Julian Young is entitled to feel mightily pleased with himself this morning (see this week’s Lawyer In The News).

‘I would like to thank the solicitor a million, million times,’ the brother of Sean Hodgson, who spent 27 years in jail for a murder he did commit, told the massed ranks of the British media outside the High Court. Job satisfaction doesn’t come much better than this.

Justice delayed is better than no justice, and one could not help but be assailed by other, equally hackneyed though nevertheless germane thoughts.

Young himself describes as a ‘saving grace’ the fact that there is no longer a death penalty. One wonders whether its remaining supporters in parliament are dismayed today that Sean Hodgson is not already dead. It was painful, too, to see just how much older Hodgson looks than his 57 years.

What is especially poignant about justice in this case, however, is its sheer randomness. Hodgson would probably still be in prison now had he not spotted criminal appeal specialist Julian Young & Co’s advertisement in Inside Time, a prison newspaper. He is reported to have been impressed by the firm’s address - Duke Street, Mayfair.

It is ironic that Hodgson won his freedom – or rather, Young won Hodgson’s freedom - just a few days after the lord chancellor set out his vision for the commoditisation and de-skilling of legal aid provision.

‘It’s not about the money – we’re a legal aid firm,’ Young told the Gazette. Quite so. Are you listening Mr Straw?