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Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards 2014
The 2014 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) ceremony was the biggest yet. It saw the introduction of new award categories, and warm praise for newcomers to the profession. The event is into its 12th year, and is organised by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group to celebrate the work of access to justice lawyers.
‘Reading about young legal aid lawyers is as cheering as it is humbling …’
The awards ceremony opened with the Justice Alliance’s new film, featuring Stephen Fry, Jo Brand and Tamsin Greig, speaking out in support of legal aid. However, it was the stories of the clients in the film – Anita, whose rape the police failed to investigate; Patrick, whose entire family were victims of a miscarriage of justice; and Gyanendra, a former Gurkha denied the right to settle in the UK – which really brought home the importance of celebrating the lawyers who still fight to ensure access to justice and the rule of law.
A recurring theme of the night was the calibre and commitment of young legal aid lawyers, despite all the disincentives to a career in the publicly funded sector. Compère Anna Jones, from Sky News, said reading the achievements of the four newcomer finalists – Camilla Graham Wood, from Birnberg Peirce; Clair Hilder, from Hodge Jones & Allen; Lucy Mair, from Garden Court North; and Martha Spurrier, from Doughty Street – was ‘as cheering as it is humbling’. Lord Justice Andrew McFarlane, who chaired the judging panel, said picking a winner in this category had been particularly difficult, because: ‘The strength of the newcomers and what was said about them was astonishing.’ Elkan Abrahamson, winner of the outstanding achievement award, also ‘saluted the young people coming into legal aid – even though you must be slightly mad’.
It was fitting, therefore, that the first award of the evening went to legal aid newcomer Camilla Graham Wood (see below), who had been one of the main driving forces behind production of the Justice Alliance film, which the LALY audience had just watched.
THE WINNERS
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Anna Jones, LALYs compère (left) and Lord Justice McFarlane, awards presenter and chairman of the LALY judging panel (right)
Legal aid newcomer
Camilla Graham Wood
(Birnberg Peirce)
Camilla specialises in actions against the police and challenges to unlawful detention, including for mentally ill migrants and asylum claims. She is a committee member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers, where she is particularly active in promoting social mobility, and has been a stalwart of the Justice Alliance.
Immigration/asylum lawyer
Mark Scott
(Bhatt Murphy)
Mark succeeded in achieving a landmark unlawful killing verdict at his inquest into the death of Jimmy Mubenga, who died after being restrained while being deported back to Angola. Following the verdict, in March 2014, the Director of Public Prosecutions reversed the earlier decision not to prosecute, and announced three G4S escorts will face manslaughter charges.
Inquests/actions against the state lawyer
Charlotte Haworth Hird
(Bindmans)
Charlotte brought the judicial review which led to an inquiry into the deaths of young people in custody. She was also the solicitor for the family of Connor Sparrowhawk, an 18-year-old with autism and epilepsy who drowned in his bath while being detained under the Mental Health Act, and won an independent investigation into the failings which led to Connor’s death.
Family legal aid lawyer
Maud Davis
(TV Edwards)
Maud conducts complex and difficult care cases and is praised as a superb advocate for children, both in her practice and as co-chair of the Association of Lawyers for Children. She fought tirelessly against the cuts to public funding for children and families.
Legal aid barrister
S Chelvan
(No5 Chambers)
Chelvan is known as a lawyer, academic and activist, who has been instrumental in winning greater protection for gay asylum-seekers and in the development of law in this area. He has a national and international reputation for training and lecturing on asylum law, but continues to appear before immigration judges in the First-tier Tribunal.
Social and welfare lawyer
Douglas Johnson
(Sheffield Citizens Advice and Law Centre)
A former engineer, Douglas is now a lawyer specialising in discrimination and equalities law. He is described as the epitome of what a legal aid lawyer should be: knowledgeable, tenacious, strategic and committed to obtaining justice for vulnerable people.
Family legal aid mediator
Caroline Bowden
(Anthony Gold)
Caroline has worked exclusively as a mediator for the past eight years, during which time she has conducted an estimated 1,500 mediation meetings. She is described as robust, focused and practical, as well as warm and non-judgmental.
Housing lawyer
John Gallagher
(Shelter)
John has an extraordinary and encyclopedic knowledge of housing law, developed over a 30-year career, and is an ‘institution’ in housing law. One supporter said he should not just be housing lawyer of the year, but of the decade.
Legal aid firm/not for profit agency
Ben Hoare Bell
Ben Hoare Bell is rooted in the North East, but has a national reputation for its legal expertise and the calibre of its staff. It employs around 100 people and is resolutely committed to legal aid and has been an energetic campaigner against the cuts.
Criminal defence lawyer
Mike Schwarz
(Bindmans)
Mike has had a major role to play in uncovering misconduct by undercover police officers, and has had an incredible string of results, notching up 50 quashed convictions to date. The scale of abuse he uncovered was instrumental in the government setting up an unprecedented public inquiry into the activities of undercover police.
Legal aid champion
Matt Foot
(Birnberg Peirce)
Matt is an outstanding criminal defence lawyer and has been the driving force behind the Justice Alliance. He is uniformly praised for his oratory, passion and leadership skills, and for ensuring that the campaign focused on the impact of the legal aid cuts on clients, rather than on the legal profession, enlisting the support of victims of high-profile and longstanding miscarriages of justice, such as Gerry Conlon and Patrick Maguire.
Outstanding achievement
Elkan Abrahamson
(Broudie Jackson Canter)
Elkan was honoured for a 30-year career at the legal aid coalface, culminating in the quashing of the verdict of the original discredited inquest into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Elkan, along with his late client Anne Williams, whose son was one of the 96 who died at Hillsborough, fought for 20 years for a second inquest. The LALY judges said the case was ‘testimony to that rare chemistry which can happen when a dogged lawyer comes together with a courageous and tenacious client – and both are determined justice must be done and a terrible wrong must be righted’.
See back cover of this issue for the sponsors of individual LALY awards. Photographs: Robert Aberman