BARRISTER Anthony Lester - later Lord Lester of Herne Hill - was preoccupied for much of his career with causes of equality, human rights and free speech.
Born in London in 1936, a grandchild of Jewish refugees, he was involved in setting up the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in the 1960s and drafting Britain's first race relations and sexual discrimination legislation.
He also worked on a proposed Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland in the 1970s and spent more than three decades pressing for the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, a goal finally realised in 1998.
He relied on its protections when defending The Times newspaper over a report concerning British soldier Lee Clegg, who was convicted of murder following a shooting in west Belfast in 1990 before being cleared in a retrial.
Another landmark libel case, involving former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, would establish the 'Reynolds defence' for public interest reporting.
And the QC also represented The Irish News when it was sued over a critical restaurant review published in 2000.
In a case closely monitored in legal and media circles around the world, a jury initially decided in the restaurant's favour before the decision was overturned on appeal.
Irish News editor Noel Doran said: "Tony Lester played a central role for us in an appeal which had massive implications for press freedom. He agreed to represent the paper because he understood the importance of the issues at stake, and every news organisation has reason to be grateful that his powerful arguments won the day."
Lord Lester became a member of the Irish Bar and Northern Ireland Bar and was made an adjunct professor in University College Cork in 2005.
He had a holiday home in west Cork where he organised an annual painting course, being a skilled watercolourist himself.
Elevated to the House of Lords in 1993, a committee recommended his suspension in 2018 over a claim of sexual harassment. He denied the allegation but resigned his seat, citing ill health.
He died aged 84 on August 8 and is survived by his wife Katya, a barrister and judge, his son Gideon and daughter Maya, also a QC.
