Rex Makin: Liverpool lawyer who played a key role in the city's post-war history

‘Criminal’s friend’ and solicitor to local stars, he also acted for the families of Hillsborough victims

Makin (centre) talks to the press outside the home of Beatles manager Brian Epstein following his death in 1967. Makin earned his living, he said, by the sweat of his tongue (Getty)

When Brian Epstein went to his family’s solicitor and next-door neighbour Rex Makin and asked him to draw up an unbreakable contract for the pop group he had decided to manage, Makin sniffily informed him there was no such thing. He told Epstein to buy a standard contract from a legal stationer’s and he’d have a look over it.

He wanted nothing to do with “this nonsense from Brian”, but he did have dealings with The Beatles. “At Paul McCartney’s 21st birthday party, John Lennon punched the Cavern DJ Bob Wooler and broke his nose,” Makin recalled.

“He came to me to sue Lennon, but I settled the matter in a way which would today be held improper, for £200-odd plus costs.”

But if Makin missed out on The Beatles – though he claimed credit for inventing the term “Beatlemania” – he played a full role in the postwar life of Liverpool.

He acted for five of the 26 Liverpool fans charged with manslaughter after the Heysel Stadium tragedy, and for several families of Hillsborough victims, as well as for James Bulger’s father Ralph, the parents of the Walton sextuplets born in 1983, and for local figures such as Bill Shankly, Ken Dodd and Carla Lane.

In the mid-1980s he acted for employees of Liverpool Council who said they had been victimised by members of Derek Hatton’s Militant Tendency, and in the early 1990s he represented Alison Halford, the high-ranking police officer who sued Merseyside police for sex discrimination.

Makin is survived by his son Robin, daughter Susan and wife Shirley (PA) (PA Archive/PA Images)

But his legal reputation was based on his criminal work, and he developed a reputation – certainly among the police – as the criminals’ friend. He denied that, but possessed what he called “a radical streak that makes me vibrate for the underdog”. He earned his living, he said, “by the sweat of my tongue”.

He was born across the Mersey in Birkenhead in 1925, and studied law at Liverpool University, where he edited both the official magazine and the rag mag. He returned to journalism in later years in a sharp-tongued weekly column for the Liverpool Echo.

It was entertaining and scurrilous: the legal team were surprised at how much they had to strike out. In his first column, he denied that he carried out feuds, but said: “I respond if I’m attacked.” He admitted: “I am irrational. I do lose my temper but it is a very quick thing. But I do seem to be a lightning conductor for trouble. I have a sense of mischief. I like to think of myself as a latter-day Puck.”

While his son Robin followed him into the family firm – and acted for Ian Brady – his daughter Susan became an art therapist in Canada. He is also survived by his wife Shirley, a former teacher and a local historian.

In later years he suffered from arthritis. “I think of that old song by Harry Lauder,” he said. “Keep right on to the end of the road.”

Ethan Rex Makin, lawyer, born 20 August 1925, died 26 June 2017