Michael J. Mansfield joined T&M in November 2011 after a distinguished law enforcement career that spanned more than three decades. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed him in 2007 to serve as commissioner and chair of the New York City Business Integrity Commission, which targets organized crime and corruption at public wholesale markets and in the private carting …
· MICHAEL Mansfield QC, the high profile criminal barrister acting for the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, has launched a scathing attack on the legal profession. He also claims the Lord Chancellor is not up to the job of reforming it. Mansfield made his comments at a discussion held after the performance of a […]
Year of Call: 1967 (QC 1989) Michael Mansfield QC was born in 1941 and educated at Highgate School and Keele University. Called to the Bar in 1967, he established Tooks Chambers, in 1984 and became Queen's Counsel in 1989. Michael has represented defendants in criminal trials, appeals and inquiries in some of the most controversial legal cases the country has seen, …
· One of the most venerated legal minds of our time, Michael Mansfield QC – the self-styled ’radical lawyer’ – has represented defendants at criminal trials, appeals and inquiries in some of the most high profile controversial legal cases and miscarriages of justice the country has seen, particularly where issues of civil liberty have arisen.
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On 10 February 2022 the United Kingdom passed The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 which amended its sanctions against Russia. The UK Government passed the legislation as part of measures in response to increasing tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
Year of Call: 1967 (QC 1989) Michael Mansfield QC was born in 1941 and educated at Highgate School and Keele University. Called to the Bar in 1967, he established Tooks Chambers, in 1984 and became Queen's Counsel in 1989.
Michael was a member of the jury panel on the Russell Tribunal inquiry into the legal ramifications of Israel's human rights and humanitarian law violations in Palestine.
Michael was a judge on the Iran People's Tribunals.
A prominent British barrister with a human rights career spanning over 50 years, Michael Mansfield QC has a wealth of knowledge and experience, especially in relation to issues of civil liberties. A professional who is driven by the desire to help others within our community and who is not afraid of challenging institutions, Mr Mansfield has been involved in many high-profile cases. He represented the family of Stephen Lawrence, the accused IRA bombers, and the Birmingham Six, and was involved in the legal aftermath of the Bloody Sunday incident and the Hillsborough disaster. This month, Human Rights Pulse had the privileged opportunity to interview and celebrate this extraordinary ‘activist lawyer’.
Not concerned with the use of labels, Mr Mansfield believes that politicians use the term ‘activist lawyer’ to describe lawyers who go beyond what they ‘should do’ and those who challenge government policies. From his experience, this pattern of behaviour has always existed where lawyers who carry issues outside the courtroom to the general public and campaign for change, are branded in a negative light. Mr Mansfield himself was referred to as a ‘red under the bed’ with affiliate links to communist beliefs, the result of engaging in cases relating to equality and justice. He also received death threats and was branded a traitor when he represented the Price Sisters who were responsible for bombs in London in 1973, and when he defended those who were wrongly convicted such as the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four.
The article 50 supreme court hearings won’t solve our systemic crisis. We need a new way to connect people and state
Michael Mansfield: The IPCC's delaying tactics are lamentable. A full investigation of the evidence of police violence against the miners must start now
Michael Mansfield: Governments needing a facelift often attempt to curtail jury trial. Quick-fix supermarket justice must be resisted
Desmond Tutu and Michael Mansfield: The Israel-Palestine situation demands truth and reconciliation. We hope to aid that process
Mansfield was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1967, became Queen's Counsel in 1989 and was elected as a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 2007.
He is currently the President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, and is a Professor at Law at City University. Mansfield is a regular after dinner and keynote speaker.
Mansfield grew up in north Finchley, North London, and attended Holmewood Preparatory School (Woodside Park) before going to Highgate School and the University of Keele, where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in history and philosophy, and was Secretary of Keele's Students' Union.
Mansfield has been married three times. He was married for 19 years to Melian Bordes, with whom he had five children (Jonathan, Anna, Louise, Leo and Kieran), and for 30 years to the artist/filmmaker Yvette Vanson, from whom he separated in 2014 and with whom he had a son (Fred). He has been with his current wife, Yvette Greenway, a well-known snooker player, since 2015. His daughter, Anna, took her own life in May 2015.
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Mansfield signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world", and endorsed Corbyn in the 2019 UK general election.
In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the L…
Mansfield is a patron of the animal rights organisation Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) and refers to animal production as "genocide". He is also patron of Hastings Advice and Representation Centre, a charity providing free welfare benefit advice and representation for local people in Hastings, East Sussex and the surrounding area. He is a co-founder and trustee of the charity Silence of Suicide (SOS).
• Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission
• Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial
• University of Cambridge Chancellor election, 2011
• Who's Who, 2006
• Michael Mansfield, Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer. London, Bloomsbury. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7475-7654-9