Up Front: Anthony Julius

A visiting professor at London University, he has written books on T. S. Eliot, on modern art and, most recently, on anti-Semitism in England (which Harold Bloom, last week in the Book Review, described as “a strong, somber book on an appalling subject”).

The clever actor and writer Stephen Fry has called Julius “the cleverest man I’ve ever met.” But Julius is more than a professor, critic and historian. He is a lawyer too, and has defended the scholar Deborah Lipstadt in a much-­publicized case brought by the Holocaust-denier David Irving and represented Heather Mills in her divorce from Paul McCartney.

Unquestionably, his most famous client was Diana, Princess of Wales, for whom he negotiated a divorce settlement. After her death, Julius helped found the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and served as its first chairman.

Asked to assess his reputation in England, Julius responded in an e-mail message: “It’s hard to say. Perhaps the combination of lawyer and writer makes me rather odd.”

View the full article on The New York Times website.