Qualified before the invention of email
Leisurely days spent galavanting around garden centres and National Trust properties are not on the roster just yet for the man believed to be Britain’s oldest practising criminal barrister.
Noel Philo, 90, was called to the bar back in 1975 and continues to work at Lincoln Crown Court.
He commenced his law degree at Oxford University in 1955 after completing post-war National Service, before being admitted as a solicitor in 1966, the same year that England last won a football World Cup.
Born on Christmas Day in 1934, the barrister still takes on prosecution cases, telling BBC News that “I do feel that through my work, I can do some good and help people”. “As long as I am wanted and as long as I’m fit, I’ll keep going. How long that will be, I don’t know.”
Continuing with his work, Philo says, “keeps the old brain going”, and is needed when “it’s a case of use it or lose it”. “Obviously, if I got to the stage where I was no longer any use, I wouldn’t get any briefs and I would have to retire,” he accepted, although his senior clerk has other ideas. “He thinks I’ll still be going when the rest of them have retired, but I’m not sure about that.”
Judge Simon Hirst, the recorder of Lincoln whose career so far has spanned only a mere 30 years, noted that “We are always delighted to have Noel helping us at this court, and I hope it continues for many years to come.”