Richard Rampton

Who is Richard Rampton?

Richard Rampton QC is a leading British libel lawyer. He has been involved in several high-profile cases, with his defence of Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books against David Irving among the most famous. In Irving v. Penguin Books and Lipstadt, he represented them against false accusations of libel after Lipstadt pointed out that Irving was a Holocaust-denier. He also represented McDonald's in the McLibel case, where the company controversially sued two members of the "London Greenpeace" environmental campaigning group.

Rampton's earlier cases include Andrew Neil vs Peregrine Worsthorne, Lord Aldington vs Count Nikolai Tolstoy and Gillian Taylforth vs News of the World. He also successfully represented George Galloway MP against the Daily Telegraph over claims he took £375,000 from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime. He represented Associated Newspapers Group plc in Lucas-Box v News Group Newspapers Ltd; Lucas-Box v Associated Newspapers Group plc and others. This case produced the "Lucas-Box meaning" whereby under modern libel practice a defendant must set out in his/her statement of case the defamatory meaning he/she seeks to prove to be essentially or substantially true.