After a successful career at the Bar, Lord Falconer's eventful period in politics saw him initially written off as Dome Minster and 'Tony's Crony' before leading major constitutional reform. Suzanna Ring meets a man who still doesn't fit into a neat box

As I arrive to interview Lord Falconer at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher on London's Victoria Embankment, I am hit with the sudden realisation that this is one of those rare professional occasions when I really don't know what to expect. 

The barrister turned Solicitor General turned Labour politician turned US law firm partner has seen his public persona swing from villain to victor over the past 15 years, depending on what period of his career you are reading about in the newspapers, leaving a somewhat warped perception of the man himself.

Labelled 'Tony's Crony' by the press on entering politics because of his friendship with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and having contrasted that image with emotive roles such as chair of the Commission on Assisted Dying, Falconer remains hard to pin down. 

It is while I'm pondering this that a man wearing a pink polo shirt and jeans pokes his head around the door and says: "Hi, I'm Charlie." 

As we sit down to talk law, politics and media vilification, it becomes clear that an interview with Falconer is rather like going to the theatre, as his colourful storytelling flits between the different scenes of his professional life with well-practised ease. It is an apt analogy given that his appointment as the next chairman of Shakespeare's Globe has recently been announced.

An unlikely candidate for the position it might be said; however, a penchant for the arts runs in the family, with Falconer telling of how his grandfather was one of the original founders of the Edinburgh Festival. His appointment will see him oversee the opening of the Globe's indoor Jacobean theatre when he takes up the role in January next year, as well as plans for a new building to house its valuable library, archive and research work. 

Speaking about the Globe appointment, Falconer says: "I'm really interested in music and the arts, and from my time as a politician you can see how important it is in bringing people together and breaking down barriers. It evokes value and appreciation for something that is universal. It doesn't matter what your politics are." 

Charlie the lawyer

Born in Edinburgh to a lawyer father, Falconer says he was always expected to enter the profession because, of his four siblings, he was "the swotty, nerdy one".

Educated at Edinburgh Academy and the former Trinity College, Glenalmond (now known as Glenalmond College), he decided to go to university in England with the intention of becoming a barrister because, he quips: "I was always keen to talk and as a barrister, you get the opportunity to talk and everybody has to listen."

His choice proved to be the right one when he was then taken on by top set Crown Office Row (now Fountain Court) in 1975, where he was to remain for the next 22 years, taking silk in 1991 and "having the time of my life". 

He cites one of his favourite cases during his time at the chambers as his role representing The Mirror Group against former publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell's sons, Ian and Kevin Maxwell, for allegedly diverting $91m (£57.6m) from the group's pension funds, although both were later acquitted.

His most exciting legal role was to come in 1997, however, when at the age of 45 he was asked to take up the position of Solicitor General – the deputy role of Attorney General and an adviser to the Crown and Cabinet. 

Falconer describes how at this stage it was important to be clear that he was sitting within Government in a legal capacity.

"To be successful [as Solicitor General], you have really got to be behind the scenes giving advice and fully understanding the issues on which the Government is requiring advice, while at the same time understanding the political landscape in which the advice is given. Your colleagues have got to trust you to stay completely out of the limelight," he comments. 

Yet this was to soon change with an attempt to cross from law to politics in 1997 by putting forward a bid for the seat of Dudley East before the general election. The attempt failed after Falconer stated his intention to keep his children at the independent Westminster School if selected, causing him to be dropped from the process – a decision that Falconer still stands by, yet claims "does not dim my enthusiasm for driving the state school system". 

However, Blair had other plans for him, swiftly appointing him a life peer – the first under his government – and minister of state at the Cabinet Office in 1998. 

The appointment saw Falconer take over the thankless role of 'Dome Secretary' after the resignation of Peter Mandelson, a move that gave fodder to critics who were already lambasting the Blair government for cronyism, given Falconer's lack of experience managing projects on the scale of the Millennium Dome and the fact that he had shared a flat with Blair when the pair were starting out on their legal careers.

Charlie the politician

It would be an understatement to say that Falconer's debut in politics was turbulent. Jumping aboard the sinking ship that was the Millennium Dome project, Falconer attempted to lead the launch of the infamous building against a host of opposition to its construction and significant over-expenditure by the Government. It was a mission without success. 

