He was welcoming a varied congregation at a memorial service to honour George Carman, the libel barrister described in St Clement Danes church as "the most celebrated jury advocate of his time and probably of the second half of the 20th century".
Carman died last month aged 71, from prostate cancer. The turnout for him included the lord chancellor, Derry Irvine, 34 QCs, scores of other barristers, a dozen judges and Cherie Blair.
There too was a cast of non-lawyers ranging from Mohamed Al Fayed, the editors of the Sun, Private Eye and the Guardian to Sir Richard Branson, the comedian Ken Dodd and others whose bacon, causes or investigations George Carman saved in court, sometimes against the apparent odds.
They were the colleagues and ex-clients of "Gorgeous George", the supreme courtroom star who - as his friend and fellow-lawyer Lord Alexander of Weedon said in tribute - learned his courtroom tricks at the end of Blackpool pier as well as from the orators of history.
Mr Forsyth said: "There was nothing mean or base to the man. He was a master of his art. To his clients he was a staunch and tireless defender. To his opponents he was a formidable adversary but always scrupulously fair."
Lord Alexander said Carman, who was first a great defence lawyer in criminal cases, worked as a restaurant washer-up in his struggling years as a young barrister on the northern circuit. "It was on circuit that he learned to adapt his performances to different tribunals - above all to shrewd northern juries. He developed a psychological, almost instinctive affinity for what jurors were thinking.
"Some said he appealed to jurors with a conspiratorial nod and a wink. He acknowledged he had learned some of his tricks from the comedians at the end of Blackpool pier."
Libel cases brought into conflict the right of the individual to have a just reputation and the right of the press to comment truthfully, Lord Alexander said.
"The law is there to protect the individual from the juggernaut of the state. Great advocates have long been seen as vital in enlarging the public's understanding of this."
And Carman had broadened that understanding through "his simplicity of speech and ability to stir the blood".
