Edward Coke - Practice As A Barrister

Practice As A Barrister

After being called to the Bar on 20 April 1578 Coke immediately began practising as a barrister. His first case was in the Court of King's Bench in 1581, and was known as Lord Cromwell's Case after the claimant, Lord Henry Cromwell, a landlord in Coke's home county of Norfolk. The case was a charge of slander against a Mr Denny, the Vicar of Northlinham and Coke's client. In a dispute with Denny, Cromwell had hired two unlicensed preachers to harass him, denounce the Book of Common Prayer and preach the gospel in his area. Denny retorted by telling Cromwell "you like not of me, since you like those that maintain sedition". Cromwell argued that Denny was guilty of scandalum magnatum, slander against a peer of the realm, because his statement implied that Cromwell himself was seditious or had seditious tendencies.

The case was actually two actions, with the first judgment being given in Denny's favour after Coke's research found a flaw in the pleadings that invalidated Cromwell's case. His counsel had worked from an inaccurate English copy of the Latin statute of scandalum magnatum which had mistranslated several passages, forcing them to start the case anew. Cromwell brought the case again, and Coke argued that Denny had commented on Cromwell's support of people attacking the Book of Common Prayer, and was not implying any deeper disloyalty. The judge ruled that Denny's statement had indeed meant this, and from this position of strength Coke forced a settlement. Coke was very proud of his actions in this case and later described it in his Reports as "an excellent point of learning in actions of slander". The next year he was elected Reader of Lyon's Inn for three years, something surprising considering his young age and likely related to his conduct in Lord Cromwell's Case. As Reader he was tasked with reading to the students at the Inn, a group which numbered about thirty at any one time, and the quality of his readings increased his reputation even further. His lectures were on the Statute of Uses, and his reputation was such that when he retired to his house after an outbreak of the plague, "nine Benchers, forty barristers, and others of the Inn accompanied him a considerable distance on his journey".

During the 1580s, Coke became intimately linked with the Howard family, the Dukes of Norfolk and Earls of Arundel. His uncle Thomas Gawdy had close links to Earl Arundel himself. In Norfolk Arundel held a Liberty – he was essentially a local prince who appointed all officials, maintained his own prison, executed justice and paid off any royal clerks. His power was based around his household, particularly the network of lawyers and stewards who held his estates together. Coke's uncle Thomas Gawdy had served as the Steward to the Third Duke of Norfolk, and during the 1580s Coke was employed by the Howards to see off lawyers employed by the crown who argued that the Howards' lands were forfeit due to the treason of the 4th Duke of Norfolk. As well as defeating these direct attacks Coke also travelled to Cardiff to answer a challenge by Francis Dacre, brother-in-law to Philip Howard – he proved that Dacre's evidence was false and had the case dismissed.

Coke became involved in Shelley's Case in 1581, a now-classic case that created a rule in real property that is still used in some common law jurisdictions today and also established Coke's reputation as both an attorney and a case reporter. His next famous case was Chudleigh's Case, a dispute over the interpretation of the Statute of Uses, while his third was Slade's Case, a dispute between the Common Pleas and King's Bench over assumpsit now regarded as a classic example of the friction between the two courts and the forward movement of contract law; Coke's argument in the case formed the first definition of consideration.