Roy Goode chaired the Pension Law Review Committee – set up following the scandal over Robert Maxwell’s theft of about £480m from the Mirror Group’s pension fund. Photograph: Bill Knight View image in fullscreen Roy Goode chaired the Pension Law Review Committee – set up following the scandal over Robert Maxwell’s theft of about £480m from the Mirror Group’s pension fund. Photograph: Bill Knight Law Obituary Sir Roy Goode obituary Pillar of English commercial law who served on the inquiry behind the establishment of the Consumer Credit Act 1974
Prefer the Guardian on Google Keen to fill his evenings after work as a young lawyer in an Essex solicitor’s office, Roy Goode, who left school at 16, decided he ought to write a book. He was not, however, sure what subject to choose.
Leafing alphabetically through titles in a legal reference volume, he came across the topic of hire purchase. He knew nothing about such credit arrangements, but noticed no one had touched the issue for several decades.
It was typical of the curiosity-driven ambition displayed by Goode, who has died aged 93. His pioneering approach eventually helped him become a leading expert on commercial law. He founded, in 1980, the postgraduate Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at what is now Queen Mary University of London, and was later appointed professor of English law at Oxford University.
Goode’s first book, Hire-Purchase Law and Practice (1962), appeared at a time when HP agreements were becoming widely available for consumer goods, including cars. They were criticised for the way they operated and, due to their popularity, even affected the country’s overall money-supply figures.
Research for and publication of his authoritative work brought Goode to the attention of the prominent London law firm Victor Mishcon & Co , where he eventually became a partner in 1966; Lord Crowther, the former editor of the Economist, nominated him to serve on a government inquiry into consumer credit in 1968. The Crowther report that followed laid the foundations for the 1974 Consumer Credit Act , which regulated loans, provided rebates for customers who settled debts early and made companies liable for faulty goods.
An inspiring and entertaining teacher, generous in making time available to students, Goode was praised for his clarity of thought and commitment to public service. His enthusiasm for combining practical legal experience with intellectual rigour became the academic model through which generations of young commercial lawyers have passed. One colleague described him as the “father of modern English commercial law”.
Goode was born in Portsmouth into a Jewish family. His father, Samuel, was a naval outfitter; his mother, Bloom (nee Zeid), a saleswoman, marketing Rediffusion televisions and vacuum cleaners; she also wrote stories for True Confessions magazine.
Educated at Highgate school, north London, Roy left the classroom early, in 1949, to take up articles with a solicitor’s firm in Portsmouth at a time when training positions were difficult to obtain.
While working in the courts, Goode completed both his Law Society exams and, as an external student, a law degree with London University. His two years of national service were in the army’s legal aid section, latterly in Cyprus, where he rose to the rank of acting corporal; he later recounted drawing up a treaty permitting British troops to re-enter parts of the Middle East based on his experience of landlords’ ri...