The man who led Gateley to an historic London Stock Exchange flotation, Michael Ward, was named the Law Society Gazette legal personality of the year at last night’s Law Society Excellence Awards.

Annemarie Roberts, who built the legal team at One Housing, was named in-house solicitor of the year. QualitySolicitors Abney Garsden’s Peter Garsden, who leads one of the largest abuse departments in the country, was named private client solicitor of the year. Immigration lawyer Laura Devine, a Gazette columnist, was named woman lawyer of the year. 

Law Society president, Jonathan Smithers, said: ‘The Law Society Excellence Awards are a celebration of the outstanding work our members do.



‘We are immensely proud of the profession, its commitment to innovation, to first-rate client service, to business, to equality, to human rights, and of course to upholding the rule of law.

’I would like to congratulate every winner, highly commended and shortlisted entrant on their exceptional achievement. I know that choosing the winners from such an outstanding pool of talent was incredibly difficult for the judges in every category.’

For a full list of award winners go to the Law Society website.