FROM NEW YORK TO YORK

Georgina Noakes travels to York to meet Sir David Steel, Admiralty Judge in London

THE last public platform upon which many shipping people saw Sir David Steel was at the Bar Association of New York during the USMLA's centenary celebrations last May. There, he represented the Admiralty Court in London with authority, a sense of history and a strong dose of charm and wit. He was at home in the Big Apple (New York is, after all, where he started his working life), and it showed. Furthermore, his gregarious presence was perfectly balanced by New York's own Judge Haight, with whom he shared the platform.

With this in mind, I looked forward to interviewing London's now-not-so-new Admiralty Judge. I was offered a choice of travelling from London to Exeter before Christmas, or to York after the New Year, by Sir David's helpful clerk. As I grew up near York and had not been there for nearly a decade, the choice was any easy one to make.

The flat Lincolnshire countryside sped by the windows of the intercity train, and it was with a sense of familiarity and anticipation that I arrived beneath the Victorian glass arches of York railway station. Many of you will know that York is one of Britain's favourite tourist destinations. Not so on this gloriously sunny January day. It felt as though I had the city all to myself.

The cathedral stood like a Monet painting, framed by a bright blue winter sky. As I wandered around my favourite old haunts (through Stonegate and Petergate - home to George Scott, the butcher who claims to have a little shop with a big reputation for the best pork pies in Yorkshire - and beyond to the lovely river Ouse), I could see how the Admiralty Judge could be lured away from the court in London to the beauty of this ancient Roman city. But that is another story.

Sir David Steel was formerly head of chambers at well-known commercial and shipping set, 4 Essex Court. He is the third Admiralty Judge in succession to emerge from this chambers, Sir Barry Sheen (from what was then 2 Essex Court) and Sir Anthony Clarke preceding him. Sir David was appointed to the Queen's Bench Division in January 1998. He was just getting accustomed to his new role and to his knighthood, enjoying life as a circuit judge travelling to Manchester, Birmingham and Teeside, when Sir Anthony Clarke was elevated to the Court of Appeal. David was duly appointed as the new Admiralty Judge. That was in November 1998.

David started the new year of 1999 in Cardiff working on the Sea Empress case, involving Milford Haven Port Authority, which took up most of the next three months. He returned to London for short spells but then started hearings on criminal cases in Manchester and Sheffield that had been booked prior to his appointment as Admiralty Judge. He was back at the Admiralty Court in London in May, up to the summer recess. In the autumn he presided over more murder cases in the West Country until Christmas. Unfortunately, one of the cases (a marine manslaughter) from last April had to be re-tried this January in York because the first jury could not agree an outcome.

All this has led to rumblings in the London maritime legal community that Sir David has not been as omnipresent as he might have been. Some admiralty cases, despite the best efforts of David's deputy, Sir Richard Aikens, have been adjourned for considerable periods of time, and this has led to clients questioning the promptness of the services provided by the Admiralty Court.

To be fair to David, this has probably been more to do with accident than design, or blips in the court listing process, than with any preference on his part for trying criminal rather than admiralty cases. This month David will be back in London, which is where he plans to stay. There is only one shipping case outside London on the immediate horizon - the inquiry into the loss of The Gaul in Humberside, which will be heard in Hull, in May.

"I am interested in criminal law," says David. "It can be a welcome break from the hard intellectual grind of the commercial court. Strange as it may sound, murder trials can offer simple relief from the complexity of commercial cases that can feel like you are conducting an orchestra.

"But the Admiralty Court is where I want to be. I am aware of the need to provide the last bit of the jigsaw for cases in London. My main message is that I shall be back in London with a vengeance from February onwards."

This is all a long way away from where David started as an undergraduate, about to go to St John's, Oxford, to read physics. Having arrived early before term started, he convinced himself that physics was not for him. His tutor thought that he should perhaps try another college. "Fortunately," explains David, "the master of another college was sympathetic to my anxiety to avoid reading physics and suggested that I read law instead, at Keble, which is what I did."

At Keble, David pursued his passion for rowing and, upon graduating, the "wholly accidental" (as he describes it) progress of his life continued. He was called to the English bar but his ambition was to become a US lawyer. With this in mind, he became an associate at Coudert Brothers in New York, attending Columbia University at night school to qualify.

At that time, to be a practising lawyer in the US, you first had to become an American citizen. An immigration visa (a Green Card today) was on the horizon. The only thing between it and David was a call-up from the US army. "To avoid this," he explains, "I found myself back in London with no contacts, and didn't know how to go about becoming a barrister." In the end, David took up pupillage with Michael Mustill and then continued with Mark Saville, eventually being offered a tenancy at 2 (now 4) Essex Court by Michael Thomas, who was then head of chambers.

All this took place in London's swinging sixties and it was here that David began his fruitful professional relationship with Tony Clarke. It can be said that, where Anthony went, David soon appeared. First Tony, then David became head of 4 Essex Court. Likewise, David became Admiralty Judge after Sir Anthony was elevated to the Court of Appeal. Between them, they broke the mould, doing non-admiralty arbitration work in the City with the LMAA. "The problems at Lloyd's shifted our practices and transformed the workload of the commercial courts," says David.

There have been some funny stories along the way. In one case, David was acting against Tony in the commercial court and the case went on to the Court of Appeal and eventually to the House of Lords. The clients were Greek shipowners. The two barristers ran a bet to see how many times they could get each other's client to protest, "I have not come here to be insulted!". The outcome was a 2-2 draw, but David won, "because I got my answers in chief."

In the Captain Panagos DP, meanwhile, David explains, "It was a scuttling case and I was acting, once again, for a Greek shipowner who had died by the time the case went to trial." Interestingly, between trial and appeal, the owner's private diaries emerged, produced by his widow. "It was a fascinating account of my client's day-to-day life, with startling religious overtones," says David. "The appeal focused on the content of the diaries. Whilst largely filled with quite dreary information ('got out of taxi, went to meeting') they gave an interesting insight into the case.

"The Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge that as the master stranded and set fire to the vessel he must therefore have been instructed by the owner to do so."

David took over this case from Tony Clarke, who had been called to the bench, and a similar theme was revisited in another well-known case, The Ikarian Reefer, which was to become the largest civil appeal of its day.

David's gregarious personality and tall stature have contributed towards him being known as an imposing figure at the bar and a renowned after dinner speaker. As a barrister, he was popular with solicitors, who found him client friendly and he has retained his approachability on the bench.

So what is the most difficult thing about being a judge? "Being a judge is broadly what I expected it to be," says David. "But it is essentially a solitary existence and I had not anticipated this. I do greatly miss the camaraderie and the joviality of being at the bar. I also miss the flexibility, of being in control of your work and life. You have more free time if a case settles. As a judge, there is always another case the next day. So life as a civil servant has its drawbacks.

"But I do enjoy the intellectual satisfaction of trying to find the right answer, as opposed to arguing your corner. One is immediately into the meat of a dispute, and there is much less irrelevant reading. Nevertheless, the modern judge is expected to pre-read the arguments in skeleton form and the amount of time allowed to do this is actually insufficient."

Away from the rigours of court, David has the fanaticism of a golfer who has come late to the game (he was fifty when he took up his clubs) and plays to a handicap of 23 (not bad in seven years). While he and his wife are lovers of country pursuits, once their two sons had flown the nest and started to produce grandchildren, the Steels sold up their country home and moved to a flat overlooking the Thames in London. This is the reverse of what most people of a certain age do, but it has been a good move, "despite being the oldest people in the local pub in Fulham," smiles David.