IN DEFENCE OF THE LITIGATORS, AND THEIR CLIENTS
Recent times have seen an unprecedented level of high-profile and political attacks on the legal system and its professionals in the UK – the prime minister and home secretary berating ‘woke’, ‘politically motivated’, ‘liberal’ and ‘activist’ immigration lawyers, MPs (and even the leader of the opposition) haranguing ‘amoral’ lawyers acting for Russian oligarchs and other high-net-worth individuals, branding them “a coalition not of the willing but of the woeful” and accusing them of using the English courts to conduct ‘lawfare’. Law firms themselves have been condemned as “unstructured and unregulated private eye business…now collecting kompromat”. And these are just examples – even at the time of writing, the home secretary was blaming ‘specialist lawyers’ for delays in progressing government immigration plans.
Not surprisingly, robust defences have swiftly followed. A letter from 800 former judges and legal professionals accusing the prime minister and Home Office of “hostility”, serving to “endanger…the personal safety of lawyers” and to “undermine the rule of law”. A former director of Public Prosecutions warned lawyers were being “crudely and dangerously vilified”. The president of the Law Society maintained the need for representation for all: “It’s the job of solicitors to represent their clients, whoever they may be, so that the courts act fairly. That is how the public can be confident they live in a country that respects the rule of law.” And the riposte from 10 Downing Street: “lawyers play an important role in upholding the law, they are however not immune from criticism.”
Jul-Sep 2022 issue
DWF Law LLP