Obituary: Michael Loup

Michael Loup, a former senior partner at London firm Boodle Hatfield and president of the Westminster Law Society, has died in Neustadt, Germany, at the age of 95. He was on the roll of solicitors for more than 60 years and a regular correspondent to the Gazette on matters of professional interest. 

Michael Loup was born in 1929, the elder son of Brigadier GD Loup MC. After a childhood spent partly in India, he spent five happy and formative years at Stowe School which he represented at cricket, rugby hockey and squash. He then carried out his national service in 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, earning a commission in 1948.

He joined Boodle Hatfield in 1949 when the firm merged with Clowes, Hickley and Steward, and was articled to Tony Hickley, a Trollope cousin. His salary on qualifying was £500 a year. He stayed with the firm until 1995, rising to senior partner.  

He led with vision and was ahead of his time in the 1980s by promoting female partners, in part by initiating flexible home working arrangements.  

He specialised in revenue law and financial planning, representing a broad range of clients from the music and entertainment industry to family estates including the Grosvenor and Longford Estates, where he was also a trustee. He extended his reach through membership of influential committees and associations such as the Chancellor of Exchequer’s Advisory Committee on Taxation, while being President of the Law Society Revenue Law Committee.  

He served as president of the City of Westminster Law Society and as a member of the council of the Law Society of England and Wales. His passions in life were Stowe School, cricket and his family. In cricket he played for the Free Foresters, IZ and the MCC. He became an MCC selector and later a senior committee member of the MCC, remaining a very active member until his death. 

His connection with Stowe continued as a governor, chairman of the Old Stoic Society and a trustee of some of their foundations. 

He had a quiet determination in his professional life coupled with a sense of duty and fair play. He never rushed to judgement on people, or on situations, and always took time to actively listen. His opinions, when they arrived, were always worth listening to, at any age.

In 2015 he received his certificate of congratulations for 60 years on the roll. A stroke in 1990 may have slowed him a little physically, but it never dulled a very sharp mind. Long after retirement he continued to correspond with newspapers - including the Gazette - and organisations on subjects close to his heart or where he felt his wisdom could have some benefit.

His letters to the Gazette succinctly set out his opposition to Tony Blair's attempt to abolish the office of lord chancellor - and to the use of the word 'industry' in connection with the legal profession.   

He was a man of his generation and upbringing. Teenage years during the Second World War gave him and his generation a perspective on what mattered in life that subsequent ones cannot understand. For his era, one did not dwell on events, even sad ones. You had to persevere, to be pragmatic, to be in service to others; to endure whatever life sent your way. He knew fate is not sentimental. 

He is survived by his brother Major Peter Loup 5th RTR, his four sons, Richard, Nick, Mathew and Oliver and his grandchildren Dan, Murray, Naomi, Sam and Alice.

Michael Loup, 19 May 1929 - 1 August 2024