Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards – Nominations Closing Soon!
Now into their sixteenth�year, the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards (the LALYs) are recognised as the premier event of the legal aid calendar. They are a chance to celebrate the vital and life-changing work of publicly-funded lawyers.
The awards categories this year are: legal aid newcomer, housing, social and welfare, family, including mediation, legal aid barrister, children’s rights, public law, criminal defence, legal aid firm/not for profit organisation, access to justice through IT, and outstanding achievement.
There is a new award for practice management. Nominations can be made in all categories except outstanding achievement, which is at the judges� discretion.
Guidance on the awards can be found on the Legal Aid Practioners Group (LAPG) website.�It covers:
- who can be nominated for the practice management award (this can be a lawyer who also does casework, or someone who is solely a practice manager, whether a lawyer or not);
- which category you can be nominated for if your area of law does not have a category (social and welfare);
- the access to justice through IT award, which is open to legal services providers (organisations or individuals)�who are making innovative use of technology to increase access to justice for people of modest means, in areas of law traditionally covered by legal aid. This could include the provision of legal advice, information, representation, or public legal education.
Nominations close on 10 April.