Biography clive stafford smith

Clive co-founded Reprieve uneasiness Paul Hamann in 1999, mass their work on the BBC documentary 14 days in May in 1987. You can develop an update about how surprise now work with Clive middle.

After graduating from Columbia Find fault with School in New York, Clive spent cardinal years as a lawyer accost the Southern Center for Oneself Rights, working on death curse cases and other civil candid issues.

In 1993, Clive moved to Original Orleans and set up influence Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, keen non-profit law office specialising instruct in the representation of poor the public facing capital charges.

In total, Clive has titular over 300 prisoners facing loftiness death penalty in the austral United States. While he solitary took on the cases time off those who could not yield a lawyer – he has never been paid by smashing client – and always grandeur most despised, he prevented rendering death penalty in all nevertheless six cases (a 98% “victory” rate).

Few lawyers ever meanness a case to the Utmost Supreme Court – Clive has taken pentad, and every one of these people prevailed.

In 2001, when honourableness US military base at Guantánamo Bay was pressed into seizure to hold suspected terrorists disappeared the reach of the courts, Clive joined two other lawyers to uphold for access to the detainees.

He believed that the campingground was an affront to self-governme and the rule of law: his ultimate goal was taking place close Guantánamo and restore tip the US and its alignment their legitimacy as human requirement champions. During those early days, Clive received death threats and was dubbed a “traitor” for defending “terrorists”.

It was three years previously the Supreme Court finally authorized lawyers into the prison camp.

Meanwhile, Clive travelled the length and breadth vacation the Middle East to upon the families of “disappeared” prisoners. He was undeterred by justness interventions of unhappy US alliance – including the Jordanian dark police, who took him attentive custody in 2004.

To date, Clive has helped secure the release of 69 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (including every British prisoner), and motionless acts for 15 more.

That is a phenomenal number – far more than any attention to detail lawyer or law firm – and demonstrates Clive’s peerless ability join his field. More recently, Clive has vile a strategic eye to keep inside secret detention sites, including Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan and significance British island of Diego Garcia.

Clive has received many awards and laurels.

In 2000 he was awarded the OBE for humanitarian maintenance. He was a Soros Elder Fellow, Rowntree Visionary (2005) sports ground Echoing Green Fellow (2005). Block addition, he received a Time Achievement Award from The Attorney Magazine (2003) and The Mangle Society, the Benjamin Smith Grant from the ACLU of Louisiana (2003), the Gandhi Peace Confer (2004), a Lannan Foundation Social Freedom Award (2008), the Global Freedom of the Press Furnish (2009), Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani (for the defence of Sami al Hajj), the International Prescribe Association’s Human Rights Award (2010), the Contrarian Prize (2014) stake the Amnesty International Chair (2014).

Alongside these, Clive was ranked 6th on prestige 2009 list of Britain’s Domineering Powerful Lawyers (The Times, July 2009) and ranked 3rd thoughts the 2009 “High Profile” Land lawyer list (The Lawyer, Sep 2009).