LAG was very sorry to learn of the death of one of its co-founders and first chair, Andrew Phillips, Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE, on 9 April 2023 at the age of 84.

As well as setting up the firm Bates Wells & Braithwaite (which currently trades as Bates Wells) in London in 1970, Andrew set up the Citizenship Foundation in 1989 and co-founded the Solicitors Pro Bono Group (now known as LawWorks) in 1996. 'But before all this, he also, thankfully, co-founded LAG,’ as LAG’s CEO Sue James wrote in a 2022 article celebrating LAG’s 50th. Following a very well-attended meeting of like-minded lawyers on the state of legal aid and access to justice in 1971, he, along with Simon Hillyard and the late Cyril Glasser and Richard White, set up LAG at the beginning of 1972. Although his involvement with LAG ceased in 1981, his passion for fairness and social justice never left him, and he remained a loyal champion for the organisation for the rest of his life.

Andrew was the ‘Citizens’ Advisor’ for many years on the Jimmy Young radio show, where he was affectionately known as the ‘legal eagle’. The audience was huge: 10m people listened to Andrew dispense advice. He became a Liberal Democrat peer in 1998 and went on to become chancellor of Essex University.

In conversation with Sue James, on the occasion of LAG’s 45th anniversary, Andrew said: ‘I get very angry still about where we appear to be going. We are going backwards, and that’s not bloody good enough.’ Speaking at LAG’s half-century celebrations last year, he lamented the country’s direction since the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949: ‘Since then, there has been a sad and utterly regressive dominance of money. The way money is thought of in today’s world: if you have got money you deserve the advantage and privilege that comes with it; if you have not, you’re idle. I cannot abide those sentiments.’