Westfield, Stratford, London

I'm proud to be a member of @gardencourtlaw.bsky.social alongside some incredibly talented and dedicated barristers. But it is wrong and it undermines the rule of law to attack a set of chambers for the clients some members represent.

As you might have guessed, the article is actually an attempted hit job on us collectively. There's a serious point here, made very well by @joshuarozenberg.bsky.social in this article: open.substack.com/pub/rozenber...

6) the wider context of the Tories doxxing immigration lawyers is a backhanded swipe at Starmer (a lawyer) and the kind of far right populist bullying that has already led to attempts to kill and maim immigration lawyers and asylum seekers. Jenrick should be ashamed of himself.

5) I am not personally close friends with Greg or anything, but you can't be an immigration lawyer and not know of the absolutely sterling high quality of his work and of his generosity with his time and skills. He is funny and acerbic and he is a role model for many.

4) For someone like Greg, being a part time judge is a form of public service. He's earning less than he might doing other work when he's sitting as a judge, but when top lawyers sit as judges we are lucky to have their expertise contributing to the protection and development of the law.

3) Judges are recruited from a wide cross section of society. There are immigration judges who were Home Office employees before they became judges and there are immigration judges who have only represented individual immigration claimants in the past. That doesn't mean they won't apply the law.

2) When a lawyer becomes a judge they are from then on expected to present appropriately in their public communications. But that doesn't mean they can never in their lives have expressed a political opinion. Greg only recently became a judge and these tweets are more than 10 years old mostly.

1) When politicians and the media pick on judges like this it is simply bullying, because the judge is not permitted to respond or defend themselves. If Greg (an exceptionally bright, articulate and generous-spirited lawyer) could he would *wipe the floor* with a disingenuous weasel like Jenrick.