Who? Tony Child, partner and administrative, public law and local government specialist at Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw.


Why is he in the news? Mr Child represented Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, in a successful High Court appeal against a finding that he had brought his office into disrepute. The incident that led to the original finding occurred on the evening of 8 February 2005. Mr Livingstone had just hosted a reception to mark the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith MP coming out as gay when an Evening Standard reporter approached him.



Mr Livingstone became irritated, likening the reporter, who it transpired was Jewish, to a 'German war criminal' and a 'concentration camp guard'. He has consistently refused to apologise ever since.



In February 2006, a tribunal convened by the Adjudication Panel for England found that Mr Livingstone's outburst had breached the Greater London Authority code of conduct. The tribunal ordered that Mr Livingstone be suspended from office for four weeks. The suspension was frozen by the High Court, however, pending the outcome of an appeal. Mr Justice Collins, hearing the appeal, criticised the mayor's 'offensive' remarks, but added that 'surprising as it may perhaps appear to some, the right of freedom of speech does extend to abuse'.



He also ruled that the code of conduct did not apply to an individual's private life and that the mayor was off-duty when door-stepped by the reporter. Accordingly, he overturned the tribunal's finding.



Background: Mr Child was admitted in 1971, having read law at University College, London and at the College of Law. He worked first in local government and then for the Audit Commission before joining Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw as a partner in 1995.



Route to the case: Mr Child had already acted successfully for the mayor in an earlier case involving the Evening Standard.



Thoughts on the case: 'This was a very important case in two respects. On the one hand, it was a victory for the right to freedom of speech.



On the other hand, it established that the Standards Board, an unelected body, cannot deprive the electorate of their elected representative because it dislikes what he said or because of conduct in his private life. If the electorate are unhappy, the ballot box is there for them to register their unhappiness and vote Mr Livingstone out of office.'



Dealing with the media: 'We've acted in high-profile cases before, such as the Dame Shirley Porter "homes for votes" scandal. We find the media is always interested to understand the procedures and background. We'd say that relations between us are good.'



Jonathan Rayner