Nurturing the next generation of socially-conscious lawyers

Reading the legal press over recent weeks you might be excused for believing that the Law Society had completely abandoned legal aid lawyers. Had you been present at the Liverpool Law Society dinner on 10 November you would have been left in no doubt that legal aid is still on our agenda here in Liverpool.

Alistair Fletcher, president of the Liverpool Law Society and a partner at Brabners, used his speech to remind all present that the local law society firmly believes that everyone should have access to justice regardless of means. Alistair reminded his audience, including the guest of honour, Lord Heseltine, that "any erosion of that access is a betrayal of the most vulnerable in our society and therefore the values that define who we are".

Liverpool is exceptionally vulnerable to the triple threat of cuts to public services, cuts to welfare benefits and cuts to advice for those who need those services. In response to this need, at the end of 2011, the then society president, Steve Cornforth, set up a local Access to Justice Sub Committee. We aim to work side by side with local legal aid practices and the not-for-profit sector. As committee chair, it has been my privilege to work with the local council and the university to see where the legal aid gap might be filled. We have seen the Liverpool University law clinic expand and two projects begin to take shape to train a new generation of social welfare lawyers. We meet regularly with local members of parliament and councillors and legal aid cuts are a standing item on those agendas.

It is not just those solicitors spend their lives in legal aid practices who are raising their voice in opposition to the "transformation" of legal aid. When Alistair Fletcher, a lawyer ?in a large commercial practice, uses his most important and public platform of his year in office to oppose legal aid cuts ?it has to be hoped someone might be listening. Perhaps as Michael Heseltine made his way back to London he reflected ?that here was another task for ?the politician who stood up to Mrs Thatcher and made sure ?that Liverpool did not become ?a wasteland.

There is no doubt that some battles over legal aid have been lost - the cuts have been repeated and severe, and ?access to justice is being ?steadily eroded. The war is not over and we must continue to repeat the message Alistair Fletcher left us with that "any action which deprives our fellow human beings of access to ?justice is a breach of a fundamental right". SJ