The UK Law Society Gazette writes
Solicitor Benedict Birnberg, ‘one of the greatest lawyers of his generation’, has died aged 93 after a short illness, his family has announced.
As the founder and principal of BM Birnberg & Co, established in 1962, he led a firm that used the law to champion civil liberties, help clients assert their rights on housing and welfare, and protect victims of domestic violence. It also represented high-profile criminal defendants and supported campaigns from the anti-Apartheid movement to efforts to prevent the closure of services at Guys Hospital, then local to the firm’s offices on Borough High Street, London.
Birnberg began his civil liberties work with CND and represented the actors union Equity in its internal battles over the boycott of Apartheid-era South Africa. Members of the ANC in exile were frequent visitors to the office. Representing the Albany Trust, he fought for gay rights at a point when rights campaigns were at an early stage in their development.
The firm was a crucible that forged radical lawyers acting for civil rights clients. Paul Boateng, Imran Khan KC and Gareth Peirce trained at the firm. After his retirement in 1999, the firm continued as Birnberg Peirce, with Peirce as senior partner.
Boateng, a partner at the firm before entering politics, said: ‘His skilled advocacy was put at the disposal of those who were all too often marginalised and unheard. Rightly admired and by his opponents feared also he was a constant source of inspiration to many of us. He was simply the best example of what a truly radical lawyer should be.’
Ben Birnberg was a true champion of civil liberties and one of the greatest lawyers of his generation, Paul Boateng writes.
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