The actress Suzanne Flon was a slender frail-looking figure but she had a determination to succeed that kept her always in work right up

The actress Suzanne Flon was a slender, frail-looking figure, but she had a determination to succeed that kept her always in work right up to her death at the age of 87, when she was preparing for her leading role in a revival of Marguerite Duras’s Savannah Bay. Flon’s beautifully modulated voice did not always seem in keeping with her physique, for it was capable of surprisingly deep intonations, that could take the listener by surprise after a stretch of bird-like chatter. If counsel appeared to ask for a case to be heard expeditiously, he was apt to respond: “I’m free this afternoon, what about you?” The National Industrial Relations Court was convened for an emergency hearing on a Saturday evening. Asked to reduce scandalous delays in the Queen’s Bench Divisional Court, Donaldson cleared the list within a few months.

His judicial colleagues sat with him for a week or two at a time, unable to stand the pace for any longer.On becoming Master of the Rolls on the retirement of Lord Denning, he introduced much-overdue reforms in the administration of the Court of Appeal: unlike many judges, he enjoyed administration, and was restless in his search for administrative efficiency. It was he who introduced the handing down of reserved judgments, which up to then had been read aloud, at a high cost in time and tedium. It was typical of him that he furnished the Master of the Rolls’ room with modern furniture, and even in the days when almost everyone in the Temple wore a bowler hat, he never did.To those who picture all judges as slow, fuddy-duddy and set in their ways, one can only say: you should have seen John Donaldson.. It was largely due to his energy and appetite for business that the Commercial Court flourished and expanded as never before.

He felt that this set the pace for the proceedings which followed.And in his court the pace was never leisurely. He liked argument to be short and to the point, and he had little stomach for over-refinement or verbosity. He had a quick and original, sometimes rather quirky, mind, which he would, on occasion, change with unnerving rapidity. It was unwise, sitting with him, to undo one’s seat-belt.But his brisk, modern, no-flannel approach was immensely valuable. In the fortnight before his sudden death, he had letters published in The Times and the Law Society’s Gazette on the latest anti-terror proposals.Neil RoseWhen presiding as a judge, John Donaldson always made a point of walking into court very briskly, writes Tom Bingham.

He chaired the Financial Law Panel for the decade of its existence and was highly critical when its work ended in 2002 due to funding cuts from the Bank of England. Donaldson took a close interest in the Labour government’s constitutional reforms – submitting lengthy personal responses to consultations – and made regular contributions in the House of Lords. His recommendations as chairman of the inquiry set up after the tanker Braer ran aground off the Shetland Isles in 1993 were widely praised. Donaldson conducted a further review into the powers of state intervention and the command and control of salvage response following the Sea Empress disaster in 1996.He held a variety of other posts, from quasi- judicial, such as on the appeals panel of the London Metal Exchange, to law reform.

While not the most profound legal thinker, his judgments displayed an ability to seek out the less obvious solutions.He had a long-standing interest in maritime law – he was a keen yachtsman in his spare time – and his most striking contributions after he retired were in this field. There were some, however, who thought he cut legal argument too short and jumped to conclusions, due perhaps to an over-zealous desire for efficiency. “[His mind] might have looked like the North Face of the Eiger,” said the Attorney-General Sir Nicholas Lyell QC when the judge retired, “but a good argument soon found some friendly footholds and a hoist to the summit”. Although he said he agreed, at least in principle, with judges hanging up their wigs at 70, his retirement was driven more by the realisation that he had been on the bench longer than any other higher court judge at the time.