tHelawinSirtHoMaSMore’Sutopia
Senior counsel Section
Chairs:TomHyde-AttorneyatLaw&DonaldSmith-Smith,Tozian,DanielandDavis,P.A.
onecannothelpbutwonderwhat
lessonscanbefoundinutopia that
areapplicableforlawyersinthe
21stcentury,evenafter500years.
Left: Portrait of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein,
the Younger — 1527, The Frick Collection New York
Five hundred years ago,
the most famous lawyer
in England and perhaps
all of Europe was Sir
Thomas More, the Chancellor of
England, the highest legal officer
in the land. Born in 1478, the son
of a lawyer, Thomas More studied
at Oxford, went on to London to
study law and was called to the
bar in 1501. In what can only be
described as a spectacular career,
More was a brilliant and talented
lawyer who eventually became a
confidant of King Henry VIII.
In fact, in 1518, he became the
privy councillor to the king. He was
even enlisted to edit Henry VIII’s
Defense of the Seven Sacraments
against Martin Luther. In 1523, he
was elected Speaker of the House
of Commons and in 1529, he
succeeded his mentor, Cardinal
Wolseley, to become the Lord High
Chancellor of England. But in
1532, More came in conflict with
the king when he opposed Henry’s
divorce from Catherine of Aragon
and his proposed marriage to Anne
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