Called to the bar in 1936, Fiennes carried out
pupillages under F. E. Farrer and J. Neville Gray, and then practised privately before joining the
Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in 1939. His work there was considered essential to the war effort, sparing him from military service during the
Second World War. From 1952 to 1958 and again from 1962 to 1966 he was responsible for drafting
Finance Bills. He was appointed
Second Parliamentary Counsel in 1956 and promoted to
First Parliamentary Counsel in 1968, serving until retirement in 1972. Appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath in 1953, Fiennes was promoted to Knight Commander in 1970; he was a
Bencher of the
Middle Temple and
took silk in 1972. Fiennes's work involved drafting several important acts, including the
Companies Act 1947, the
Representation of the People Act 1948, the
Occupiers' Liability Act 1957, the
Charities Act 1960, the
Leasehold Reform Act 1967, the
Theft Act 1968, the
Immigration Act 1971 and the
European Communities Act 1972. He spent a year away from the OPC from 1962 to 1963 to help draft
Malaya's constitution and its
Vagrants Act 1965.
The Times called Fiennes "unquestionably the ablest draftsman of this century ... his amazing memory was stored with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the law and its history ... he was in the same class as his great Victorian predecessor
Lord Thring". His ability to craft succinct legislation in plain language – like the 1957 and 1972 acts – was his strong point, although in some cases his subtle language also proved difficult to amend. Fiennes lived in
Suffolk in retirement. He died on 21 April 1996; his wife Sylvia,
née McDowall, had died in 1979, but he was survived by their three children. == Photograph ==