20 October 2007
In brief
The celebrity divorce of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills was the biggest legal story of the last year, eclipsing the human rights lawyers who normally dominate press attention, research shows. Mills’s lawyer, Anthony Julius, has emerged as the most high-profile solicitor (with 195 press features), followed by McCartney’s divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton (179 press features), the study by Sweet & Maxwell shows. Human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, who topped the league last year after representing the suspects in the Forest Gate anti-terror raid, slipped this year to 17th. For the third year running Cherie Booth retains her position as the most high-profile barrister with 347 press features in 2006–07.
