Hillsborough lawyer to be awarded Liverpool’s highest civic honour

Elkan Abrahamson will receive the Freedom of Liverpool, granted to people who have rendered exceptional services to the city.

The solicitor first became involved with the Hillsborough campaign after he was approached by Anne Williams, who lost her 15-year-old son Kevin at the FA Cup semi-final in 1989.

He ultimately represented over 20 of the families who had lost their loved ones in the tragedy. He was also a key member of the legal team that successfully argued in court in 2016 that 96 of the victims were unlawfully killed.

Speaking to the Liverpool ECHO in 2016, he said: “I think you just learn as a lawyer as much as you can to just block yourself off and to think in segments. We had been in the inquests for two years in that little bubble in Warrington.

“Then you get the verdicts and you go to the event at St George’s Hall and you suddenly realise that it is not just that little bubble – it affects a whole city. And what really brought it home was the fact that we had actually had an impact on the city and not just on the families of those who had died, or the supporters and survivors.”