“Justice doesn’t just mean a ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ verdict. Justice means doing the right thing for people”

As a fifteen-year-old, I read a book about the trial of an Eastbourne GP, John Bodkin Adams. He was accused of shortening the lives of his patients after they had shown their appreciation for him by putting him into their wills.

It was revelatory to me. It was fascinating to watch the process unfolding. The advocates building their cases, your own thought processes changing. That's what I wanted to do – to get involved in real-life cases. I was smitten. I found it so exciting, and from that perspective, I haven't been let down by criminal law in over 30 years.

My most rewarding case wasn't an acquittal of someone. It wasn't a startling piece of advocacy. It involved a woman with mental health problems who’d had a terrible time and suffered abuse. She’d tried to end her life while setting fire to a building and was charged with aggravated arson. The just outcome for most people was clear: she needed a hospital order, a mental health treatment order. But we were told there were no hospital beds available in the whole of the UK.

As a result, the judge said he only had one option – to send her to prison. Because of the nature of her mental health and the offence, that would be a sentence of life imprisonment. I was under no illusion that this was a potentially fatal threat to her wellbeing.

With her consent and her family's consent, I managed to keep getting the case adjourned. This allowed us crucial time to lobby for alternative options. I got coverage in the local and national press. When we came back, for what the judge said was the last time for the sentence, lo and behold, a bed was found.

It was the most rewarding outcome I've had because it changed and potentially preserved that person's life. Justice doesn't just mean a ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ verdict. Justice means doing the right thing for people.

Criminal justice is the shop window to the world of our justice system. If you ask people for one image that captures British justice, I reckon it will be the Statue of Justice sitting on top of the Old Bailey. That is the measure of our fairness. It’s so fundamentally important that politicians understand that. I'm looking forward to taking that debate to them; trying to persuade them of the need to rescue our publicly funded legal services from the terrible condition that they're in.

The courts are in an awful state. I’ve heard of a court where toilets leaked onto the jury from the floor above. I was involved in a murder trial that was delayed for four days because the central heating was broken. In another matter we all pretty much knew what the sentence was going to be, but it was unintentionally revealed when the judge said she couldn't sentence that day because the heating in the cells had stopped. My client was told to come back another day – a big hint that the cells were going to be needed.

Abroad, British justice is seen as the gold standard. But it won’t last forever. It won't be there if we let it fall; if the stories get out about thousands of defendants unable to access legal aid, huge backlogs of cases, and people being let out of prison early because there isn’t enough space.

I've represented people from self-made millionaires to serial killers. From those fighting drug addiction to people who, frankly, are rather nasty. I've represented accountants and doctors and dentists, unemployed people, and professional sports people. Within any community, there will be those who've come across the criminal justice system.

We often get asked, “how can you defend someone you know is guilty?” We have to take a dispassionate approach and have faith in the system. That's just the framework of the job that we do. Despite the way we’re portrayed in the media, we have a duty to the court as well as to our clients. If my client tells me they did it, then I cannot mislead the court and tell the court that they didn't do it.

But if they tell me they didn't do it, then I will advance their case as best I can. It is not for me to judge them. If they are then convicted, and I know I've done everything I possibly could, I sleep well. If I thought I hadn't done everything I could because I believed they were guilty anyway, I would be very, very troubled.

You might think that your client deserves some sympathy, that they've been hard done by. Emotional responses do not permit you to breach your professional rules, your ethical obligations. You are part of a system and have a role to play in it.

What marks you out, in my view, as a solicitor, is being ethical. It’s having an understanding that there are codes of conduct that you need to adhere to that are beyond obtaining the best result for your client. It's important to have a clear understanding of your function as a lawyer before you start to advance your client's case.

There are challenges because, unquestionably, ethics develop over time. It is essential that at the Law Society, we address this and give the best guidance we can to our members to make sure that they understand those challenges.

Preparation, preparation, preparation is the best piece of advice I’ve received. As a young advocate, people will tell you success stories of ‘winging it’. Or they’ll say “I've been doing this for years and you just know what to do”. It’s complete nonsense. The best advocates are those who have done the most work before the hearing to be able to present their case. Once you're in court and standing on your feet, there's no one else to turn to.

My advice to new solicitors is to make the law your friend. It will certainly sound strange to new lawyers who have just spent hours and weeks and months pouring over books, studying cases, desperately trying to remember them. But as other elements of your job come in, as other tasks come in, it can become easier not to focus as much on those details. So make the law your friend. It will make you a better lawyer and more valuable to your client.

Most of all, enjoy your career. This is a very personal outlook, but I think it's crucial to do something you enjoy and pursue that in your career. You're going to spend a lot of time at work. If you’re lucky enough that you enjoy well-remunerated work, good luck to you – I’m only mildly jealous. But don’t make that your priority.