A solicitor known for advising the Labour party and leading phone-hacking claims for high-profile figures is to become a peer.
Downing Street announced this month that the King intends to confer a life peerage on Gerald Shamash, a partner at Edwards Duthie Shamash. Shamash was nominated by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Shamash began doing some property work for Labour in the 1980s. He was then approached to join a legal team being assembled for the 1992 general election, which began his interest in election law.
In the early days of Shamash’s legal career, he worked in criminal law and personal injury. In 1981 he went into partnership with Elaine Steel to form Steel & Shamash, one of the first firms to be granted a Legal Aid Agency contract.
The firm merged with Edwards Duthie in 2019, creating one of the largest high street practices in London and Essex. When the merger was announced, Shamash told the Gazette the firm remained committed to legal aid and he was ‘just hoping at some point this government will turn the tap back on’.
Commenting on the life peerage, Edwards Duthie Shamash said: ‘This distinction reflects a lifetime’s work on the part of Gerald in the fields of politics and the law.’
See the Gazette's 2018 interview with Shamash here.
4 Readers' comments