Nicholas
Stadlen QC, lead counsel for the Bank of England, has just finished his 119 day
opening defence speech, the longest in British legal history.
He is defending the Bank of England in a £850m compensation claim brought
by investors in now bankrupt BCCI (a bank).
He
smashed the record which previously stood at 80 days.
The
previous record was set by Gordon Pollock QC, the prosecutor in the same case,
last year.
Mr
Stadlen's defence documents run to 125 lever arch files which are all in court
with him. It has been called the Berlin Wall as it stops the defence and prosecution
seeing each other.
Rewritten
from original source: Ananova, Guardian Newspapers 25 May 2005
