Lawyers join London Assembly

Three lawyers will be taking up the reins of office on the Greater London Assembly alongside newly-elected mayor Ken Livingstone following last week's elections.

Life peer Baroness Hamwee, who is a partner at entertainment and media firm Clintons, takes her seat for the Liberal Democrat party under the top-up provisions which ensure cross-party representation in the assembly.As running mate for unsuccessful mayoral candidate Susan Kramer, Baroness Hamwee is tipped to emerge as the leader of the LibDem group on the assembly, although she told the Gazette this week that no decision had been made on who would be leader or who would join Mr Livingstone's so-called kitchen cabinet, if the party decides to join it at all.

Baroness Hamwee said the party's main interests on the assembly will be the environment, equality and social justice - which was why her colleague Lord Tope refused an offer to chair the fire and civil defence authority.However, Baroness Hamwee said she would did not 'want to walk away from the law' as it kept her in touch with the real world.Conservative Robert Neill, a criminal barrister at 3 Hare Court, won a 34,000 majority in his Bexley and Bromley seat.

Fellow barrister David Lammy won a seat through the Labour top-up list.Legal losers last week included LibDems Jonathan Davies, an insurance and financial services partner at City firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, and Christopher Noyce, a private client partner at Lovell Son & Pitfield.

Mr Noyce - who was ninth on the LibDem top-up list - said: 'It was a good night for lawyers but a bad night for Labour.'Barrister Katy Thorne and 'community lawyer' Diana Johnson both failed to win seats for Labour.

Sue Allen