After receiving a mixed bag of reviews during the annual conference season, David Emmerson reiterates the call to support legal aid lawyers

We have recently finished the annual conference season and it is interesting to reflect on the press coverage legal aid and legal aid lawyers have received.

First came the Citizens Advice Bureaux conference in York, where the chairman highlighted the fact that many lawyers were giving up legal aid because of remuneration and bureaucracy issues.

Many broadsheets covered the story, possibly because it was the advice sector rather than the profession raising these issues.

There was a sympathetic piece on Radio 4's 'Today' programme, focusing on one client who had to travel from Cambridge to London to receive housing advice.

In contrast, we then had the Prime Minister's speech at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth where he spoke of his determination to introduce tougher measures for asylum seekers and to end 'the legal aid gravy train'.

It will come as no surprise that these comments received massive coverage in the broadsheet and tabloid press as well as on the television news.

What a disappointment those comments were and how unhelpful at a time when the government is seeking major reform of the profession.

We all know that there has been a historical problem with a small minority abusing the system.

But those comments were clearly chosen to denigrate, without qualification, all legal aid lawyers, the vast majority of whom excel at delivering the government's own social inclusion agenda.

There then followed the Legal Aid Practitioners Group conference in Leicester, where the Lord Chancellor praised the work of legal aid lawyers and all that they achieve.

He spoke of the vital and hard working role we play in fighting cases for those in need.

Needless to say, there has not been any coverage of these comments even in the legal press.

During the conference, all hell broke loose off stage because of Lord Woolf's comments, carried on both television and in press reports, whereby he had criticised both lawyers for taking, and the Legal Services Commission for funding, apparently hopeless housing appeals.

The reports were fuelled by the fact that one of the appellants was an asylum seeker, a point completely irrelevant to the issues of the appeal.

Indeed, the next day one newspaper followed up the story with a highly critical piece under the guise of reporting Lord Woolf's comments.

This article was, in reality, nothing more than a personal attack on Clare Dodgson, the new Legal Services Commission (LSC) chief executive.

It spuriously focused on her sex, age, salary and the fact that she is not a lawyer.

What has not had press coverage are the comments made by Mr Justice Maurice Kay in guidance that has been issued to assist lawyers in dealing with the complex legal and human rights issues surrounding the law requiring asylum seekers to claim asylum within 48 hours of arrival in the country.

According to the judge, lawyers involved in such cases were to be commended for their 'dedication and compassion'.

As legal aid lawyers ponder their contributions to the Clementi review and alternative methods of payment are considered by the LSC and practitioners alike, we as a profession must do all we can to promote the work of lawyers in advice centres, law centres and solicitors' practices around the country.

David Emmerson is a partner with Edwards Duthie solicitors and the immediate past chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group