In Your Defence
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8 Daniel
Shifting the Burden: Inquiry to assess the operation of the current legal settlement on prostitution in England and Wales, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade, March 2014: http://prostitutionresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/UK-shifting-the-burden-Mar-2014.pdf
9 Helena
Trinder, Liz, et al., Finding Fault? Divorce Law and Practice in England and Wales, Nuffield Foundation, 2017: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/Finding_Fault_full_report_v_FINAL.pdf
10 Chris
Mental health in prisons, Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, National Audit Office, HC 42, Session 2017–2019, 29 June 2017: https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Mental-health-in-prisons.pdf
Changing patterns of substance misuse in adult prisons and service responses: A thematic review, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, December 2015: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/Substance-misuse-web-2015.pdf
11 Jude
Report of the Vulnerable Witnesses & Children Working Group, Judiciary of England and Wales, February 2015: https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/vwcwg-report-march-2015.pdf
Rule of Law Index 2017–2018, World Justice Project, 2018: https://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/documents/WJP_ROLI_2017-18_Online-Edition.pdf
Acknowledgments
She must come first because, without her, there would not have been a book – or at least not this one. Elizabeth Day, thank you for remembering the time we walked across a Suffolk field and I told you I wanted to write. Thank you for then joining me with the firebrand force who is now our shared agent, Nelle Andrew. I am so grateful that she chose me to write this book, and I hope I make her glad to have done so.
Susanna Wadeson was prepared to hear me pitch this book despite my ten-day-old baby and half-finished proposal. She was then able to convince everyone else at Transworld of its merits. Since then she has been a constant and regular support and has delivered any suggestions or criticisms in a way which always assured me of her faith in the book and what I wanted to say.
To Dr Nick Freeman, the university teacher who noticed me, and who later gave me the reference which, I have no doubt, helped me pursue the career I told him I wanted.
To Sarah Jones, who may recognize herself in this book, but may never have known what a profound influence she had on me.
To my old clerk, Charlie Charlick, and my stalwarts in Winchester and Oxford, Stuart Pringle, Lee Giles and Russell Porter. Thanks for letting me (mostly) do the work I wanted to do, and for never making me choose between work or my children. Thanks for making me feel that I will always have a place in the chambers where I grew up. And thanks for not freaking out when I told you about this book (although wait until you hear about the telly series).
Thank you to my head of chambers, Nigel Lickley QC, and to all the other barristers in my chambers and on my circuit who have made me feel like I was part of a family rather than a profession. Thank you also to those barristers and solicitors who have set the tone for the rest of us through their dedication to their work and their clients, no matter how long the hours or poor the pay. When I was called to the Bar in 2005 many others told me that the publicly funded Bar was over and that the proposed changes to the legal system would see me out of work within a few years. I am glad I ignored the nay-sayers and listened instead to those who said that this is a wonderful profession and a position of privilege and that I could make it work. They were right.
To my parents, for the trust and freedom they gave me. Spending my carefully saved Post Office account money on travelling the globe as a wide-eyed nineteen-year-old changed me in invaluable ways and has proved a lifelong lesson. Only now do I really understand the great strength it took to let me go. It is their work ethic, and my mother’s conviction of the need for financial independence, which meant I have worked since I was a teenager. Those early jobs taught me so much and I would not have chosen the path I did without them. Thank you for never pressurizing or censoring me but letting me find my own way, and for supporting my determination to become a barrister. Thank you particularly to my mother for her proofreading abilities and her pride in this book.
Thank you to my parents-in-law for the encouragement, praise and crucial babysitting services you have handed out in abundance. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be part of your family. This book was written in your shepherd’s hut, overlooking your field and cows, and is, I think, the better for it. We could not have managed this last year without your love and support.
To all my friends who have seen me through an extraordinary year, but particularly to those whose humour, love, alcohol and play-dates (sometimes at the same time) have kept me steady – in no particular order: Alexandra Gywn, Clemmie Burton-Hill and Helia Ebrahimi. Most of all, thanks to Kate Fortescue. We have navigated this weird world alongside one another through pupillage and beyond. I cannot think of a better person to remind me of the dual importance of reading all the unused material and the need to get behind the DJ booth and dance on the podium. I have learned a lot from you, and am proud to call you my friend.
Thank you to my three-year-old quicksilver son, Wilfred, whose bear-hunt expeditions to my writing hut provided light relief just when I needed it. I hope that when you one day read this you will know that looking after you has been the best job I have ever had. Thank you also to my one-year-old, Aubrey, whose short life has been overshadowed by this book. Luckily you were born with a wide smile and an open heart, and you therefore will, I hope, forgive my absences.
I have saved the most important person for last. My husband, Ben. You are one of the best people I know. Your faith in my abilities enables me to carry on when I doubt them. I trust you not only to know the answer but to have weighed it against a moral and ethical compass that few can match. During my writing of this book the outside world pitched us and our little family high and low and all over the place. The fact that there is any book at all is due, in part, to your respect for my desire to write it, and your willingness to switch from matters of state to ones of laundry and childcare. You are, as always, the star to my wandering barque. I love you (and fear you will have to learn to live with my Oxford commas).
About the Author
Sarah Langford has been a practising barrister since 2006, both in London and around the country, principally in criminal and family law. She studied English at the University of the West of England and then worked as a barmaid, legal secretary and note-taking clerk before completing a law conversion, in which she gained a distinction. She was awarded a scholarship from Gray’s Inn of Court and went on to train as a barrister. She lives with her husband and two young sons in London and Suffolk.
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