Campaigning human rights solicitor Louise Christian headed the list of practitioners commended for their publicly funded work at last week's legal aid lawyer of the year awards.

Ms Christian, who was awarded the personality of the year prize, is senior partner at London firm Christian Khan and has acted for families of rail crash victims as well as Guantanamo Bay detainees.



Other winners at the awards, run by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group and Independent Lawyer magazine, included criminal law solicitor Greg Powell, a partner at Powell Forster, who defended Guantanamo Bay detainee Rhuhel Ahmed. David Gray, who set up the first immigration firm in the north-east, was also honoured.



Anne-Marie Hutchinson took the family law prize for helping to protect the victims of forced marriages. Finola O'Neill of Wandsworth and Merton Law Centre scooped the social welfare prize and Richard Charlton, partner at London's Kaim Todner and chairman of the Mental Health Lawyers Association, picked up the mental health prize.