Former minister Helen Grant MP is one of the few solicitors to be recognised in the first New Year honours list of the reign of King Charles, published last night.  

Grant, MP for Maidstone and The Weald since 2010, receives the OBE for political and public service. She studied law at Hull University and practised as a family solicitor after qualifying in 1988. She set up Grants Solicitors in 1996, focusing on the problems of family breakdown. She was featured in the Gazette’s My Legal Life in 2013. Grant was a courts minister from 2012 to 2013 and is currently the prime minister's special envoy on girls' education. 

Campaigning child abuse specialist Dr Ann Olivarius receives the OBE for services to justice and to women and equality. Olivarius, admitted in 2008, is co-founder of Maidenhead and New York-based firm AO Advocates, which represents victims of childhood sexual abuse. Olivarius also acted in a groundbreaking case in which a YouTube celebrity won damages for 'revenge porn' posted on the internet. 

Ann olivarius

Olivarius: OBE for services to justice and to women and equality

Futher up the honours list, Professor David Mosey, of Dickson Poon School of Law, London, admitted as a solicitor in 1980, receives the CBE for services to the construction industry. Mosey is a forner head of projects and construction at international firm Trowers and Hamlins. 

Meanwhile, Samuel Littlejohns, senior lawyer at the Ministry of Defence, Government Legal Department, receives the OBE for services to the law. 

Peter Walter, employment law adviser, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, receives the same award for services to British foreign policy.

David Lockyer, legal adviser at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, receives the MBE for public and voluntary service. 

Simon Mundy, lawyer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, receives the same award for public and voluntary service.  The Government Legal Department said that Mundy 'has changed the face of environmental legislation and policy in the UK for a generation. He has served in the Civil Service for 30 years both as a lawyer and (originally) as a chemist where he has designed and delivered some of the most significant UK environmental reforms in history, whilst simultaneously being a carer to a very severely autistic child and undertaking charitable work in his local community as a school governor for over 20 years'.

IP specialist Jonathan Sellors, admitted in 2000, becomes MBE for services to medical research. He is legal counsel to UK Biobank and UK Biocentre and a consultant at City firm Howard Kennedy. 

Paralegal Shah Begum, of the construction and engineering team at international firm Gowling WLG, receives the British Empire Medal  for her services to equality, diversity and inclusion. Shah was recognised for her while on secondment to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, where she was part of the Birmingham 2022 legacy integration team. 

Portrait of Simon Mundy

Mundy: 'Changed the face of environmental legislation'

Source: Government Legal Department

Portrait of Shah Begum

Shah Begum: honoured for work at 2022 Commonwealth Games 

Among the academic lawyers honoured,  barrister Julie Maxton CBE, currently executive director of the Royal Society, becomes a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to science and the law. 

Professor John Finnis of Oxford University becomes CBE for services to legal scholarship. 

Meanwhile, a former managing partner of international firm Taylor Wessing, Tim Eyles, has been awarded an OBE for services to the arts. The firm sponsors the annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. 

James Furber, partner and head of property at London firm Farrer & Co, is appointed Lieutenant of the Victorian Order for services as solicitor to the Duchy of Cornwall for 26 years.

Please notify the Gazette of any honours recipients we have missed: email michael.cross@lawsociety.org.uk

 

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