"I was vilified. People said I was hopeless at doing it and I was significantly criticised for overrunning costs. There came a point in September 2000 when every single national newspaper on one particular morning called for my resignation," he says.

Yet in a display of resilience that seems typical throughout Falconer's career, he soldiered on and continued to try to get the job done. 

"I don't think I had appreciated how bad it was. I stopped reading the newspapers because it was so vile. The big issue about the Dome was it overrode its costs. 

"The reality was the cost issues were all rather set by the time I arrived, yet maybe I could have managed the problem of the financial deficit in a different way. I could have been less optimistic and acknowledged earlier we were not going to get the visitor numbers.

"I came very close to resigning, but it never happened because, ultimately, who else could have taken over at that point?"

That sense of responsibility is something that has carried Falconer through his political career and saw him move to his next role as housing minister in 2001. Falconer's time as housing minister gave him the degree of anonymity he needed post-Dome disaster and you can see from the way that he speaks about it, despite being slightly more leftfield, it is one of the periods of his career that he looks on with the most pride.

"I live in Islington where there are huge problems with housing, so I have always been passionate about it. It is the most worthwhile job to do because, unlike the Dome or the law, the people in the housing area are working together to get good results.

"It felt good to do something where everyone had a shared purpose that didn't involve having lots of conversations with the Daily Mail," he jokes.

This satisfaction also continued in his next role when in 2002 he was appointed minister for the criminal justice system in the Home Office. Despite only sitting in the role for a year, Falconer's implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 is perhaps one of the most noteworthy and underplayed achievements of his entire time in politics. 

What have now become the standard components of a criminal trial, such as the test of good character and the use of hearsay evidence, were introduced by Falconer himself in the face of fierce opposition.

"Lawyers defended to the death the status quo before the Act. Now people can't remember life before it," he asserts.

Yet it was his next role that was to become his most defining. "It was changing history. It would never have happened if it had not been announced, from the top, without debate on the principle, that it was going to happen. The suddenness and the certainty of the announcement led to widespread opposition. It also ensured the policy was delivered," says Falconer, talking of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

First put forward officially in 2003, Blair's government made a decision to create a clearer separation of powers by moving the Law Lords out of the House of Lords, abolishing of the role of Lord Chancellor and overhauling the judicial appointments process.

The then Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, resigned immediately with Falconer appointed to take up the position in the interim before its dissolution, handing him a role that he "could never have expected".

The position saw him take responsibility for moving the Law Lords out of their existing home in the upper chamber, which involved a stream of negotiations, and for smoothing over relations while the Government pushed the proposed changes through. 

"Everybody was angry about something, particularly about finding a building for the Law Lords to go in," he comments. 

Another angry party might have been Falconer's wife Marianna, who – because he was Lord Chancellor – was not able to become a circuit judge, in light of the fact that she could not be appointed by her own husband. Asked whether he believes the changes he helped implement have been a success, Falconer says: "I think it is considered successful. We now have an identity for the final court of appeal in this country. People know about the Supreme Court to the extent that they know about the courts." 

Affecting the constitutional make-up in this way is perhaps Falconer's greatest success in politics, yet it was also to mark his exit. In 2007, he left the post and formally bowed out of politics.

Just Charlie

"I care about the merits of things, not the appearance," says Falconer, and it is this sentiment, alongside a grounded attitude, which has seemingly carried him through his career. However, he concedes the influence that friends such as Blair have had on his success. 

"I've always been very interested in politics, but I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to say that my close friendship with Tony Blair has influenced my career." 

Yet he has not allowed what others may judge as a leg up to hinder him from taking on roles. Now a partner at US firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (a job he accepted in 2008 post-politics), Falconer has ostensibly returned to law. But for him, he does not see himself as falling into one professional camp any more than another. 

"I see myself as both a politician and a barrister," he says. "When I was Solicitor General, I would have seen myself almost exclusively as a lawyer. I thought I stepped outside for a short time, but it actually turned out to be 10 years of my life. I'm utterly committed to the Labour Party and I'm active in the Lords – I still do a lot of politics.

"My adult life was very much formed by 25 years at the Bar, but what's happened in the 15 years since has also completely changed my professional life. I'm a fusion of both."

So what next for Charlie Falconer? "Best to expect the unexpected," he says. 

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