William was born at Whichton Lodge, near Shirleywich, in the parish of Weston-on-Trent, Staffordshire. As a boy he was employed by solicitors Christian & Co. of Liverpool, and emigrated in the Fairfield, to Adelaide arriving in April 1839. He carried letters of recommendation from solicitor William Bartley, through which he obtained employment as a clerk in the office of Mann & Gwynne, to whom he was later articled. He was admitted to the Bar in 1848 and taken into partnership with his former employer as Bartley & Bakewell, whose business as solicitors became one of the largest and best-conducted in the city. They were joined for a time by R. I. Stow, then W. D. Scott, son of the Hon. W. Scott, later to become Master of the Supreme Court. Bakewell's first foray into public activity was in opposition to State aid to religion, acting as Secretary of the Australasian National League. On 13 June 1857 Bakewell was appointed as representative of Barossa in the first House of Assembly, replacing Dr. Horace Dean who was unseated on the grounds that he was an American citizen and had assumed a false name. He was elected to the seat of East Adelaide in 1862 in company with Philip Santo, defeating Boucaut and Homersham. During his second period of Parliamentary duty he succeeded in passing an Act regulating the proceedings of Joint-Stock Companies, which became known as "Bakewell's Act". He twice visited England since his arrival in the colony, once in 1853, when he was away for between two and three years, and a second time in 1865, resigning his seat in the House of Assembly on 27 October 1864 for the purpose, his visit being in connection with the famous Moonta lawsuit, in which he was senior counsel for the Company. It was he who made the first speech before the Supreme Court on the motion for the original writ of scire facias which led to an appeal to the Privy Council. On his return to the colony the partnership of Bakewell & Scott was dissolved, and a partnership with Mr. Daly carried on the business as Hicks & Daly, and also Hanson and Hicks, which still later was carried on by Bakewell, Daly, and Price, until the "disruption", leaving to Bakewell the sole conduct of their businesses. When in 1867 Judge Wearing replaced Benjamin Boothby as third judge of the Supreme Court, Bakewell was appointed to the vacant post of Crown Solicitor. He was forced by ill health to resign the position and died some three weeks later.
Leonard William Bakewell, respected solicitor, horseman and yachtsman, married Isabella Monteith on 21 July 1881. He was partner with Sir Josiah Symon and Arthur William Piper in Symon, Bakewell & Piper from 1892 to 1898. They lived at "Shirley", then "Yerto", Fitzroy Terrace, Prospect.
