SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

any one remember jack levi i can remember people pickett outside his shop any info wilfbarr

wilfbarr wrote: any one remember jack levi i can remember people pickett outside his shop any info wilfbarr I seem to remember him getting one of the Leeds U players off on a drink drive charge in the sixties - either Lorimer or Bremner. Whichever one it was, he was found asleep in his car at the junction of Chapeltown Road and Potternewton Lane. He was well known as a high profile Leeds solicitor in the sixties - it was said whatever you'd done he'de get you off.Wasn't there one with a similar rep in the seventies - Barrington Black?    

Trojan wrote: wilfbarr wrote: any one remember jack levi i can remember people pickett outside his shop any info wilfbarr I seem to remember him getting one of the Leeds U players off on a drink drive charge in the sixties - either Lorimer or Bremner. Whichever one it was, he was found asleep in his car at the junction of Chapeltown Road and Potternewton Lane. He was well known as a high profile Leeds solicitor in the sixties - it was said whatever you'd done he'de get you off.Wasn't there one with a similar rep in the seventies - Barrington Black?     Some info on Barrington Blackhttp://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Yorkshire- ... .916736.jp

The version I got about Jack levi was a bit stronger than "whatever you'd done, he'd get you off". He had many clients at the criminal end of the spectrum. I knew one client who had the dubious distinction of the Jack Levi calling the poice to remove them from his offices. They then went to Barrington Black

Sugare & Co was (is) another firm which represented a lot of local villains.

Hi everyone,I knew them all (and alot more) - very well. Jack Levi was an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to deal with either in or out of court. I have never heard anyone ever say a bad word about him - Police or criminals. He was the father of Melvyn Levi who is/was involved with Leeds United and the Ken Bates saga.Apart from a few, such as Jack Levi, the late Malcolm Sorkin (who was killed in the Orly air crash) and Peter Fingret, I found the majority of the other Leeds solicitors, who dealt with crime, to be only interested in making money, particularly by abusing the Legal Aid system (getting clients to sign totally blank Legal Aid forms or providing false information), and they had no real interest in 'justice', one way or the other. Most of them should have been accountants and not lawyers. Occasionally they would tell lies, verbally or on paper, in or out of court, and get caught out, whereupon they would entirely blame their client and say that they, personally, were "only acting upon their client's instructions" and that they, personally, were not to blame. It was sickening and it went on for years. Some of the people, including some whose names have been mentioned, were investigated by the Police, for fraud and abusing the Legal Aid system. To my knowledge, nobody ever got prosecuted. Don't forget that the people who made the decisions to prosecute, along with the judges, were all lawyers themselves and usually personal friends of the people who were being accused. As mentioned, some of them went on to become High Court Judges or Stipendiary Magistrates.I am out of touch with it all now, and have been so for the past twenty years, so I have no idea what the current situation is. I think that the whole Legal Aid system has been tightened up by the various governments and that the lawyers have to be much more accountable, nowadays, than what they were in the sixties, seventies and eighties.Ian    

I remember Melvyn Levi and another lawyer who I can't just remember his name but his office was in Sovereign Street bought the Trafalger club on Hunslet road when Rodney Fairburn went bankrupt, I remember Melvyn was always polite and helped the cricket club.

As in Levi & Co cira early 80s?

Craig & Co always cracked me up, seemed to be the chosen one of the CAB over the road who would send people to them to be charged £25 for them to write a letter threatening legal action that never came.Cira late 90s i was threatened with being taken to court for slander by a local evangelical church. Almost wet myself laughing when i saw the Craig & Co logo on the letter

Crazy Jane wrote: Cira late 90s i was threatened with being taken to court for slander by a local evangelical church. What happened to "turn the other cheek?"