Lawrence was called to the Bar in 1906, and later joined the chambers of Robert Finlay. The chambers specialised in taking appellate cases to the highest courts—the House of Lords for domestic cases, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for appeals from the Dominions and Colonies. Finlay came to rely on Lawrence, although for cases from Canada, Lawrence acted as lead counsel with Finlay as junior. On 26 September 1914, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Field ArtilleryTerritorial Force. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant on 20 November 1914. He served in France with the Royal Artillery, was mentioned in dispatches twice and as a major, was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order in 1918. After the end of the war he continued in membership of the Territorial Army until 1937. On returning to the Bar Lawrence continued to take cases to the Privy Council. An interest in horses, inherited from his father, led to his appointment as Attorney for the Jockey Club from 1922. Soon after he was appointed as Recorder of Oxford, a part-time judicial job. In 1927 Lawrence was made a King's Counsel and appointed Attorney General to the Prince of Wales. With this appointment came membership of the Council of the Duchy of Cornwall. Lawrence served in this capacity until, in 1932, he was appointed as a judge of the King's Bench Division, receiving the customary knighthood. As a judge, Lawrence tended to keep out of the limelight by neither issuing sensational judgments nor drawing attention to himself personally. When Lord Goddard was chosen as a Law Lord, Lawrence succeeded him as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1944. He was chosen as an experienced judge to be the lead to Norman Birkett in the British delegation to the Judicial group in the Nuremberg trials, though not arising out of his friendship with Attlee who was by then Prime Minister. He was then elected as President of all the Judges, more through the lack of enemies than any other factor. His conduct of the trials was praised by many of those involved who appreciated his striving to understand the relevance of each piece of evidence, and willingness to stop long-winded counsel. Lawrence was not considered an exceptional legal talent but won acclaim for delivering a very clear judgment that expressed the moral sense of the Court's conclusions. After the conclusion of the trials, Lawrence was raised to the peerage as Baron Oaksey on 13 January 1947. As a senior legal figure in the House of Lords, he served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1947 and on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council until he retired in 1957.
Personal life
Lawrence married Marjorie Robinson in 1921. She served in the ATS in World War II, gaining the OBE, and became a magistrate after the war. They had a country estate at Oaksey in Wiltshire where Lawrence bred championship Guernsey cattle. They had three daughters and a son. Their son John was a well known amateur jockey and horse racing journalist; he too only used the title Lord Oaksey.
