Peter Kandler has been appointed an honorary KC in the latest list of silk appointments. This should be relished as a recognition both of the man himself and the law centre movement he founded. It also says something about the tolerance of the legal establishment which he has gone out of his way over decades to antagonise.
Peter is the undisputed granddaddy of law centres. These are now somewhat withering on the vine; however, they played a major role in changing both the practice of law and the practitioners of law over three or four decades.
Peter started North Kensington Neighbourhood Law Centre in 1970. The legal world was then a stuffy, introverted place. Peter was one of the leaders in opening up this enclosed world to a greater variety of entrants—those who were women, working class, of colour, and without previous
