Charles Rann Kennedy

Charles Rann Kennedy (1808 - December 17, 1867) was an English lawyer and classicist, best remembered for his involvement in the Swinfen will case and the issues of contingency fee agreements and legal ethics that it involved.

Life

Kennedy was born in Birmingham, son of Rann Kennedy, and the younger brother of Benjamin Hall Kennedy. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as senior classic (1831)^[1] and was elected fellow. He entered Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar in 1835, became a barrister, and settled at Birmingham. From 1849-1856 he was professor of law at Queen's College, Birmingham.^[2]

In his academic role, he advised the judge Lord Denman in the important parliamentary privilege case of Stockdale v. Hansard.^[3] As counsel to Mrs Swinfen, the plaintiff in the celebrated will case Swinfen v. Swinfen (1856), he brought an action for remuneration for professional services, but the verdict given in his favour at Warwick assizes was set aside by the court of Common Pleas, on the ground that a barrister could not sue for the recovery of his fees.^[2]

Works

• New Rules for Pleading (2nd ed., 1841)
• Poems, Original and Selected (1843)
• A Treatise on Annuities (1846)
• Works of Virgil, in blank verse, written in conjunction with his father (2 vols., 1850)
• Specimens of Greek and Latin Verse (1853)
• Orations of Demosthenes, translated into English, with notes, appendices, etc. (5 vols., 1841-63, in Bohn's Classical Library)
• Hannibal, a poem, part i. (1866)

Family

His grandson, also named Charles Rann Kennedy (1871–1950), was a playwright and actor who married actress Edith Wynne Matthison. His older brother was classicist Benjamin Hall Kennedy.^[2]

References

1. ^ Charles Rann Kennedy in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
2. ^ ^{a b c} [Anon.] (1911)
3. ^ Pue (1990) p.62

Bibliography

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Kennedy, Benjamin Hall". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Archbold, W. A. J. (1891) "Kennedy, Charles Rann (1808–1867)", in Lee, S. (ed.) Dictionary of National Biography
• — rev. E. Metcalfe (2004) "Kennedy, Charles Rann (1808–1867)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 8 February 2008 Subscription or UK public library membership required
• Pue, W. W. (1990). "Moral panic at the English Bar: Paternal vs. commercial ideologies of legal practice in the 1860s". Law and Social Inquiry 15 (1): 49–118. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.1990.tb00275.x. 
•  "Kennedy, Benjamin Hall". The American Cyclopædia. 1879. 

External links

• Works by Charles Rann Kennedy at Project Gutenberg

Persondata
Name	Kennedy, Charles Rann
Alternative names
Short description	English lawyer and classicist
Date of birth	1808
Place of birth	Birmingham
Date of death	December 17, 1867
Place of death