Louis Charalambous, Simons Muirhead & Burton
Who? Louis Charalambous, 51-year-old media litigation partner at London firm Simons Muirhead & Burton.
Why is he in the news? He won £600,000 libel damages for Robert Murat, who had been falsely accused – by 11 daily and Sunday newspapers in more than 100 articles – of involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. In the High Court, Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, MGN and News Group Newspapers, the publishers of the 11 titles, acknowledged the falsity of the allegations. They must also pay Murat’s legal costs.
Route to the case: Referral from another firm of solicitors.
Background: Peace studies at Bradford University, then a masters in politics and a degree in law (1985), Leeds University.
Articles split between northern firms John Pickering & Partners and Harrison Bundey. Partner at London firm Finers Stephens Innocent in 1994. Started own firm in 2001, merged with Simons Muirhead & Burton in 2004.
Thoughts on the case: ‘The challenge was that hundreds of articles had been written about Robert, many of which contained lies and trashed his reputation. The family had also been hounded for months and traumatised in the process. A close-knit team of lawyers from my firm and Matrix Chambers conducted a forensic exercise to identify the principal offenders and more than 100 of the most damaging articles. We also had to rapidly capture evidence from Portugal and get to grips with Portuguese criminal law against a looming limitation deadline. The culpable tabloids sensibly put their hands up when they saw the force of our claim.’
Career highlights? ‘Although the decision has still not freed my client from prison, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights decision in öcalan v Turkey stands out. Strasbourg had never seen so many people come to see a case – many thousands were prevented from coming near the court, so they had a Kurdish festival in another part of town, which we joined after comprehensively thrashing our opponent’s arguments about multiple convention abuses.’
