An east London solicitor who helped a young Kosovan client by paying for her flight to the UK and allowing her to stay in her home was among the lawyers honoured at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards last week.

TV Edwards solicitor Jennifer Beck received the family law award after showing 'total dedication' to a Kosovan client. The client had been forced to abandon her daughter - who was the result of a rape - in the UK before returning to Kosovo, for fear that the girl would be killed. Ms Beck's support enabled her to return to the UK to take part in care proceedings, where her client ultimately decided to support another woman's application to adopt the child.


Other winners included human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, criminal law specialist Andrew Keogh and the legal aid team at Nottingham firm Paragon Law.


Ms Peirce was named legal aid personality of the year in recognition of her work acting for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, and more recently the family caught up in the police raid at Forest Gate in London. Mr Keogh won the criminal law award for setting up the free on-line resource Crimeline, which updates criminal law practitioners on legal developments.


The team of the year award went to Paragon Law for its human rights and immigration work, including a House of Lords case on the issue of rape as a weapon of war.


Other awards went to Saimo Chahal, a partner at Bindman & Partners, for mental health lawyer of the year; Nathaniel Matthews, a solicitor at Hackney Community Centre, for social and welfare law; and Amit Sachdev, a solicitor at Sheikh & Co in London - who received more than 70 nominations from colleagues and clients - for immigration. Laura Janes, who works for the Howard League for Penal Reform representing children in custody, was named young legal aid solicitor of the year.


The awards were organised by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group and Independent Lawyer magazine and were chaired by Cherie Booth QC, who also acted as one of the judges.