Who? James Welch, 42-year-old legal director of human rights organisation Liberty.

Why is he in the news? Acted for Katharine Gun, the former GCHQ employee who was prosecuted for breaching the Official Secrets Act after leaking an e-mail to The Observer newspaper.

Ms Gun claimed the e-mail was from US spies asking British officers to tap phones of nations voting on resolutions over Iraq before the UN security council.

The case collapsed last week when the prosecution offered no evidence against Ms Gun's defence of necessity.

Background: Degree in modern languages at Leeds University 1980-1983.

CPE and Law Society finals at the University of Northumbria between 1986-1988, then joined north London firm Alexander & Partners, where he became a partner before moving to Liberty in 2000.

Route to the case: 'I inherited the case from Liberty's former director when he left to become the deputy chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.'

Thoughts on the case: 'We were really surprised that Katharine was even charged.

She spent eight months on bail awaiting a decision and we assumed that the Attorney-General, who had to consent to her prosecution, would want to avoid a trial where events leading up to the war were bound to come under the spotlight.

It was all the more astonishing that the case was dropped after three months in circumstances that raised serious doubts about the prosecution's motives.

[It was] very gratifying considering that we thought we had an uphill struggle on our hands.'

Dealing with the media: 'While the case was continuing, we took the view that it was in Katharine's interests to say as little about her case in the media as possible - we wanted the jury to be the first to hear what she had to say.

Once the case was dropped, the gloves were off.

It got to the stage where I had no idea which channel I was on my way to and for which programme.

If a microphone was put in front of me, I talked at it.'

Paula Rohan