Walter Leechman

🐌 How I First Heard of Him

I didn’t meet Walter Leechman in person — snails rarely get invited to legal consultations — but I heard whispers. A solicitor from Glasgow. Sharp as a tack. Fond of justice. Fond of winning. Fond of the occasional bold legal experiment.

And May Donoghue needed exactly that.

⚖️ May Needed a Lawyer — and Fast

After the ginger beer incident (my unexpected bath), May was shaken, ill, and determined not to let the matter slide. But suing a manufacturer was no small task, especially for a woman with only five pounds to her name.

Enter Walter Leechman:

•      clever

•      confident

•      recently defeated in two similar cases

•      absolutely itching for redemption

He took May’s case on a no win, no fee basis — a brave move, considering the law at the time was about as welcoming to consumers as a hedgehog is to a snail.

📚 Leechman’s Crash Course in Torts

Walter sat May down and explained the great family of torts:

•      Trespass — direct interference

•      Nuisance — indirect interference

•      Defamation — harm to reputation

•      Negligence — the big one, the star of the show, the tort with the most dramatic potential

Negligence, he said, had four parts:

1.     Duty of care

2.     Breach

3.     Causation

4.     Damage

Simple enough on paper.

Trickier when the law hadn’t yet decided whether manufacturers owed anything to people who didn’t buy directly from them.

🧩 The Problem: Privity of Contract

Yes, the law said May couldn’t sue Stevenson directly because she hadn’t bought the ginger beer — her friend had.

A tiny legal loophole.

A massive obstacle.

A perfect challenge for a solicitor with something to prove.

💡 Leechman’s Big Idea

Walter proposed something bold:

A manufacturer should owe a duty of care to the ultimate consumer — even without a contract — if harm is foreseeable.

Revolutionary.

Audacious.

A little bit wild.

And absolutely correct.

He and May knew the case could change everything.

They also knew they were up against entrenched doctrine, sceptical judges, and a legal system not known for its flexibility.

But they pressed on — to Edinburgh, to the Court of Session, and eventually to the House of Lords.

And all because of one small snail who took a wrong turn in a factory.

🐚 Continue the Journey

→ Follow the case to Edinburgh

→ Explore the birth of the duty of care

→ Download classroom resources