TWO prominent Merseyside legal professionals have been named among the country’s most powerful in a definitive list.
Law Society president Andrew Holroyd and Lord Hunt of Wirral were named in the Times’ Legal 100 last week.
Conservative life peer Lord Hunt was described as going “unstoppably on” as “most of those who sat around Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet table are now enjoying well-earned retirements”. The paper added that the former Wirral MP “combines charm with persuasive insistence, [and] has wide influence: he sits on numerous insurance and financial services committees and is president or patron of more than 50 charities or voluntary organisations.”
Mr Holroyd, a partner at Jackson & Canter in Liverpool and the current president of the Law Society of England and Wales is “a relative rarity in the post, being both a high-street and legal-aid practitioner,” according to the paper.
He “has proved the right choice for this year’s presidency: he has just overseen the securing of a £55 million deal for civil legal lawyers in return for dropping legal action against the Legal Services Commission, which runs the legal aid scheme. Now he has to tackle the growing crisis over criminal legal aid.”
The judging panel, which comprised of editorial staff, academics and professionals, decided that it “had in mind such factors as whether contenders can influence public or political opinion, or the strategy or policy of a big firm, company or government; whether they can shape or apply the law in a way that affects many people; whether they are respected, feared or emulated or contributed to the strength and quality of UK legal services.”