With the war over, in 1919 he entered the
civil service without competition and was appointed a junior solicitor to the
Ministry of Labour. He succeeded
Clive Lawrence as the Ministry's solicitor in 1923 and two years later joined the
Office of the Parliamentary Counsel as Third Parliamentary Counsel; he was promoted to Second Parliamentary Counsel in 1929 but was overlooked when Sir
Maurice Gwyer was appointed from outside the office as
First Parliamentary Counsel in 1933. Ram was, however, promoted when Gwyer resigned in 1937 and served as First Parliamentary Counsel until his own retirement in 1947. Ram's work in the OPC encompassed a range of important acts. He was responsible for drafting the
Trade Disputes Act 1927; under Gwyer, he was allowed to draft a number of acts alone, including the
Unemployment Act 1934 and the
Public Order Act 1936; he worked with his superior on the
Abdication Act 1936, which allowed
Edward VIII to
abdicate. As First Parliamentary Counsel, he drafted wartime legislation, most notably the
Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940, and the landmark
Education Act 1944; for the first two years of the
Attlee government, Ram was responsible for overseeing its sweeping reforms turned into legislation. His 1945 memorandum on the eponymous
Ram doctrine has become a famous explanation of the
UK government's common law powers. He was also keen to reform and consolidate
statute law and, on retirement from the OPC in 1947, he served until his death as Chairman of the
Statute Law Committee and was responsible for 29
consolidation acts after the committee was given new powers to recommend minor amendments. According to
Jason Tomes writing in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Ram was "perhaps less scholarly and certainly more rumbustious than the typical parliamentary counsel"; he ran the OPC like his own
chambers, and was defensive of his staff to outside criticism, but could be highly critical himself, if also keen to help their careers. The "dominant figure" in the OPC for many years, he was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath in 1931 and promoted to Knight Commander seven years later. Outside of the OPC, Ram was a
magistrate for
Hertfordshire from 1923, and was Chairman of the county's
Quarter Sessions from 1946 until his death. He was appointed a
King's Counsel in 1943 and served as a
Church Commissioner after 1948. He died on 23 December 1952, leaving a widow (Elizabeth, daughter of
E. A. Mitchell-Innes,
CBE) and five children. == References ==