Now world’s most-famous journalist is hooked on Lord Harley of Counsel saga too

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By Alex Aldridge on

Glenn Greenwald — the man behind the Edward Snowden story — gripped by tale of Harry Potter-style solicitor-advocate

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The world’s top journalist has taken a break from shaking the establishment to its core with government surveillance revelations to revel in the sheer weirdness of the Lord Harley of Counsel of saga.

Glenn Greenwald tweeted today of his “love” for the story, which got a new instalment on Thursday when we revealed that the full transcript had emerged of solicitor-advocate Lord Harley’s infamous run-in with a Welsh Crown Court judge.

The journalist who broke the Edward Snowden story actually began life as a lawyer, beginning his career at top New York corporate firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz before later moving into journalism and blogging.

Like many US lawyers, Greenwald seems to find the English propensity for fancy dress baffling, tweeting his amusement at “grown men and their costumes” when he originally spotted the Harley story.

Greenwald’s reaction is a reminder that many Americans view the wig worn by the judge in the Lord Harley bust-up as even stranger than the solicitor-advocate’s ribbons. As US legal blog Above the Law put it in their report of last week’s Legal Cheek story:

“Pretty judgmental for a grown man wearing a wig. Seriously, everything about dress-up time in the UK is so stupid and listening to a man in a ridiculous getup chastise another man for his ridiculous getup is the height of absurdity.”

Previously:

Lord Harley of Counsel Vs Welsh Crown Court judge — full transcript emerges [Legal Cheek]