Human rights lawyer wins Solicitor of the Year Award

On 23 October 2008, Saimo Chahal won the Law Society’s Solicitor of the Year Award. She is the head of the civil liberties and social welfare team at Bindmans LLP.

The British Institute of Human Rights called her a ‘trail blazer’ for her cutting-edge work and use of the Human Rights Act. Specialising in mental health and social care law, she works on behalf of vulnerable and disadvantaged clients in difficult and often precedent-setting cases – making national headlines.

Saimo also maintains her keen interest in human rights outside professional practice. For example, she is a valuable member of the Lawyers' Advisory Committee for Peace Brigades International (PBI). Read more about PBI

The Law Society Excellence Awards 2008 – human rights lawyers at the forefront

BBC Broadcaster Kirsty Wark presented the awards at a black tie dinner and presentation ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. Read more about the awards

Several other human rights practitioners received recognition and awards for their work, on a night when human rights was at the forefront.

Junior Lawyer Katherine Craig was highly commended. She has done much to support Colombian human rights lawyers under threat and in Summer 2008 was part of a delegation of 42 UK lawyers to Colombia. Read more about the delegation

Lovells was highly commended is for their highly impressive partnership with leading NGOs to provide pro bono support for victims of human trafficking.

The Legal Executive of the Year winner was Jill Read-Brown for her work seeking justice for victims of domestic abuse and violence.

The Barrister of the Year winner, Parosha Chandran was described as a leading junior barrister in the field of human rights and human trafficking.

Richard Lissack QC was also highly commended. Last year, he appeared in a benchmark case for inmate, Jack Alderman, on death row in the United States. This was a case in which the Law Society had also made an intervention. Read the Law Society's intervention letters