William Howard Goodhart, Baron Goodhart, (18 January 1933 – 10 January 2017) was a British Liberal Democrat politician, a leading property and human rights lawyer, and a member of the House of Lords.
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Background and early life and career
William Goodhart was the son of Arthur Lehman Goodhart and
Cecily Carter, and the brother of Charles Goodhart and Sir Philip Goodhart.
He was educated at Eton College, undertook national service from 1951 to 1953, and graduated with a law degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1956, before winning a Harkness Fellowship to study law at Harvard University.
He was admitted to the bar in 1960 and made a Queen's Counsel in 1979. As a barrister he developed a specialist Chancery practice and appeared in a number of notable cases, including in particular (in the House of Lords) Street v Mountford. He also co-wrote (with Gareth Jones) a textbook on the subject of specific performance.