Michael Lawrence Saunders, CB, QC (13 April 1944 – 17 December 1996) was a British lawyer and public servant.
[1][2] The experience at the Hague Conference gave Saunders a detailed working knowledge of European Union law, which was valued by the ministers he advised.
He returned to the Law Officers' Department four years later and served as its Legal Adviser between 1986 and 1989, when he became Solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs.
The entanglement of [Howard] with the judiciary – especially over the legislation on compensation for victims of crimes of violence – was the product of a minister (himself a QC) not listening to his legal adviser".
[2] Saunders died on 17 December 1996, after a heart attack, the year after his promotion to Treasury Solicitor; his obituary in The Times recorded an "outstanding career" as a legal adviser to ministers.