Who? Malcolm Johnson, senior associate at BL Claims.

Why is he in the news? He has been instructed to represent alleged victims of historic sexual abuse in several professional football clubs.

Thoughts on the case: ‘The problem in the sports world is that child abusers thrive in an environment where children are scared to speak up for fear that they will lose their place in a team. At the time when these incidents are alleged to have occurred, child-safeguarding regulations were also less stringent than they are today making it easier for abuse to go undetected.

‘Any perpetrators who are found guilty of abuse will have not only groomed and abused their victims in the most catastrophic way but also abused the trust of their families and the rest of the football community.’

Dealing with the media: ‘We were very lucky to have a highly experienced media team at BL Claims and a superb agency, Polymedia. They were able to deal with these highly sensitive cases, in circumstances where we were very restricted in the information that could be put out in the public domain.’

Why become a lawyer? ‘Human stories fascinate me. What better experience can there be, than changing that story for the better?’

Career high: ‘As a solicitor-advocate, winning my client’s application for judicial review in the Upper Tier Tribunal in the case of Y v First-tier Tribunal and (2) Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (Criminal Injuries Compensation: claims) [2016] UKUT 202 (AAC). Our argument was that a “double dose” of a defective gene imparted to a child born of a consanguineous and abusive relationship constituted a personal injury for the purposes of the CICA scheme. The UTT agreed.’

Career low: ‘I represented a young lady in a civil claim that involved one of the most appalling accounts of abuse that I have ever heard in my career. We had to abandon the claim two weeks before trial, but managed to secure substantial compensation from the CICA a couple of years later, after a hard fight.’

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