Sir Ivan John Lawrence (born 24 December 1936) is a former British Conservative Member of Parliament and criminal barrister. Early life and legal career Born in Brighton, Lawrence was the only child of parents of Russian-Romanian Jewish descent. Alma Cogan, a successful singer of traditional pop music in the post-war period, was his cousin. Lawrence was educated at the former Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School and is President of the School's Old Boys' Association. He read jurisprudence at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became president of the Oxford University Progressive Jewish Society. From 1955 to 1957, he did National Service in the RAF and served in Malta during the Suez Crisis. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1962; appointed Queen's Counsel in 1981, a Recorder of the Crown Court in 1985, a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1990; and was knighted in 1992. He has defended in over 90 murder trials, and has appeared in a number of notable criminal trials, for example the Kray twins (gang-land murders), the serial killer Dennis Nilsen, Russell Bishop (Brighton Babes in the Wood murder), the Mountnessing silver bullion robbery, the Brink's-Mat gold bullion money-laundering, and a mass-murder war crimes trial at The Hague. Most recently he has co-chaired the 38th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime at Jesus College. Political career Lawrence, having twice unsuccessfully stood for the Peckham constituency in 1966 and 1970, was elected MP for Burton in February 1974. He held the seat until May 1997 when he lost to Labour's Janet Dean. He was a member of the Conservative Monday Club in 1973 when in the autumn of that year he had contributed an article to Monday News on the subject of "The Problem of State Subsidised Strikers". He is listed as a Club MP in May 1975, in a Club office list as one of their MP members in July 1976, and in a Club members' circular as one of its members standing for re-election to Parliament for Burton in the General Election on 9 June 1983. He was still on the List of Club MPs in 1990. He has also been a member of the Conservative Bow Group for over 50 years and has contributed to many of its publications over that period. He was Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 1992 to 1997 and was Chairman of