News - Top LALY awards for Stephen Lawrence campaigners

Doreen Lawrence OBE and solicitor Imran Khan were both honoured for their contribution to justice at the 2012 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) awards. Imran, who has acted for the Lawrence family since two days after Stephen Lawrence’s murder in 1993, was presented with the award for Outstanding Achievement. Doreen, who has campaigned tirelessly for justice since her son’s death, was presented with the LALY 10^thAnniversary Special Award. More than 400 lawyers and others guests gave the pair a standing ovation at the awards ceremony in London.

Compere John Howard described Imran Khan as “one of the most creative and dogged lawyers around … a lawyer who believes in justice in the widest sense, not just in a narrow legalistic definition of the word”. Doreen was said to be a “touchstone for lawyers and others who believe in justice”. She was praised for having shown “amazing courage and tenacity in the face of appalling personal tragedy”. Doreen became the first non-lawyer to be presented with a LALY since the awards, organised by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG), were launched in 2003.

Winners this year included:

Leslie Thomas, a member of Garden Court Chambers, won the Legal Aid Barrister of the Year award. Leslie was commended for his empathy and desire to work for the less fortunate in society, in particular representing bereaved families at inquests. He told the audience he had started out as a commercial lawyer, which he totally hated, and had “fallen into doing inquests”. He was instructed on behalf of the family of Mark Duggan, the man whose death sparked the Tottenham riots, at his inquest. He is also instructed in the 2012 inquest into the death of Sean Rigg, a man with a serious mental illness who died in police custody in 2008.

Raj Chada, a partner and Head of the Protest Law team at City law firm Hodge Jones & Allen, who received the award for Criminal Defence. In 2011 Raj acted for “Jonnie Marbles” – the man who attacked Rupert Murdoch with a shaving foam pie during a Parliamentary hearing – and won acquittals for 145 protesters who staged a sit-in at Fortnum & Mason during the TUC demonstration. He also represented 17 of those arrested in the anti-cuts protest in London.

Shu Shin Luh, a member of Garden Court Chambers, received the Young Legal Aid Barrister award.  Shu Shin’s practice covers the full range of Social Welfare Law and her main client group is vulnerable children and young adults, particularly those with complex needs, mental health difficulties or disabilities and the homeless.She is ranked as “up and coming” in Chambers and Partners 2012, which says that she has been involved in “some quite significant cases at an early stage in her career".

Other winners were: Legal Aid Firm/Not-for-Profit Turpin & Miller, Family Legal Aid Lawyer Rachel Horman (Watson Ramsbottom), Mental Health Mike Bishop (David Gray), Social & Welfare Rosaleen Kilbane (Community Law Partnership), Immigration Liz Barratt (Bindmans), and Young Legal Aid Solicitor Jed Pennington (Bhatt Murphy).