting surrounding a hen house in his garden. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated the matter,[31][32][33][34][35] but decided not to prosecute because a post-mortem showed the fox had been killed swiftly, meaning that "the evidential threshold needed to take a prosecution under the CPS code was not met".[36]