Legal and Political Career
Chitty entered Lincoln's Inn in 1851, was called to the bar in 1856, and made a Queen's Counsel in 1874, electing to practise as such in the court of Sir George Jessel, Master of the Rolls. Chitty was highly successful in dealing with a very masterful if exceedingly able judge, and his practice grew quickly.
In 1880 he entered the House of Commons as member for the city of Oxford. His parliamentary career was short, for in 1881 the Judicature Act required that the Master of the Rolls should cease to sit regularly as a judge of first instance, and Chitty was selected to fill the vacancy thus created in the Chancery Division. Sir Joseph Chitty was for sixteen years a popular judge, in the best meaning of the phrase, being noted for his courtesy, geniality, patience and scrupulous fairness, as well as for his legal attainments, and being much respected and liked by those practising before him, in spite of a habit of interrupting counsel, possibly acquired through the example of Sir George Jessel.
In 1897, on the retirement of Sir Edward Kay, L.J., he was promoted to the Court of Appeal. There he added to his reputation as a lawyer and a judge, proving that he possessed considerable knowledge of the common law as well as of equity. He married in 1858 Clara Jessie, daughter of Chief Baron Pollock, leaving children who could claim descent from two of the best-known English legal families of the 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Joseph William Chitty
Famous quotes containing the words legal and political, legal, political and/or career:
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The disfranchisement of a single legal elector by fraud or intimidation is a crime too grave to be regarded lightly.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“They had their fortunes to make, everything to gain and nothing to lose. They were schooled in and anxious for debates; forcible in argument; reckless and brilliant. For them it was but a short and natural step from swaying juries in courtroom battles over the ownership of land to swaying constituents in contests for office. For the lawyer, oratory was the escalator that could lift a political candidate to higher ground.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)