Ten years of the Law Society Excellence Awards

It is humbling to review the list of Excellence Awards winners. They range from sole practitioners to magic circle firms. There are small legal aid practices among them as well as large commercial firms working on the international stage. And there are dogged individuals who toil away at the same case year after year in their determination to see justice done.  

All areas of law are represented. It is an embarrassment of riches and a reminder, if one is needed, of why English law is the law of choice for international commerce, with British lawyers advising on infrastructure, energy, maritime and constitutional matters worldwide.

Arthur Robinson posted a comment on the Gazette’s website to the effect that members of his firm’s private client team (which was shortlisted) were ‘elated’ by the accolade. ‘Joy at a small price paid for by sponsors and those who attend the ceremony,’ he posted. ‘All the bah humbug lot [should] go suck a lozenge.’

The Gazette finds that the awards winners are overwhelmingly positive about their value. Take Meinir Evans, for instance, whose career since winning the inaugural new solicitor of the year award in 2007 has been one of triumph over adversity. In 2009, two years after accepting the award, she spent three months on a life-support machine before undergoing a heart transplant. Six weeks later, she was up and raring to go – but her problems were not yet over.

‘I wasn’t allowed to drive because of my condition,’ Evans tells the Gazette, ‘and my continuing health issues meant nobody was keen to give me a job. There was only one thing to do. I had to set up my own firm.’

This she duly did and seven years later ME Law has offices in Pontypridd and Cardiff, employing 10 staff. The firm specialises in providing legal services for the elderly, such as representation in the Court of Protection (CoP), setting up lasting powers of attorney arrangements, advising on how to fund care fees, handling probate and helping with will-writing.

Evans works closely with the Alzheimer’s Society of Wales, Age Connect and Dementia Friends. She is chair of the south Wales branch of Solicitors for the Elderly and, since 2009, has been a member of the Law Society’s mental health and disability law committee. ME Law was shortlisted for the Age Cymru Award. And as if that were not enough, the firm also offers future planning and property advice.

The Gazette asks whether she ever finds time hanging heavily on her hands. Evans shakes her head. ‘We’re always very, very busy,’ she says, ‘because so few firms make a specialism of acting as a deputy in the CoP, for instance. The pro bono work is an opportunity to give something back. And because I run my own firm, I don’t need to ask permission from partners to give free advice sessions to some excellent charities.’

What did the excellence award do for her? ‘It gave me the confidence to carry on,’ she replies.

Evans was co-winner of the 2007 New Solicitor of the Year Award with Daniel Carey, now an associate at London and south-west England firm Deighton Pierce Glynn (DPG). Carey’s career started in Guatemala, where he worked with Peace Brigade International (PBI). PBI is staffed by individuals who dress in brightly coloured clothing and accompany lawyers (and others) as they go about their business in conflict zones. The rationale is that nobody is going to take a potshot at the lawyer if there is a risk of killing the PBI person instead – because that would attract international attention. Brave indeed.

It was for his work in Guatemala that he received the Society award and he has gone from strength to strength since. His next stop was death row in New Orleans, where, as part of the Reprieve team, he acted for condemned prisoners. He then worked for Birmingham and London firm Public Interest Lawyers on Iraq-related litigation, in the process scooping the Peter Duffy Award from Liberty and Justice in 2009.

In 2013 he became an associate at DPG. Some of his most recent cases include: R (Nour) v Secretary of State for Defence, which challenged the Ministry of Defence’s provision of training to the Sudanese armed forces and established that overseas security decisions are amenable to judicial review; Davis & Watson v Secretary of State for the Home Office, representing the interveners Open Rights Group and Privacy International, to be heard in the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg on 12 April 2016; and R (Gulf Centre for Human Rights) v Prime Minister, challenging the deletion of references to international law and upholding justice from the ministerial code – the permission hearing is pending.

Darren Hill, winner of the Legal Executive of the Year Award in 2009, comprehensively endorses the awards. ‘I was flabbergasted to be nominated and even more flabbergasted to win,’ he says. ‘It is one of my greatest achievements and I’m very proud when people, six or seven years on, still refer to it. It was also good for United Utilities and for my team – we all shared in the glory. It also reflects well on a culture that allows someone like me – who started as an office junior, never went to university but studied at night school – to be promoted and recognised by such a prestigious award.’

Hill rose to become head of claims and debt at United Utilities, running all its contentious litigation work. His responsibilities have taken him to the Supreme Court, where United Utilities was the appellant in a case concerning the Manchester Ship Canal Company. He also achieved a breakthrough decision in the courts of Thailand; handled the claims arising from an outbreak of intestinal illness caused by the cryptosporidium parasite; and took responsibility for legacy consumer group actions in Argentina and New Jersey.

