Geoffrey Robertson AO KC

Barrister and author

Australian born Geoffrey Robertson AO KC came to the UK as a Rhodes scholar in 1970. He acted in many high-profile criminal cases including the Gay News blasphemy trial and the Oz obscenity trial. He went on to defend Salman Rushdie, a fellow Humanists UK patron, when an attempt was made to prosecute him over The Satanic Verses. He’s also defended Mike Tyson and, in the Privy Council, many prisoners on death row in the Caribbean. 

In 1990, he founded Doughty Street Chambers which now has 150 barristers (50 of them silks) and which has been professional home to the current British Prime Minister, Attorney General, and Foreign Secretary.

Robertson also served as first president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone and has appeared as counsel in many Commonwealth countries, in the Caribbean, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. He has written over 20 books including Who Owns History, The Trial of Vladimir Putin, The Tyrannicide Brief, and recently the 5th edition of Crimes against humanity.