I was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1982. Latterly I practised at 13 Old Square Chambers, Lincoln's Inn, London. 

My practice included international insurance (the back- and front-office scandals at Lloyd's of London), international inheritance, and private client. 

I wrote pioneering technical law books and articles (download some of them for free from archive.org here); appeared on UK national TV and global BBC World Service radio; organised and spoke at lawyer conferences, and advised a wide range of righteous clients. 

To claim that I was ever interested in law or its practice would not be accurate.

In December 2009,  rather early and with relief, I retired from law practice in good standing and with a clean record. My status at Middle Temple is now 'Withdrawn Membership' and my category there is 'Non-Practising Barrister' (Middle Temple's Head of Membership's October 10, 2022 letter, 'To whomever it may concern').

In 2011 I changed my birth last name Astor to Szrabe. My father's contrivance after World War II, Astor had to go.

Some of the things I'm doing now:-

• consulting firm: I'm trying to help heirs, lawyers and law enforcement nail inheritance crime and criminals (crime of any kind is almost never a 'civil matter' and so what if it is?) Check out InheritanceCrime.com

• author-publisher: adjunctive to a big case of international inheritance crime on my desk, I'm writing some relevant technical books and discovering ways to recover stolen art, especially fenced by insiders at well-known auction houses

• global multimedia: I'm trying to get pocket-change funding for my exciting startup TheInheritanceChannel.com. Can you help? Know anyone?

• rescue services: I'm trying to help regular folks with their life problems and protect them from deadbeat lawyers. I believe this is every decent retired lawyer's duty. Check out MrRigorous.pro

• spreading joy and friendship worldwide: Ricardo Musica.

I think I started playing the piano around three. I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure I was home by four-thirty. Having a piano in the house helped. One could take it for a spin if no-one was out to stop me. In a pathologically dysfunctional, deformed household that I won't go into, there was much discouragement and disparagement, and many risks and disincentives. I persevered. As a child, if left emotionally and intellectually unmolested, I found (if I dared) that with the baby grand's lid fully up I could make a lot of noise and pretend I was a concert pianist. I did lots of that.

In that insane asylum, my thing from an early age was, of course, bluffing. I knew a lot of beginnings, like the Chycoughski first piano concerto and the Szopen first piano concerto. Since that tended to impress humans of the female persuasion more or less immediately, one rarely needed to know the whole work. 

When circumstances required, I intuitively improvised the middle and ending of pieces. I was in complete control. I became the composer. (What I had been doing, and the difference between that and the real thing, occurred to me only many years later.)

What can I say about my penchant for Mozart piano concertos? It's the harmonious interplay, the assuredly uncontentious communication, between me and friends. It's the ultimate in socialising. I can't get enough of playing piano concertos with good musicians. It's one of the very few things that make life enjoyable. I would do it twenty-four hours a day if I could. Playing all twenty-seven Mozart piano concertos is a challenge not to be passed up.

The piano has saved and comforted me in many situations. I owe it a lot. All over the world I've instinctively sought out the nearest piano. It has never let me down.

I refrain from mentioning my years on the violin…