The long haul

Paula Rohan discusses the implications of long-term cases with the lawyers who devote many years battling to win complicated claims for their clients

One day, CMS Cameron McKenna's Chris Williams set off to deal with a matter for a client and was bewildered to discover on his return that nothing was the same.

'New wine bars and trendy shops had sprung up all around the office,' he says.

'Cool Britannia had arrived, and somehow I had missed it.'

Mr Williams had just spent four years living in a west London hotel while acting for British Airport Authorities on the inquiry into the controversial plans for Heathrow terminal five.

The problem of files which will not close came to the fore recently when fellow City firm SJ Berwin finally completed the purchase of a site at Victoria Bus Garage in south London for Delancey Estates some seven years after it began.

Planning and rights of light issues held up the 24 million deal, during which time SJ Berwin partner Maurice Fireman had four grandchildren, and Sara Bailey of Trowers & Hamlins, who acted for seller Network Housing, was made up to partner and became a mother.

Mr Williams' first brush with Terminal Five came in 1989 when he was a 27-year-old assistant, and he is still working on it now as a 40-year-old partner in the firm's planning department.

'The last thing we dealt with was a High Court challenge a couple of weeks ago, and we won,' he says.

'We are hoping that now the litigation and planning inquiry are over, we are out of the woods as far as the delays are concerned.

Now we just want to get on with implementing the project, sorting out approvals and that kind of thing.'

Mr Williams says he and his team managed to reach the light at the end of the tunnel by adopting a certain approach: 'The key is to break it all down into 100 smaller jobs,' he explains.

'For example, we had to cover about ten different topics ranging from national and London needs to noise, and each ended up being 40 separate applications.

That way it is still interesting and fulfilling.'

It is not unusual for a solicitor to take on a case and still be dealing with it several years later - although sometimes it can be unexpected.

John Kingston, a dispute resolution partner at City firm Travers Smith Braithwaite, never thought when he began acting for the Mirror Group pensioners following the death of Robert Maxwell in 1991 that there would still be a current outstanding claim in 2002.

Mr Kingston says he has no regrets, although he doubts he will ever get another opportunity like it.

'You will only get one case like that in a lifetime, because there are not many that will have those sorts of ramifications and involve so many points of law or so much money,' he says.

'From a litigator's point of view it was fascinating - there were always developments and new elements ranging from constructive trusts to insurance issues.'

In fact, when Mr Kingston looks back, he is surprised how everything panned out.

'Shortly after the whole balloon went up, I had to write a difficult paper on the potential claims,' he says.

'Recently I looked at it and thought how wrong I was - things emerged through the case that you couldn't possibly have predicted.'

This can sometimes present challenges, says Mr Williams.

'One thing about cases like this is that you might be tied up in it, but the real world does not stop.

There are changes to government policy and budgets, changes in the law, and every time something happens in the real world you have to recalibrate the evidence to reflect it.'

James Welch, legal director at human rights organisation Liberty - which frequently makes the slow trek to Strasbourg to fight the cause of clients - agrees that delays can cause havoc, particularly when a case falls into the slow machinery of Europe.

'Cases that end up in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) tend to come in spates; you find that people put in an application and it takes a couple of years to hear anything from the court.

This means you are not on top of the file and have to kick-start the case.

Then there is the problem that someone has left and another person has to take the case over.

'The problem is that the ECHR is not given enough resources to deal with the number of applications it receives - it basically needs more lawyers and more judges.'

But one consolation for a solicitor working on a lengthy case is the feeling that other lawyers share the ups and the downs.

Mr Kingston says he is glad he worked on the Maxwell case because he made some good friends and strengthened relationships within his own team.

'We all worked very well together - the co-operation was great, despite the huge egos which are a job requirement for a litigator,' he says.

'We all trusted each other because our ultimate aim was to get as much money back for the clients as possible.

We don't have reunion dinners or anything like that, but I have to say I quite miss the regular meetings.'

But sometimes maintaining relationships over the duration of a case can be difficult if the lawyer is expected to be the rock in the situation.

Errol Robinson, head of criminal litigation at Birmingham firm McGrath & Co, acted for Trevor Campbell, who spent 14 years in prison for the murder of pensioner Ethel Cawood.

The appeal court freed him in 1999, ruling the conviction unsafe.

Mr Robinson represented Mr Campbell for seven years after the client's mother Cynthia approached him.

'She convinced me that he was innocent, and when you are dealing with a mother over that period of time you have to put up with the tears, the ranting and the frustrations while still trying to maintain a degree of professionalism,' he says.

'At the end of the day, somebody must be able to see the wood for the trees.'

Lawyers dealing with miscarriage of justice cases are also aware that time is ticking painfully slowly for their clients.

'In a case like this, there are lots of organisations you have to engage with and applications you have to file, but somehow this does not lend the sense of urgency to the problem that it deserves,' he says.

'If you have a defendant saying "I am not guilty and will never say I am guilty", it has parole implications.

Mr Campbell said he would rather die in prison than say he was guilty, and ended up spending 15 years that should have been the best years of his life locked away.'

However, Mr Robinson says part of his job was explaining to his client that if you take on a job that involves evidence gathering, you sometimes have to accept that it will take time to do it properly.

Frances Swaine, partner in London firm Leigh Day & Co and executive member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, agrees that in many cases it is a necessity.

'The largest clinical negligence claims relate to people who are the most seriously damaged, and quite a lot of these are children,' she explains.

'The delays crop up due to the assessment of damages because you have to wait until the child is of a certain age - usually about 11 or 12 - to get a clear idea and enough evidence about what their lives will be like for the next 70 years.

'Even the very best practitioners have cases on their books that go on for about six or seven years, and they would be negligent to settle after a couple of years because it is not in the best interests of their client.'

Mr Robinson stresses that however much a case dominates a lawyer's life, it is important to remember that the one at the centre of events is the client - which really hit home when Mr Campbell walked free.

'It is not a feeling I can express in words; it was just total relief and total vindication,' he explains.

'But what kept me humble was the thought that my emotions were nothing compared to his.

I might have been working on the case for years, but I was still able to go home at the end of each day - my client wasn't.'