The Annual Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards was held in the UK recently. In its eighth year, the LALYs, as they have become known, is held by the Legal Aid Practitioners‟ Group to recognize the achievements of legal aid lawyers working to provide civil and criminal legal aid. The event was attended by the new attorney general, Dominic Grieve QC, a former legal aid lawyer and the DPP Keir Starmer QC.
Michael Mansfield QC was awarded the outstanding achievement prize. He was praised for "never shying away from controversial causes or apparently unwinnable cases." "Whatever the case and whoever the client, he has brought the same degree of fearlessness and energy to his advocacy", the judging panel said, which included Cherie Booth QC and Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence who was murdered in a racist incident in 1993. Mansfield has been involved in cases such as the Orgreave miners, Guildford Four and Birmingham Six appeals, the Marchioness disaster, the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, the Stockwell shooting.
For information on the other winners at this year‟s "law Oscars", please see: http://www.lapg.co.uk/legalaidlawyer.cfm.