Mr. Mortimer was a barrister, author, playwright and the creator of Horace Rumpole, the cunning defender of the British criminal classes. By Helen T. Verongos John Mortimer, who died on Friday at 85, ...

WASHINGTON — John Mortimer, a British lawyer and writer who created the character Horace Rumpole, a disheveled barrister memorably featured in the popular television series “Rumpole of the Bailey,” ...

British lawyer and writer John Mortimer, creator of the curmudgeonly criminal lawyer Rumpole of the Bailey, died Friday near London. He was 85. Mortimer combined a career as a lawyer with a large ...

At their theatrical best, lawyers are star actors who write their own lines, improvise to meet the occasion and use the courtroom as a stage to declaim on matters of life and death. Sir John Mortimer, ...