Leigh Day employee shortlisted for Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards 2025
Leigh Day’s Rachael Kirk has been shortlisted for the Support Staffer/Support Team award at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards 2025 (LALYs).
Posted on 23 May 2025
The Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) announced the shortlist on Wednesday 21 May, with nine award categories which also include Legal Aid newcomer, Criminal Defence and Legal Aid barrister, as well as an additional Outstanding Achievement award. The winners will be announced at the ceremony in Central London on 4 July 2025.
Leigh Day support staffer Rachael Kirk has been shortlisted for her work supporting the busy public law and human rights teams, who described her in the nomination as ‘an integral member of the department’ who ‘holds our teams together’.
Rachael works as personal assistant to partners Jamie Beagent and Tessa Gregory, offering support to a total of 18 fee earners across the department.
Jamie Beagent is joint head of Leigh Day’s human rights department and undertakes a wide range of public law and judicial review matters. Tessa Gregory, who alongside Jamie leads on the firm’s public law work, is renowned for bringing action on behalf of claimants in some of the most challenging and high-profile human rights and environmental cases of the day.
Leigh Day is also sponsoring the event in its 23rd running year. The awards, which are organised on a not-for-profit basis, celebrate the work of the dedicated legal employees working to achieve global social justice.
Jamie Beagent said:
“We are delighted that Rachael has been shortlisted for a LALY. It is fantastic that the LALYs have decided to recognise the invaluable work of support staff in supporting lawyers working in the legal aid sector. They are the unsung heroes without whom the work of legal aid lawyers representing the most vulnerable in society, would not be possible".
Tessa Gregory added:
“Rachael has been a key part of our team for many years, providing unstinting and dedicated support to a large team of lawyers. We believe that she is thoroughly deserving of this recognition. We will be by her side wishing her the best of luck at the awards evening".
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Tessa Gregory
Tessa is an experienced litigator who specialises in international and domestic human rights law cases
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Jamie Beagent
Joint head of the human rights department specialising in judicial review and public law.
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Human rights
If you believe your human rights have been denied our human rights and civil liberties team is one of the leading teams of practitioners in this specialist area in the country.