Stephen was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, on 27.12.1955 to Joy and Wilfred Denyer, younger brother to Richard and Sandra. He grew up in Winchmore Hill, a small village in the Chilterns. He went to Coleshill Primary School and attended Holmer Green Secondary Modern School from 1967-1971.
As a teenager he often spent time with his sister and her husband Henry helping them with serious renovations at their newly bought home in High Wycombe.
In 1971 Stephen and his parents moved to Corton Denham near Sherborne in Dorset. Here he went to Fosters Grammar School for the 6th form where he particularly enjoyed history, politics and geography. His school experience was marred by the fact that he was extremely dyslexic, a condition then neither fully recognised nor supported. He overcame this disadvantage by studying with great persistence, encouraged in particular by his mother to whom he dictated most of his home and coursework, a skill that stood him on good stead when he started work.
His efforts were rewarded by an offer to study law at Durham University.
During his studies at Durham from 1974 to 1977 he enjoyed living in the castle student rooms and fell in love with Durham Cathedral. He graduated with a 2:1 and, much to the surprise of his career advisor, secured a traineeship - “ articled clerk “ in those days - despite having a large and prominent beard! After completing Part II Law Society qualifying exam at Law School in Chester he moved to Hackney and started work at Allen & Overy, at their office which was then at 9 Cheapside in the old Bank of England offices right opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. He qualified in 1980 and became a partner in 1987.
During his early years one of the most exciting assignments was work as the most junior lawyer on the sale of The Times in 1981 to Rupert Murdoch where he was also present at the press conference when the deal was announced.
In 1981 he met Monika who had come from Germany to London as an au-pair. They spent time together exploring arts and culture in London and the countryside around the city. After the au-pair year Monika returned to Germany to study in Trier, but was persuaded by Stephen and the English University system to return to England after just one year and to recommence her studies in London. Monika moved into Stephen’s flat in Hackney and they soon moved to a terraced house by London Fields. In Hackney they were active in the local residents’ association, environmental groups and supported various other local initiatives, including the Save Sutton House Campaign.
Following a unique summer holiday travelling through East Germany and to Gdańsk in 1989, visiting some of Monika’s family they witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall from the UK only a few months later in November that year. This momentous event also turned out to be a pivotal moment in Stephen’s career. He started his involvement with the development of the legal sector in post-communist Eastern Europe in Poland in 1990, becoming Partner in charge of the Central and Eastern European practice for Allen & Overy, with overall responsibility for their offices in Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and Moscow. He played a key role in the creation and development of the British Centre for English Legal Studies, based at Warsaw University it is active at most major universities in Central and Eastern universities and provides students with a flavour of what it is like to study at a leading English university, whilst avoiding the need to relocate and pay fees at an English level. It also provides a flavour of life in a law office whilst enabling students to develop skills set in a safe, academic environment. He was secretary from 1993-1996 , later becoming a trustee and a member of the advisory council.
Stephen and Monika married in 1988 in Hackney Town Hall. By 1990 Stephen and Monika had moved to Shere in Surrey and started a family with their first child, Martin, arriving in January 1991. Helen followed in October 1992 and Tim in May 1994. During this time Stephen commuted to London and started travelling extensively for work. This became more extreme when he started a weekly commute to Warsaw in 1995 to become Managing Partner there (expanding to Regional Managing Partner for Europe in 1997) at the same time as Monika started working full time again in Surrey. The main family time took place on holidays with many trips to Europe and regular stays in National Trust cottages in Cornwall and particularly Studland in Dorset which became a yearly destination.
This stressful family and work life took an unexpected and surprising turn for the better when Stephen was offered the opportunity to move to Frankfurt to become Managing Partner and help with establishing A&O‘s very young office there and take advantage of the gradual opening of the German legal market. After a 4 week break where the family travelled across the US, including a camper van tour of the national parks on the West coast, the family moved to Bad Homburg on the slopes of the Taunus hills in August 1998. Commuting to the office was a breeze compared to the London-Surrey commute and family life became more relaxed and regular. The children attended local nursery and primary school, and later also secondary school, and soon established a network of local friends.
Right at the beginning of the new Millennium the family welcomed another member - Frank should have been born in Germany but made a surprise appearance in Cambridge just a few days after the New Year‘s celebrations at Stephen’s sister’s home. Now we were a family of six.
