15 Facts About Sydney Kentridge

Sydney Kentridge practised law in South Africa and the United Kingdom from the 1940s until his retirement in 2013.

Sydney Kentridge graduated in 1942, and served during the Second World War as an intelligence officer in the South African Army in East Africa and Italy.

In 1949, after working briefly as a judge's clerk, Sydney Kentridge was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa.

Sydney Kentridge became a leading defence lawyer in political trials in South Africa, with some of his major cases including the Treason Trial, in which he defended Nelson Mandela, and the Prisons Trial.

Sydney Kentridge practised at the English Bar between 1977 and 2013, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1984.

Sydney Kentridge became a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1985.

Sydney Kentridge was a member of Brick Court Chambers, a leading London commercial set, and was widely regarded as the "elder statesman" of the English Bar before his retirement in 2013.

Sydney Kentridge furthermore served as a judge in a number of jurisdictions, sitting as a Judge of Appeal in Botswana, as a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey and as an Acting Justice of the South African Constitutional Court.

Sydney Kentridge is a Knight Commander of the British Order of St Michael and St George and a Supreme Counsellor of the South African Order of the Baobab in Gold.

Sydney Kentridge is a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and an Honorary Member of the New York City Bar Association.

In March 2013, Sydney Kentridge was interviewed on the British radio show Desert Island Discs.

In November 2020, at the age of 98, Sydney Kentridge received the Helen Suzman Lifetime Achievement Award at the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards, in recognition of his legal career in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

In 1952, Sydney Kentridge married Felicia Geffen, a lawyer and anti-apartheid activist who co-founded the South African Legal Resources Centre ; Sydney Kentridge himself was a founding trustee of the LRC.

Sydney Kentridge has lived in Maida Vale, London, since the 1990s, and has four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchilden.

Sydney Kentridge is a fan of cricket and opera, and is an uncle of the South African American musician and composer Trevor Rabin.