Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

Who was he? Writer, performer, social reformer and activist – one of the most famous and vivid public figures of Victorian Britain Farrer & Co’s involvement: While Dickens commanded the stage and the page, his solicitors handled the contracts, disputes, confidences and consequences that followed celebrity in Victorian Britain.

Background

Charles Dickens first instructed the firm (then Farrer & Ouvry) in the 1850s to advise on the purchase of his Kent home, Gads Hill Place, near Rochester. It marked the beginning of a long and close professional relationship with Frederic Ouvry, one of the firm’s most distinguished partners and the “Ouvry” in Farrer & Ouvry.

Ouvry advised Dickens on every aspect of his business and personal affairs – from publishing and touring contracts to property purchases, defamation and copyright protection. He also handled sensitive family matters, including the 1858 deed of separation between Dickens and his wife Catherine, which caused a public scandal at the time. Ouvry later managed Dickens’s probate after his death in 1870.

Dickens was a towering cultural figure – a novelist, performer and social reformer whose public readings drew audiences of thousands. He shared professional and philanthropic connections with other Farrer & Co clients, including Angela Burdett-Coutts, with whom he founded Urania Cottage, a pioneering refuge for women seeking to rebuild their lives.

He was also deeply familiar with the area around Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he lived and worked. In Bleak House (1853) – his great legal novel and social critique – Dickens described the home of a sinister lawyer, Mr Tulkinghorn, who “lives here. He is fashionable, wealthy, and not too scrupulous.” Tulkinghorn is eventually murdered in his chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

“The crow flies straight across Chancery Lane and Lincoln's Inn Gardens, into Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here, in a large house, formerly a house of state, lives Mr Tulkinghorn. It is let off in sets of chambers now; and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness, lawyers lie like maggots in nuts.”

Passage from Bleak House

Dickens was not yet a client when Bleak House was written, and the fictional address is thought to describe 57–58 Garden Court, just along from our own offices at 55 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Our work

Publishing, copyright and reputation

In 1866 the firm acted for Dickens in proceedings before the Supreme Court of New Zealand after local publishers pirated his new novel Our Mutual Friend. The debt books record coordination between London and New Zealand lawyers – an early example of international copyright enforcement. Dickens also sought advice over libel claims arising from his periodical All the Year Round, where the firm negotiated apologies and settlements.

Personal counsel

Ouvry advised Dickens not only as a lawyer but as a deeply trusted confidant, managing Dickens’s property transactions, probate, family arrangements and, at times, personal secrets. He is believed to have discreetly managed Dickens’s private relationship with actress Ellen Ternan, his mistress in later life – a reminder that even in the nineteenth century, solicitors were entrusted with deeply confidential matters.

A letter from Dickens

On 6 January 1869, Dickens wrote to Ouvry before leaving for Ireland, saying he had “murdered the girl from Oliver Twist last night in a highly successful and bloodthirsty manner.” The “murder” referred not to writing the novel, which was completed in 1838, but to one of his dramatic public readings – energetic, theatrical performances to paying audiences of thousands. The relish with which he shared this with Ouvry captures both their friendship and the vitality that made Dickens a phenomenon.

Ouvry himself became a major figure in his profession – later President of the Law Society and President of the Society of Antiquaries – and was affectionately fictionalised by Dickens as “Mr Undery” in a short ghost story.

Why it matters

The relationship between Dickens and Ouvry is one of the earliest examples of the way creative figures are advised today - with cohesive advice across intellectual property, reputation and personal life.

The advice the firm provided was grounded in judgement, trust, discretion and friendship – principles that remain at the heart of the firm’s client relationships.

Dickens’ London, and the firm’s long-standing home in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, remain intertwined in London’s literary and legal history.

Farrer & Co, 66 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LH, United Kingdom

Farrer & Co LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (ID 447822)