Dean Kingham – Public law Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2020

Dean Kingham – Public law Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2020

We are delighted to announce that Dean Kingham, our head of Prison, Public Law and Crime department has been crowned Public Law Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2020 (LALYs).

Each year a large number of applications are submitted and this year Dean Kingham was shortlisted for the first time under the Public Law Category with two other fantastic lawyers.

His public law work involves representing some of the most notorious prisoners protecting their human rights and making sure they are treated fairly. His mantra follows the words of Nelson Mandela  “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

Dean leads a team that champions the rights of some of the most marginalised people in society. Dean’s commitment and desire to protect the rights of the most vulnerable is his passion and feeds down into his team.

He is relentless in the pursuit of ensuring his clients have their rights protected, often thinking outside the box, taking unique challenges to ensure the court protects those who are at extreme risk of having rights violated.

This fantastic result is testament not only to Dean but also our entire firm’s commitment to providing Legal Aid services to our clients, including and more importantly to the most vulnerable in the society.

Samantha Lee Managing Director of Swain & Co Solicitors says,

“this award is thoroughly deserved. Dean works tirelessly to ensure his clients receive the best possible service and we are all very proud of the work done by him and the wonderful team he leads”

Dean’s clients are full of praise for his work and the way he pushes the boundaries for them in upholding the rule of law for prisoners. Dean’s clients describe him as a person who is highly professional, who would always go an extra hundred miles for them.

All at Swain & Co Solicitors would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dean.

Dean had this to say,

“Without the team behind me I don’t feel this would have been achievable. We have a wonderful prison and public law team at Swains who work tirelessly to protect prisoner rights.

I am very humbled to join the list of winners. When I look at past winners they have been my inspiration over the years, especially Simon Creighton who is the lead authority on Prisoner Rights.

I look forward to continue to protecting prisoner rights especially given our Government appears to treat them as commodities to stimulate the economy by building more prisons rather than genuinely looking to reduce the prison population given rehabilitation has fallen far down the list of priorities.

Thank you to team LALY and the team I work with.”

What Judge Fiona Bawdon had to say about Dean.

Here's #LALY20 judge @FionaBawdon talking about @deankingham, winner of our Public Law award. 'Without lawyers like Dean, the rule of law is meaningless...' pic.twitter.com/CpG24Ut8N2

— LALY Awards (@LALYawards) July 8, 2020