INTERVIEW: ‘It is time for barristers to make a stand and strike,’ said the human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC last week. The self-described radical lawyer made his call as defence lawyers and the government moved inexorably towards industrial action – and (as another leading QC tweeted) the profession’s leaders ‘bottled it’. This interview first appeared on www.thejusticuegap.com
INTERVIEW: ‘We’re not some truckers who wanted to get into the law,’ Chaman Salhan, a partner at a Birmingham-based criminal defence firm about a new service to give the public easy online access to barristers’ opinions. The founder of 2ndOpinionNow told LegalFutures their lawyers had ‘been involved in the law for a long time, and
INTERVIEW: Edwin Rekosh founded PILnet, the global network for public interest law as a small initiative to support the work of human rights groups in Central and Eastern Europe. More than 15 years later, PILnet continues with this work, but on a global scale. One of PILnet’s primary objectives is the development of a global
Leading legal aid lawyer Angela Jackman has recently been recognised as one of eight inspirational women of colour who have helped to shape the UK. She talks about the impact of cuts to legal aid. .. Jackman, a partner at Maxwell Gillott, has worked as a solicitor since qualifying in 1987, specialising in education law,
INTERVIEW: Last Monday was Access to Justice Day, the Law Society’s latest legal aid campaign. Andrew Caplen, the Society’s new president, plans to put the issue at the heart of his year at the helm of Chancery Lane. ‘My major theme for the year is to try and restart the argument again,’ says Caplen. ‘This
The full version of this interview with Sadiq Khan will appear on www.thejusticegap.com ‘I’m not going to fall into the trap of saying there is a Get Out of Jail Free card if the legal aid cuts go through,’ says shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan. ‘Because I want citizens, lawyers, judges, campaigners, NGOs and politicians to
‘Organising barristers… is a bit like herding cats. Is there any chance of getting us to agree on anything?’ began a posting on the Criminal Bar Association web site at the end of last month. Well, apparently, there is. According to the ‘legal aid barrister’ (in whose name the post appears) in ‘the robing rooms
‘What we will do is tell it like it is. We will document the need, collect the evidence and then let the evidence speak for itself.’ So says Lord Colin Low who will chair a major new post-LASPO initiative launched last week. The Low Commission on the Future of Advice and Legal Support has been
INTERVIEW: Next April represents a seismic shift in the legal aid world. It’s not only the LASPO cuts but the Legal Services Commission is going to be subsumed into the Ministry of Justice. Jon Robins speaks to Hugh Barrett, director of legal aid commissioning and contract management at the LSC. ‘The timetable is as of
Professional footballers have been involved in preliminary discussions about setting up a black players’ association with the help of the Society of Black Lawyers (SBL), following a series of racism scandals in the sport, writes Elizabeth Davidson. Discussions are at an ‘early stage’ and involve ‘only a small number of players and football industry staff’,
