Friday 18 November 2022 12:14 AM As the Mail's legendary lawyer Eddie Young dies at 80, RICHARD KAY pays a ... trends now
Somehow it was characteristic that even with his own life drawing to a close, Eddie Young should be making time to offer kindly words of reassurance about the welfare of the husband of a close friend.
But this was typical of the Daily Mail's legendary lawyer, who died yesterday at the age of 80 after a long and brave battle with illness.
He was a figure who enjoyed talking about the ups and downs of the England rugby team as much as he did the paradoxes of the law. The one thing he never did was talk about himself — and certainly not about his health.
But if modesty was one of his great personal qualities it was matched by a skill and grasp of the intricacies of the law that gave him one of the most formidable legal minds of his generation. Outwardly he delivered his views on what the Mail's editors could — or (on rare occasions) could not — put into their paper with cool-headed and calm authority.
Sometimes these judgments would come with a wry sidelong glance, but woe betide anyone who mistook this drollness for some kind of lack of enthusiasm. Freedom of the Press and the right to publish were more than just a passion but a guiding principle.
Eddie was one of the unsung heroes of the newspaper business; his name wasn't up in lights on the front page with scoops or interviews. Nor did he write a column or file despatches from war zones. But his influence was on every page and in every headline.
As group legal adviser to Mail publisher Associated Newspapers, never were all those assets in more demand than on the night of February 13, 1997.
Eddie Young (pictured with wife Diana), the legendary Daily Mail lawyer, died yesterday at the age of 80
The following day's Daily Mail was to carry a single word headline on its front page. 'Murderers', it read, and below were five pictures of the men it accused of killing black teenager Stephen Lawrence in a racially motivated attack.
It was Eddie who advised then editor Paul Dacre that although a risk — because of the threat of being sued — the headline 'didn't keep me awake at night'.
This was no knee-jerk reaction but a shrewd, thoughtful verdict based on assessing all the material on the case. His view was that the five men — some had criminal records and came from notorious underworld families — had very little reputation to defend, as is required in a libel case.
The colossal gamble paid off and the Mail's vital role in the case was vindicated in that one damning but courageous banner headline.
There were countless other headlines, of course, in a career that spanned 40 years, but that February evening almost 26 years ago was the one Eddie considered his greatest of days. 'I never sought the limelight and always preferred to keep a low profile, but with this event I could not avoid the publicity,' he later said.
'Articles appeared in newspapers and magazines and there was almost non-stop coverage on the TV. The simple fact is that it was the editor's decision to publish and he took the risk; I was quite
