Beatles' lawyer Rex Makin marks 60 years on the roll

There's a yellowing, crumpled Law Society certificate among the papers on his desk.

Dated February 1, 1999, it congratulates him on completing 50 years in the profession.

Few would have thought that Liverpool's most famous solicitor would so deftly add another decade. Indeed, others may have hoped otherwise.

"I shan't retire. My son's 48 and he's already taken over the firm. I still do my work, I'm available."

And over the decades along with being "available" as a defence lawyer in some of the most notorious crimes in Merseyside's history - Harold Winstanley's double murder at Knowsley Hall, the 1949 Cameo cinema murders - he's also counselled dozen's of the city's glitterati and politicians.

"From Jon Snow, who I represented, who was sent down from the University after a demo against South Africa and who never returned to university. To Anne Robinson," he says.

Robinson and Makin first met outside Beatles' manager Brian Epstein's London home the day after his sudden death.

"On the death of Brian Epstein I was left alone in his Belgravia mansion to return to Liverpool from where I had flown down to make the funeral arrangements.

"The press pack had departed to the pub and I needed a lift to get to Euston. Then Anne drove up in a low sports car.

"She was working as a freelance and gave me a lift. She got a story and a permanent job and after various things we became friends," he says, before adding, "She's in touch with me, but I'm not in touch with her."

Makin, now 83, and "fifth Beatle" Epstein were also close friends. After his death, Makin was invited to become a nominal director at his management firm NEMS [North Electrical Music Stores]. He also managed the magazine Merseybeat while Epstein was still alive.

"Brian confided in me on an almost nightly basis. But, 40 years after his death, I think how much he achieved in such a short time and how tragic was his end.

"He was my next door neighbour and if you look in the Bealtes Museum you will see a letter written to me when I got engaged to my wife.

"He says how we interacted, how much he relied on me as a big brother. I found his death very traumatic."

Mystery and conspiracy theory still surround Epstein's death.

All Makin would say when asked how he died was "The verdict was accidental death.".

Another reason, Makin says, he has remained in Merseyside - instead of leaving for the supposed brighter lights elsewhere - is the "temper and gusto" of the city, not least because of its vibrant political scene.

He trots out a list of Town Hall representatives - including former Labour group leader Lord [Bill] Sefton of Garston and Sir Trevor Jones, the former Liberal Democrat leader - who have been his clients.

"I've advised a large number of politicians of all political shades. They come to me mainly because nearly every election brought a crop of defamation claims.

"I remember acting for a now peer of the realm who sued former Labour leader Cyril Taylor's wife, from whom she subsequently separated. There were alleged shenanigans over a school in Edge Hill.

"Damages were obtained and when it came to the question of costs Taylor allowed his wife to be made bankrupt rather than pay. She subsequently became an invalid. I can remember the bailiffs taking the rings off her fingers.

"She was a magistrate and was disbarred from sitting on the bench. Great bitterness at that."

Makin, his mother and his father left the city in 1940, when the Blitz was raining down on the city.

They moved to a house in the North Wales beauty spot Craig Y Don and Makin transferred from Liverpool College to John Bright County Grammar School.

There Makin says he learnt "the best English ever" from a lilting Welsh master from Pwllheli.

He returned to the city in 1942 to take up a place at the University of Liverpool's law school, though his education was "mainly in the students' union".

He became an executive member of the Guild of Undergraduates and secretary of publications.

Controversy soon followed.

Following "trouble" in Derby Halls of residence, his newspaper headline "War Den or Warder" landed the younger Makin in then vice chancellor Sir Arnold McNair's office, who rapped the student for interrupting his routine.

After completing his traineeship, Makin opened an office on Hackins Hey, off Dale Street.

A member of the non-Establishment Dale Street set, Makin recalled: "They were colourful days.

"The stipendiary magistrate was a barrister called Arthur McFarland, who's long since dead. He believed that most people were guilty until proved innocent and the famous opening to his judgement was 'I find you guilty and I tell you for why...'.

"One solicitor was notorious for bringing in a notice of appeal in advance."

Makin laments how the profession has changed. Throughout the conversation he throws barbs at "ambulance chasers", the estimated one in three solicitors who flout the laws on secret payments to win work and the "almost unfettered jurisdiction" of District Judges, who have replaced Stipendiary Magistrates.

He added: "I stayed in Liverpool because I was an only child and Liverpool was an exciting place even in those days to be in.

"I remember a leading politician who subsequently obtained cabinet office who was a member of the Labour Party in the 1930s saying the comrades hated one another more than they hated the opposition.

"And that hatred has not really gone away any more than the hatred between the Everton and Liverpool supporters has gone away."

Makin and the celebrities

"I COULD have, if I wanted, hitched my wagon to the ascending star of the Beatles, but declined to do so. I represented a number of people on the music scene.

"I was devastated when the sister of Rory Storm came to see me the day after he and his mum had killed themselves. She was accompanied by her then husband, now known as Alvin Stardust.

"I did odd things for Brian [Epstein's] circle. I represented Gerry Marsden in Benn Loch Bay in Anglesey.

"It was at the time when his record 'You'll Never Walk Alone' was making the charts and after he was acquitted, a journalist asked me what his reaction was and I said 'He'll never walk alone'.

"He was accused of theft of golf clubs and there was I, an English solicitor, in a Welsh court where they looked upon me with great distaste. But I secured his rightful acquittal."

Makin and the law scene c1949

"IT WAS a different world. People wore winged and stiff collars, black jackets and striped trousers, bowler hats, Hamburg hats were customarily worn.

"Solicitors then had a monopoly over conveyancing and the profession was artificially divided into the Establishment and the Dale Street lawyers, of whom I became one when I qualified.

"This was a term of derision, because we the Dale Street lawyers practised in the criminal courts, made claims on behalf of those who are now pursued by ambulance chasers, as we called them then, but have now suffused their roles to claims farmers. To sue another solicitor for negligence was almost unheard of.

"In fact, to make claims at all on behalf of a clients was considered by the establishment as an unfair dig."

Rex Makin is senior partner at E Rex Makin & Co. on Whitechapel