Leading murder lawyer, William Clegg QC, reveals tricks of the trade and provides an inside account of top criminal trials.
‘This is a gripping memoir from one of our country's greatest jury advocates, offering a fascinating, no-holds-barred tour behind the scenes of some of the most famous criminal cases of modern times.’ - The Secret Barrister
‘Clegg deftly weaves memorable criminal prosecutions into an unforgettable legal memoir.’ - Joshua Rosenberg
Under the Wig - A Lawyer’s Stories of Murder, Guilt and Innocence
By William Clegg QC
Canbury Press | 4 October 2018 | £16.99 | hardback
How can you speak up for someone accused of a savage murder? How do you sway a jury? Or get a judge to drop a case?
Meet London’s top murder case lawyer as he meets clients in prisons, confronts witnesses in packed courts and frees innocent people jailed for decades.
In a vivid memoir, William Clegg QC revisits his most notorious and intriguing trials, from the acquittal of Colin Stagg to the murder of Jill Dando, and from Britain’s first Nazi war criminal to the man given life because of an earprint.
All the while he lays bare the secrets of his profession, from the rivalry among barristers to the nervous moments before a verdict — and how our right to a fair trial is now in great peril. Switch off the TV dramas and plunge into the criminal law in action.
Well-known cases featured:
- Colin Stagg’s trial for The Wimbledon Common Murder
- The Chillenden Murders (Dr Lin and Megan Russell)
- The Earprint Murder
- The Murder of Jill Dando
- Rebekah Brooks’s Phone Hacking Trial
- Representing the deranged serial killer Robert Napper (who murdered Rachel Nickel and Samantha Bisset)
- Fighting for Private Lee Clegg in Northern Ireland
- The trial of the man accused of Joanna Yeates’s murder
- Defending Britain’s first ‘Nazi war criminal’
William Clegg, QC, is one of the most celebrated advocates at the English bar. A barrister for 47 years, he has been the go-to lawyer for complex murder and fraud cases for decades and has fought over 100 murder cases. He is head of chambers at 2 Bedford Row, one of the four leading criminal sets in London.
Clegg also argues:
- Innocent people will be jailed for murder because of Legal Aid cuts
- Wearing of wigs in court should be stopped
- There are many cases of police incompetence – as seen in the Rachel Nickel case
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