Solicitors Journal Legal Personality of the Year Award shortlist revealed

One Crown Office Row barrister Adam Wagner, 36 Bedford Row silk Felicity Gerry QC, and Simpson Millar medical negligence partner Peter Stefanovic all have made the final cut for the Solicitors Journal Legal Personality of the Year Award. The two barristers and one solicitor will be judged by the extensive panel of Solicitors Journal Awards judges, which includes Andy Slaughter MP, Labour peer Lord Bach, and FT legal correspondent Jane Croft.

The shortlist for Legal Personality of the Year Award was decided on by the Solicitors Journal editorial team, who considered lawyers that had performed exceptional case work over the past 12 months, represented the profession in a positive light to the public, and/or championed a legal cause.

Adam Wagner

Adam Wagner, the 1 Crown Office Row chambers' barrister, is well known for his advocacy work championing human rights in court and in the media. Founding editor of the acclaimed and non-ideological UK Human Rights Blog, the public law specialist was longlisted for the 2011 Orwell prize for blogging and shortlisted for Human Rights Lawyer of the Year at the Liberty Awards in 2015.

In addition to his numerous high-profile court appearances, such as acting as junior counsel for Ameen Jogee in the Supreme Court challenge to the law of joint enterprise, the Solicitors Journal Awards judges were impressed with Wagner's work bringing human rights to life through his award winning RightsInfo project.

Launched in April 2015, RightsInfo and has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times thanks to its unique use of infographics, stories, and social media. Within months of its unveiling, the website won the prestigious Plain English Campaign Communicator Award.

With research showing that 70 per cent of human rights coverage in the UK media is negative, RightsInfo has helped to reenergise the debate over why human rights matter in the UK and the important role of the European Court of Human Rights. The site has become a go-to platform for students, lawyers, journalists, and members of the public alike to find accurate information free of rhetoric and bias.

Felicity Gerry QC

With her successful appearance before the Supreme Court in R v Jogee, high-profile international barrister Felicity Gerry QC has had a whirlwind start to 2016. The landmark decision saw the UK's highest court find that the controversial principle of joint enterprise had been wrongly interpreted for more than three decades.

Described as 'tenacious' and 'fearless', the 36 Bedford Row silk was without fear or favour when she slammed Lord Sumption's controversial comments on judicial diversity in 2015 as 'the last gasp of the old white male in his ivory tower'. The human rights barrister has also received praise for her campaigning work for the release of Lindsay Sandiford, the British grandmother currently facing a firing squad in Bali and for assisting in the last minute reprieve from execution of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso.