The Lion Hearts of The Legal Profession

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Law Morals Profession Legal Access to Justice Legal Costs

In 2000, I attended a costs conference in London. At that conference, there were members of the Insurance Industry, Defendant Lawyers and Members of Judiciary lining up to talk about the evils of people making claims and how Claimant Lawyers costs needed to be reduced.

For me, it was a shocking moment because I realised that this was an organised assault on how ordinary people accessed Justice and how decent lawyers could make a living.

When I returned to the office to report my findings, I offered the sobering conclusion that we needed to recognise this new assault on rights and to prepare for a new costs regime - yes that's right; I raised the spectre of fixed costs!

My argument was simple; if we know what is coming, we should plan for it and steal the march on the competition and reveal a more outward facing understanding of reality. The reaction was not muted in any way; it was hostile with suggestions that perhaps I did not know what I was talking about.

The subsequent years recognised my worst fears and whilst I had moved on, many within the Legal profession, obsessed with the bottom line, forgot one simple fact; protecting their business model!

Many in the profession sat back and did not engage in the politics; they did not argue their corner. Some I know in the profession fought a valiant battle against strengthening forces, aided by their friends in the media, propagating the lie of the so-called 'compensation culture’.

The profession, instead of standing up for themselves and the raison-d'être for getting out of bed in the morning are now locked in a battle of survival whilst the forces of government plot their next step to curb the excesses of the legal profession.

In 2011, I attended an awards ceremony where the then much-maligned Phil Shiner (who has subsequently been convicted of criminal offences) received an Outstanding Achievement award for his work on Human Rights. The glitz and glamour of the ball-room at the Riverbank Plaza in London was surely a million miles away from the horrors of Iraq & Afghanistan but it was all the more important to recognise the Human quality brought to the practice of Law through these dreadful cases. As the award was made, I looked forward to the words of Mr Shiner, but he was drowned out by the bloated excesses of the Legal Profession in the room that night; drunkenness, shouting, laughter & alcohol dominated the proceedings and just at that moment I wondered whether the politicians were right!

Fortunately sense returned and in my work I have seen a range of cause and effect of the change of government policy to access the law or indeed receive protection from it.

One case involves a pilot, whose 'crime' has been to shine a light on the scandal of toxic fumes on aircraft only to have been made subject to the Powers of the Court; another, suffering death in their family, due to unknown toxic waste under their homes has been blatantly ignored by the Authorities and their MP; a recent case involves the Corfu Carbon Monoxide case in which the catastrophic failures of a hotelier and tour operator were laid bare for all to see.

I had the privilege to witness the oratory and incisive skills of Leslie Thomas QC at that inquest. Every now and again, Lawyers need to witness such a display and I have had the privilege of working with and for such unique individuals; I have always treated such experiences as almost going on some kind of a retreat!

I find being in the company of such lawyers not only energising but inspirational and can only hope in some small way I deliver a similar uniqueness in my work.

However, when I reflect on the legal profession as a whole and its representative bodies I can only lament at the lost opportunities and the fact that some have lost the very essence of why they became lawyers in the first place. It is to their shame that they are eclipsed by the real Lions of the Profession but they alone will not save the profession from the disengaged malaise that now afflicts the valuable contribution that lawyers can give to society; when the alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning, you should ask yourself: 'What did you do in the war Daddy?’.