Walkers showed no sign of deflating!

The London Legal Walk took place on 20th May, with over £575,000 raised for charities which provide free legal advice. Taking part in this 10K stroll around London were 7500 lawyers (482 teams), including the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Judge), the Master of the Rolls (Lord Dyson), the President of the Supreme Court (Lord Neuberger), the Director of Public Prosecutions (Kier Starmer QC) and the Attorney General (Dominic Grieve QC MP). Cuts to legal aid have made this annual event more important than ever.

Pounding the streets of legal London were a team from The City Law School, with Chris Lowney and Ellen Gordon-Bouvier alongside 10 students. Ellen tells us a little more about the walk:

The London Legal Walk is an annual event where law students, solicitors, barristers and members of the judiciary walk a 10 k course across London to raise funds for pro-bono clinics and legal advice centres in the South East. As many people know, Legal Aid is in the process of being all but obliterated by the government and access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay is a major concern. Pro-bono clinics offer an invaluable service in many areas, including debt, housing, family, employment and immigration law. City University itself offers pro-bono services to the community in conjunction with the Mary Ward Legal Centre. Funds raised from the legal walk will help places like Mary Ward stay open.

Chris gives his account below:

All quite enjoyable, if a little painful for the knees – over 6 miles on concrete. 10 students plus Ellen and I. Departed at 5pm from RCJ. Through Temple, along Embankment, Horse Guards, St James’ Park, across HPC, (nearly lost 4 of our party here to a no73 bus, as we misread the traffic signals!!) along south side of Serpentine, over the bridge – halfway point, then back along north side of Serp, major chaos at second visit to HPC, where we encountered the vast majority of the walkers from law firms – starting a bit later – stopped the traffic, then back through Green Park, Mall, Traf Sq. and Strand to RCJ.

Back at 7pm; 2 hours. More photos taken. Given drinks vouchers for much-needed restorative gargle. Main Hall of RCJ a sea of tired walkers, including 3 massage tables for the seriously wounded; CLS walkers did not avail of massage facility!!! But did avail of alcohol facility. Met Simon Innes and Prashant Sagar who were part of the security operation; this was apparently required as there had been a rumour that a movement called Fathers for Justice would pull some stunt to disrupt things, due to the august presence of the Lord Chief Justice and the MR, whom we didn’t meet but were presumably dousing their blistered paws in hot salty water somewhere.

RCJ got very crowded and began to resemble the Somme in 1916. Being a tad squeamish, we retired to the Law Society Hall where more drinks vouchers – and free drink – were made available. The main reading room looked a tad like Glastonbury with prone or squatting track-suit or lycra-clad bodies everywhere. I maintained the appropriate standard of décor and decorum by wearing suit and black shoes throughout. I mean, after all, we are supposed to be Officers of the Supreme Court of Judicature. I cannot, alas, say the same for Ellen. We encountered no security problems anywhere.

Ellen and I departed around 9pm to leave the few remaining CLS students to continue their recovery programme, through more vouchers.

Some final words from Ellen:

Personally, my legs are pretty sore but it was a very enjoyable evening (the drinking was more enjoyable than the walking to be honest). It is great that we have raised money for such a good cause.

Our tough student walkers

The student walkers were:
Hannah Faulkner
Indy Kaur
Sundeesh Nandra
Janeeta Odedra
Suzanne Loding
Christina Hyatali
Nabil Razzaque
Mathias Lejeune
Anita Kyaruzi

LPC Interim Director Linda Jotham says: The CLS LPC is proud to have participated in this event, raising the profile of – and funds for – this important cause.

Many thanks to Christina Hyatali for the photographs. More photographs of the event can be seen via Legal Cheek and The Law Society Gazette.