Hillsborough lawyer to be awarded Liverpool's highest honour

A leading Liverpool solicitor who represented many of the Hillsborough families will be granted the freedom of the city this week.

Elkan Abrahamson will receive the city's highest civic honour at a ceremony at the Town Hall on Friday, April 12. Mr Abrahamson, who is head of major inquiries at city centre firm Broudie Jackson Canter, first became involved with the Hillsborough campaign after being approached by Anne Williams, who lost her 15-year-old son Kevin at the FA Cup semi-final in 1989.

After meeting with the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, he represented more than 20 of the families who lost loved ones in the tragedy. He was a key member of the legal team that successfully argued the 96 victims of the 1989 disaster were unlawfully killed in 2016.

In 2021 a coroner ruled that Andrew Devine, 55, who died 32 years after suffering severe and irreversible brain damage in the Hillsborough tragedy, was unlawfully killed, and was therefore legally the 97th victim of the disaster.

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Mr Abrahamson is continuing to push for the passing of a Hillsborough Law, which would create a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials to tell the truth and proactively cooperate with official investigations and inquiries. The Labour Party have committed to making this law if they win the next general election.

Mr Abrahamson's work has seen him play an instrumental role in getting justice for citizens of Liverpool and beyond for over 40 years, from those wrongly arrested in disturbances following the Toxteth uprisings, the families impacted by the Birmingham pub bombings and Manchester Arena bombing, and fighting for voting rights for prisoners. He is also currently working with the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Group in the covid inquiry.

About receiving the honour, he said: "I am incredibly proud to receive this honour. It means so much more to me than any national award as Liverpool is my city. It is where I was born and bred so to get this accolade means a great deal."

He added: "The two things I am probably most proud of which helped the people of Liverpool are representing the families of those killed at Hillsborough and the fighting for justice after the Toxteth riots. With Hillsborough, the families fought so long to get the truth acknowledged and just wanted a public accounting for the deaths of their loved ones.

"We were in a bubble for two years when the inquests were ongoing and it was only after the verdicts that I realised how much it affected the whole city and how what we had achieved impacted the city as a whole.

"With Toxteth we achieved a sea change in attitudes whereby young black people suddenly realised that they could stand up to police racism and their voices would be heard. I am very proud that I have been able to assist so many in the city to get justice."

According to Cllr Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool City Council, Mr Abrahamson is receiving the city’s highest civic honour because he "has always championed the marginalised, taken on the establishment and been at the centre of Liverpool’s most defining moments including the Toxteth uprising and the Hillsborough disaster".

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