He concludes: ‘The award, from a personal perspective, gave me credibility and the confidence to sit in the CILEx environment. I’m forever grateful to the Law Society and the institute for inspiring me to go on to better things. I have met lots of capable people who have never benefited from such inspiration.’

Anna Gardner says that winning the Solicitor of the Year – In-house award in 2010 when she was at global IT giant Hewlett-Packard made a huge difference to her career. It was at the ceremony that Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, then president of the Law Society, told her that International Lawyers for Africa (ILFA) was ‘interested in talking’. They duly talked and Gardner went on to join ILFA as a director in 2011.

She is now executive director of ILFA, an organisation whose mission, according to its website, is: ‘To build legal excellence in Africa by providing access to advanced legal training, networking opportunities and education for African lawyers and senior professionals engaged in the negotiation of complex transactions in Africa.’

Gambia-born Gardner’s 22-year legal career included nine years at Hewlett-Packard in various leadership roles, such as complex services managing counsel for the UK and Ireland, legal director and regional counsel for the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa, and legal director, growth markets. Before that, she spent six years at professional services multinational Accenture as a complex services lawyer supporting its energy business unit in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also as lead lawyer for the Republic of South Africa. Further back still, she was legal manager and legal executive at International Computers and BBC Worldwide respectively.

During that period, in February 2001, she found time to launch Tesito, a UK charity that partners with local communities in Gambia to improve the lives of ordinary Gambians. It also undertakes community-based programmes to raise the standard of health and education. Tesito means ‘self-help’ in Mandinka and originated in the small village of Julangel.

This mix of commercial experience and running a charity suited Gardner to the role of running ILFA. This she has done as executive director since January 2014, taking overall strategic and operational responsibility for ILFA’s staff, programmes, expansion and the execution of its mission to build legal excellence in Africa.

Angaza is the latest ILFA initiative she has launched. Meaning ‘to illuminate’ something in Swahili, Angaza is an e-tool that provides continuing professional development training for lawyers. It was soft-launched in Ghana in September and will be rolled out across other African jurisdictions this year.

‘We are gearing up to a massive 10th-anniversary celebration for ILFA in conjunction with the Law Society’s International Division,’ Gardner says. ‘We are now present in 26 countries in Africa, with some 160 alumni of our programme helping to identify and train able young practitioners to become among the leading African commercial lawyers of their generation.’

The programme includes public international law lectures at Oxford and Cambridge universities. These are followed by a simulated case study based on an actual (but anonymised) oil and gas transaction, with students participating in the negotiation of an end-to-end deal alongside the UK firms that are helping run the programme. ‘This takes three weeks,’ Gardner says, ‘although in real life it is more likely to take a couple of years. The advantage is that it gives trainees a taste of multi-party, multi-jurisdictional contracts.’ The programme ends with a 10-week placement in a major law firm in London, Paris, Dubai or, for the first time this year, Shannon, Ireland.

Naomi Bentley-Lawson won the Solicitor of the Year – In-house award in 2011 while a senior solicitor at Warwickshire County Council. The award followed on the heels of another honour: young solicitor of the year 2009 in the Solicitors in Local Government awards. After Warwickshire, she moved on to become principal solicitor at Hertfordshire County Council.

‘The Law Society excellence award was great,’ Bentley-Lawson says, ‘but in my frantically busy world of work and babies [she has two children aged seven and three], other people talk about it more than I do. Also, the award was slightly scary because clients and colleagues think that as I won it, the legal advice that I give must be extra special.’

After Hertfordshire, Bentley-Lawson’s career took an unexpected turn. She became a locum – she is presently at Milton Keynes Council – and also started her own business, NBL Consulting.

She explains: ‘Throughout my career, I have always been progressing, but I’ve now reached the stage where my next step upwards is as a senior manager. The more senior you are in management, the less law you do – and I still really enjoy the law. So I started my own consultancy with a view to forming framework relationships with local authorities as their independent investigating officer for when complaints against children’s services reach stage two [when it is agreed that a local resolution, stage one, cannot be reached and an investigation begins].’

However, progress with the consultancy has been slow, Bentley-Lawson says. She has a full caseload at Milton Keynes and cannot neglect the duties for which she is being paid for marketing on her own behalf. ‘I’ve always handled complaints,’ she adds. ‘They can mostly be done when working from home, rather than having to go to court. If NBL Consulting gets off the ground, it should give me the flexibility to work around the needs of two young children.’

The Gazette is confident that, given Bentley-Lawson’s track record of success, her consultancy will soon begin to fly.

Visit the Excellence Awards webpage for more details about this year’s awards and to make a nomination