Maugham was the fourth of six sons born in his family. Their father, Robert Ormond Maugham, was a lawyer and handled the legal affairs of the British Embassy in Paris. Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, diplomatically considered British soil. His grandfather, another Robert, was a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. Maugham refers to this grandfather's writings in chapter 6 of his literary memoir "The Summing Up":