Law firm ‘to close’ ahead of disciplinary tribunal

THE Birmingham law firm whose former head is facing disciplinary action following the collapse of an Iraq war crimes inquiry is to close this month, according to reports.

Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), based in the Jewellery Quarter, has been under scrutiny since the £31m Al-Sweady inquiry reported in December 2014 deciding that the claims of ill-treatment by British troops were “deliberate lies”.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has launched a case against Public Interest Lawyers’ Prof Phil Shiner and John Dickinson while the Legal Aid Agency has terminated its arrangement with the firm because of “contractual breaches”.

PIL is to close according to High Court documents seen by the Daily Mail. It said that the firm would no longer be acting for 187 Iraqi claimants because of its “permanent closure”.

Prof Shiner ran Public Interest Lawyers in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter for 15 years, until November 2014, before becoming head of strategic litigation at newly-formed NGO named Public Interest Lawyers (International). He also became a professor of law at Middlesex University in the autumn of 2014.