While Stephen - due to his extreme dyslexia - never really learned much of the language - the family became soon embedded in local friendship groups, with regular ski trips with a group of families (where he kept to walks in the snow and towing toboggans), autumn holidays on the Baltic coast and walking holidays in the mountains. Stephen very much enjoyed German life and the freedom to travel across Europe by car, plane and train. Frankfurt was a very convenient logistical centre for all his professional activities. What was supposed to be a 3 year stint turned into a 9 year (12 years for Monika and the children) stay in Germany - a profound and fundamental impact on the family and his career.
In his legal career he was particularly interested to support the sector’s pro bono activities and diversity initiatives. He created and led A&O’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Board, which for the first time brought together and co-ordinate A&O‘s involvement in corporate social responsibility and pro bono activities in different jurisdictions. Stephen was instrumental in setting up PILnet, a global non-governmental organisation with high quality legal services to protect vulnerable people and communities around the world.
In 2006 when the youngest child was six, the family started travelling further afield. Instead of taking a sabbatical in one go, Stephen and Monika decided to stretch this over three years taking all of the children’s 6 week summer holidays off. The first of these holidays was a safari in Kenya which kindled a lifelong love of Africa with all family members. Many more African holidays, safaris and other adventure trips in many different countries were to follow culminating in a three and half week self drive camping safari through Namibia in 2018 with all the family. Stephen and Monika also travelled to many other countries mostly with some or all of the children. Often these involved activities that took Stephen right out of his comfort zone, but he was always willing to participate and give things a go, enduring hardships with stoicism and good humour.
In 2004 another important element was introduced to family life, much against Stephen’s better judgement the family acquired a Golden Retriever puppy. It could have been a disaster but after the first year Stephen proclaimed “this is the best thing we have ever done !” and while he was not much involved with training the dog, he became a very keen and regular walking companion, first in Germany and then in and around Shere.
In 2014 Stephen’s 36 year long and successful career with A&O came to an end, but stopping work was not an option for Stephen. After careful thought and with many options open to him he chose to join the Law Society of England and Wales in Chancery Lane, London ( he had already worked for them in a summer job in 1977 in their “bad debt “ department in the Legal Aid section). In the nearly 10 years there as director of strategic relationships he used his role as networker par excellence to expand the Society’s strategic relationships with the leading stakeholders in private practice, in ‘new law’ enterprises and working in-house as well as with local law societies, governments, universities and law schools in the UK and internationally.
In parallel to his time at A&O and the Law Society he was heavily involved with Durham Law School, the International Bar Association (IBA), the American Bar Association Section of International Law and the American Bar Foundation. As co-chair of the IBA Rule of Law Forum he was an eloquent defender of the rule of law, warning of the consequences of political attacks on lawyers for doing their job.
Throughout his career Stephen has been at the forefront of the globalisation of legal services. With an extensive track record of creating bonds with lawyers and law firms from different jurisdictions and cultures, he played an instrumental role in the internationalisation of legal practice.
It was only with Covid lockdown that his extensive business travels came to an end. He surprised himself in not minding it that much and even more so in enjoying the working from home experience and managing all the associated technology. He quite quickly established a new routine which involved local dog walks, gardening and cooking (with big handfuls of herbs!), looking after the chickens and stocking our little free library at the end of the drive. Lockdown also brought 3 of the 4 children back home to work from home while Monika was spending most of Covid lockdown time in Germany. This meant the children and Stephen were able to build a new and very close relationship with many happy weeks spent living like a little commune with shared tasks and activities in our wonderful house and garden in Shere.
After Covid Stephen continued mainly working from home but also started travelling again for professional events. The family had a very happy holiday on Crete in 2022 for Monika’s 60th birthday with all children, some of them bringing partners.
From the summer of 2023 Stephen was increasingly struggling with his health, dealing with a lot of discomfort and pain and treatments that did not seem to bring any improvement. From November this got significantly worse. Despite this the family spent a happy Christmas in Shere, celebrated Stephen’s 68th birthday and Frank’s 24th. Martin’s 33rd birthday was shared over the phone from Qatar just a few days before Stephen’s sudden death on Sunday morning, 14th January.