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Defending public interest lawyers

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19 August 2016 / Steve Hynes
Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Personal injury
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The public interest is dependent on firms like PIL and Leigh Day to hold government to account, says Steve Hynes

After months of rumours that staff were leaving the firm and that its founder Phil Shiner was buckling under of the pressure, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) has, according to media reports, bowed to the inevitable and announced its closure.

The final nail in the coffin, it seems, was the announcement by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) that it was terminating the firm’s contract. It is to be regretted that PIL has gone to the wall before the accusations made against it and its founder, Phil Shiner, could be substantiated or refuted.

PIL has been under a cloud since the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sent a dossier outlining alleged misconduct to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in February last year. In June this year the SRA decided that Shiner and John Dickinson from PIL had a case to answer and referred the matter to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).

Shiner has successfully applied for

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