David Lowry was born in Liverpool, the son of a shop steward, but opted to study at Queen's University, Belfast, where he was a student from 1966 until 1969, at the height of the civil rights movement. He graduated from there with a degree in law.
Among those who knew him at that time, when he was involved in the civil rights movement, was one of its most prominent leaders, Michael Farrell, now a Dublinbased solicitor specialising in human rights cases. He is deeply concerned about Prof Lowry's case.
After graduating from Queen's, Prof Lowry undertook postgraduate studies at New York University Law School, and Columbia University, Nova Scotia, Canada. From 1975 to 1977 he was a lecturer in law at the University of Warwick, but he returned to the US to further positions as an academic lawyer, including professor of law at Toledo University and Dean of St Thomas Law School in Miami, Florida.
Prof Lowry also wrote widely on legal matters, especially those relating to human rights, and was highly critical of British policy in this area in the 1970s, where he wrote on the European Convention on Human Rights and on British policy towards suspected terrorists.
He practised law both in Britain and the US, specialising in civil liberties, environmental protection and labour law.
He became a labour arbitrator and commercial arbitrator in the US and eventually moved into business, mainly in the field of communications.
It was this which led him to set up on behalf of a client the company Paramount in Lisbon, which is now at the centre of the charges against him.
One of his champions, Prof William Twining, research professor of law at University College, London, and one of the leading experts in the law of evidence, knew Prof Lowry both as a pupil and a colleague.
He has written: "From an early stage in his career Lowry adopted the more assertive and entrepreneurial style of American lawyers and businessmen.
"It is this trait or style which may have resulted in misunderstandings and a clash of cultures when he was working in Portugal."