Who? Melanie Dirom, 27-year-old assistant at Liverpool firm Bremners, who specialises in housing litigation and anti-social behaviour.

Why is she in the news? She represented Community Seven, the registered social landlord (RSL) that obtained anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) against a gang of 11 teenagers who had terrorised residents in the Kensington area of Liverpool for two years. This is believed to be the biggest ASBO case brought by an RSL. The court heard how the gang members, who called themselves the Kensington Riot Squad, set fire to cars and houses, tortured cats, carried weapons and intimidated residents. Magistrates in the city gave the gang members ASBOs lasting between two and four-and-a-half years, which ban the recipients from certain parts of Liverpool and prevent them from congregating in public.


Background: Law degree at Sheffield University followed by a legal practice course at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle and a training contract with Penrith firm Scott Duff & Co. After qualifying in 2003, she worked at Russell & Russell in Bolton, then Berryman Lace Mawer in Liverpool, before joining her current firm in May 2005.


Route to the case: 'Bremners acts for a large number of RSLs, and Community Seven approached us to act for them in this case.'


Thoughts on the case: 'This is a major achievement for an RSL, particularly as none of the defendants or their families were tenants of Community Seven. It highlights the power that RSLs have to apply for ASBOs against those who plague the community. The orders were not easy to obtain. There is a general public perception that ASBOs are given out easily, but the standard of proof we had to meet was the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt, so our evidence, much of which came from the police, had to be top notch. This case also demonstrates that ASBOs do work - the court found that between July and December 2005, before the proceedings were issued, the gang was responsible for 57 acts of anti-social behaviour, and from the date the proceedings were issued in December 2005 to last week's trial, that number had reduced to eight.'


Dealing with the media: 'This was the first time that I had had to deal with the media. The press attended every hearing and their support has been very positive. The newspapers and broadcasters, including the BBC, were active in getting some of the reporting restrictions removed. The only negative point was that we didn't really want the name of the gang to be reported, in case it gave kudos to its members, but the name was a major feature of the case.'