A radical lawyer with an unparalleled commitment to his clients, driven by anger at injustice and hypocrisy, intelligent, handsome and dynamic, Michael Mansfield has been tearing down the citadels of arcane legal conventions for more than forty years. Unafraid of rejection or failure, Michael has taken on the most difficult and challenging cases of our times and despite the odds, won plenty. In Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer Michael dissects many of them, revealing his motivations, meticulous approach to forensic science, cross examination techniques, the political dimensions and emotional reactions with clarity, subtlety and charm. Interspersed with personal anecdotes and recollections, this insightful book is liberally laced with Michael's quirky brand of anarchic humour. Cases range from the Angry Brigade, the Bradford 12, the Birmingham Six, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Angela Cannings, Jill Dando, Ruth Ellis, Dodi Fayed, the 'Fertilizer' conspiracy, Iraqi hi-jackers, Stephen Lawrence, Fatmir Limaj (Leader of the Kosovan Liberation Army), the Marchioness Disaster, the Price sisters, the 'Ricin' trial, Risley prison riots, Tahira Tabassum, Judith Ward, Arthur Scargill and the miners to the Jean Charles de Menezes inquiry, and many more. Issues of public concern, human rights and innovative attempts to construct a democratic legal system are discussed in full, but Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer also unveils with honesty and wit a man who has put as much passion and energy into his life as his work, one of the great personalities of our time.
| ISBN | 0747576548 | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | | ISBN13 | 9780747576549
(What's this?) | | Pages | 512 | | Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | | Height (mm) | 234 | | Format | Hardback | | Width (mm) | 153 | | Publication date | 07 Sep 2009 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY | 340.092 | |
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'Probably the biggest household name at the criminal Bar is Michael Mansfield, QC, a sure-fire role model for students wondering about a career in criminal (or civil rights) law.' The Times Online 'The radical lawyer has become an icon in a disenchanted age (Mansfield's) high profile victories take on a hallowed significance: the good guys against the rotten state with a flourish of his insolence and a refusal to shut up they flock to him, the disaffected, the inner city victims, Arthur Scargill, and he looks after them all. The Establishment loathes him.' Lesley White, Sunday Times, 'Michael Mansfield QC is a die-hard grand old rebel. He has rejected the Labour Party, dismisses Blair as a Tory, and thereby disqualifies himself from the headlong rush of so many of his senior legal contemporaries to sup in the Labour Government trough of power.' Guardian 'There is no question that he has been a force for good in this country, and has kept the flag of civil liberties flying when governments would have been very happy to have seen it suppressed. He can't retire - his country needs him. Carpentry must wait.' Lynn Barber, Observer
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