The common enemy between medics and lawyers

After years of fighting cuts to legal aid, lawyers know all too well how maddeningly irritating - and unfortunately effective - government spin can be. It was never going to take much convincing for elements of Fleet Street to swallow hook, line, and sinker that 'greedy lawyers' were striking because government was turning off the tap to their legal aid gravy train.

Even as speculation grew that the Lord Chancellor might be preparing an about-face on the government's overhaul of the legal aid system, no mention was made of the access to justice arguments. Instead, the old lines resurfaced about solicitors' firms being worried about being put out of business, perpetuating the myth that opposition to the reforms has only ever been about money and self-preservation.

It is a tactic that has been employed ad nauseam to deflect public attention from the big issues they should, if not care about, at least consider. Tube drivers are another obvious example. Recent strikes over the new 24-hour Night Tube are portrayed as just disputes over pay, with no heed paid to the health and safety of passengers and London Underground staff.

Lawyers and tube drivers are, of course, easy targets for such spin. The public has no love for the legal profession and London's weary commuters need little encouragement to gnash their respective teeth at 'overpaid' underground workers. But what of medical practitioners?

Surely public love for the NHS would make government pause at engaging in such obvious manipulation? Well, apparently not. The branding of junior doctors as 'Moet medics' with 'champagne-swilling lavish lifestyles' was as hilarious as it was transparent, and one lawyer has had enough.

Medical negligence partner Peter Stefanovic has been making waves in the battle between medics and the government, first by standing with junior doctors against plans to impose what they see as unfair and unsafe contracts and, most recently, marching with student nurses and midwives against plans to scrap NHS bursaries.

On 9 January 2016 the outspoken lawyer marched with more than 5,000 student nurses, midwives, junior doctors, and other NHS workers through central London to Westminster where he delivered a passionate speech attacking the government's 'unjust' plans.

'What is so extraordinary is that the government thinks it can just get away with it. Well it b***** well can't! The government thinks they can bully nurses, they think they can bully junior doctors, they think they can treat you unfairly and wrongly, they think they can do these things to you because you are kind and caring and because they think you won't fight back. Well, by standing here today you have shown that you will fight back and I will fight back with you!'

Explaining his opposition to the plans, Stefanovic said: 'The NHS bursary is not just about money. It's about making our nurses, midwives, and healthcare professionals feel valued and respected. It's about showing them how much we care and cherish them. NHS bursaries are also about investment in our people and in the future of the NHS. This government has now created a "perfect storm" by attacking our junior doctors, consultants, nurses, and midwives.'

Stefanovic authored one of SJ's standout articles of 2015, in which he called on lawyers to back junior doctors in their struggle against contract changes. Singling out the secretary of state for health for direct criticism, he wrote: 'Jeremy Hunt's idea of a negotiation is to bring nothing to the table and then take the table and chairs home with him afterwards.'

His column became one of SJ's most read and shared pieces of the year and certainly won Stefanovic plenty of plaudits. But what made a solicitor, who specialises in medical negligence, stand shoulder to shoulder with junior doctors and nurses in their fight for the NHS?

'When I was growing up words like truth and honesty and fairness and justice really meant something, and when I became a lawyer they were words I aspired to and swore to uphold,' explains Stefanovic. 'The way in which this government has treated our junior doctors, and now our nurses, is so manifestly unfair, so manifestly unjust, that I believe the government's conduct is now challenging those basic principles which I hold dear.

'My conscience would not permit me to do anything other than stand with our doctors and nurses and help them to fight back. I believe we have an obligation as lawyers to speak out on any injustice and when the cause is right we must step into the fight. When this fight is over I shall be proud to say I stood on the right side of it.'

Medics and lawyers hardly make natural allies. Controversial proposals to cap clinical negligence costs will likely see the professions on opposing sides of the debate in 2016. And I'm willing to bet there were few health care workers on the picket lines when criminal lawyers undertook direct action last year.

Nevertheless, greater cooperation between professions wouldn't hurt the ongoing debate over cuts to public funding. If Stefanovic can teach us anything it is that, where the cause is just, anything is possible.

John van der Luit-Drummond is deputy editor for Solicitors Journal john.vanderluit@solicitorsjournal.co.uk | @JvdLD

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