Elections for MPs to join the justice select committee, which oversees the work of the Ministry of Justice, produced seven lawyers out of the nine members.
Andy Slaughter, a former Labour shadow justice minister, was elected as chair by the whole House last month and the other eight members – six from Labour and two from the Conservatives – were chosen in party elections last week. Except for Mr Slaughter, all of them entered Parliament this year.
They are:
Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour, Cardiff West): He qualified and then spent four years as an associate at City giant Allen & Overy, leaving in 2015. He was a consultant solicitor specialising in derivatives and structured finance at Myriad Consultants before becoming the Labour Party’s general counsel in 2020.
Linsey Farnsworth (Labour, Amber Valley): She worked for 21 years as a prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service.
Sir Ashley Fox (Conservative, Bridgwater): He specialised in insurance litigation, working for 17 years at various firms in Bristol before being elected to the European Parliament in 2009, where he stayed for a decade. He set up a consulting business to advise clients on how the EU operates in 2019.
Pam Fox (Labour, Colchester): She was at Essex University for nearly 28 years, becoming a professor of sociology in 2014 and head of the sociology department between 2020 and 2023.
Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative, Solihull West and Shirley): He worked initially as an army doctor before having to give up life as a surgeon for medical reasons and requalifying as a barrister specialising in healthcare law at No5 Chambers.
Warinder Juss (Labour, Wolverhampton West): Qualified for 34 years, he was a senior personal injury solicitor at Thompsons in Birmingham, supervising the firm’s West Midlands work-related stress team.
Sarah Russell (Labour, Congleton): She qualified in 2010 and has practised as an employment solicitor at various firms, as well as a stint in-house at Capita, but latterly was a consultant solicitor at Fox Whitfield and Rebel Law. She was also a part-time supervising solicitor at the Equality and Employment Law Centre.
Mike Tapp (Labour): He served in the intelligence corps before working at the National Crime Agency and later in a counter-terrorism role at the Ministry of Defence. He stood against Mr Slaughter for the chair.
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