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Legal aid achievements celebrated in 2024 Lalys

10 July 2024
Issue: 8079 / Categories: Legal News , Legal aid focus
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Solicitor Toufique Hossain, who brought a string of successful legal challenges to the Rwanda scheme, has won the prestigious Lalys outstanding achievement award

Hossain, director of public law at Duncan Lewis, described the scheme as ‘incompetent, cruel, an affront to the rule of law and to basic human dignity’. Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped it on his first day in office last week.

The Lalys (Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards) were presented by broadcaster Symeon Brown at a ceremony in London last week. Former MP Karen Buck received a special award for her commitment to housing justice, as a key driver behind the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.

The public law award went to Sophie Naftalin, partner, Bhatt Murphy, who represented the family of Kellie Sutton. In an unprecedented result, an inquest found that, although Sutton’s death was self-inflicted, it was caused by domestic abuse, so as to constitute the criminal offence of manslaughter.

Issue: 8079 / Categories: Legal News , Legal aid focus
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

mfg Solicitors—Brian Hession

mfg Solicitors—Brian Hession

Birmingham commercial property team bolstered by partner hire

STEP—Sara Morgan

STEP—Sara Morgan

Fieldfisher director re-elected as deputy chair of England Wales committee

Osborne Clarke—Andrew Eaton

Osborne Clarke—Andrew Eaton

Restructuring and insolvency expert joins as partner

NEWS
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In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
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