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Prominent lawyer Keir Starmer comes to LSBU’s Legal Advice Clinic
Leading UK human rights lawyer Sir Keir Starmer will be chairing the Howard League for Penal Reform's next Lawyers' Network Group meeting on 2 October 2014The biannual event brings together lawyers, academics and thinkers to discuss and debate issues affecting young people in penal custody. Renowned barrister Keir Starmer QC will chair the meeting, which will focus on prisoners and human rights. The prestigious panel will also include Vicky Pryce, Simon Creighton and LSBU's Laura Janes.
Keir Starmer is a prominent barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and formerly served as Director of Public Prosecutions and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service. He was named QC of the Year in 2007 for his work in human rights and public law. He also received the Bar Council's Sydney Elland Goldsmith award for his outstanding pro bono work in challenging the death penalty in Africa and the Caribbean.
Hosted in conjunction with LSBU's School of Law and Social Sciences, the Lawyers' Network Group meeting will address a variety of topics including prisoners' right to vote and the legality of whole life tariffs, segregation and treatment of prisoners in custody. Speakers will also discuss the interplay between British and European courts' different approaches to these issues.
Prominent economist Vicky Pryce joins the discussion as author of Prisonomics, an analysis of how the prison system works from an economist's perspective. She is former Director General of Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Panellist Simon Creighton is widely regarded as the lawyer responsible for establishing prison law as a distinct area of practice. He is a partner at one of the leading civil liberties solicitor firms in the UK, Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, where he specialises in working with life-sentenced prisoners.
Rounding off the panel is Dr Laura Janes, part-time lecturer at LSBU and Legal Co-Director of the Howard League. A former Young Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year, she also serves as a consultant solicitor advocate specialising in representing children in the criminal justice system.Undergraduate and postgraduate law students are strongly advised to attend this insightful and fascinating discussion.