Christopher Stanley, litigation consultant at Belfast-based KRW Law, has been named Lawyer of the Week by The Times.

Mr Stanley is part of the legal team representing ten of the families of victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings.

Asked about the main challenges in the case, he said: “The discretion of a coroner to rule in and out of scope contested issues, and the historic nature of this inquest — and the possible role of state agents and informers in terms of prior knowledge and collusion.

“As legal aid was refused, our clients had to rely on crowdfunding, including collection buckets at football matches.”

The full interview is published on thetimes.co.uk.