Mishcon de Reya Executive Partner James Libson has received a History Maker Award from The University of Law. James studied to be a lawyer there almost 30 years ago when it was called College of Law.
The award, inaugurated this year, is to honour alumni who are making an impact on the legal profession and on the world. James received the award in acknowledgement of the pre-eminent legal cases he's been involved with throughout his career.
James qualified as a lawyer in 1991 and has spent over 25 years providing a broad range of legal services to his clients including defamation, privacy and employment advice and acting in many high profile commercial disputes and ground-breaking discrimination cases. In 2000, he was part of the legal team that won a case for Deborah Lipstadt who had been sued by David Irving for calling him — correctly — a Holocaust denier in her 1993 book on the subject. In 2016, the trial was detailed in the film Denial, in which James was played by actor Jack Lowden. More recently, he acted for the lead claimant, Gina Miller, in the landmark case compelling the Government to seek Parliament’s authority to trigger Article 50.
James has been Mishcon de Reya's Executive Partner and Head of Private since 2008. Along with the rest of the Board, he has overseen the firm's significant growth, including a total revenue increase of over 100% in the last five years. In 2017, he was recognised in The Lawyer Hot 100.
James received the award alongside fellow University of Law alumni Cherie Blair QC. In addition, two high-performing graduates at the start of their legal careers Lauren Jones and Catherine Brydges were announced as winners of the Future History Makers Awards.
You can view a short film from the event above. A transcript of James' acceptance speech is available here.