Hillsborough solicitor nominated for Freedom of Liverpool

A solicitor who represented some of the Hillsborough families and the former Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside are to be given the Freedom of Liverpool.

Elkan Abrahamson and Dame Lorna Muirhead have been nominated for the honour along with poet Levi Tafari, who is set to be made a Citizen of Honour.

Lord Mayor of Liverpool Roy Gladden said the nominations acknowledged the dedication all had given to the city.

Councillors approved the honours at a council meeting earlier.

Mr Gladden said: "Dame Lorna and Levi will be familiar faces to many of you and it is astonishing the number of lives that Elkan has improved and continues to improve through his enduring commitment to social justice.

"It will be a joy as Lord Mayor... to meet these latest nominees and thank them personally when they receive their scrolls at the Town Hall."

Dame Lorna served as Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside from 2006 to 2017.

She moved to Liverpool in 1964 and was a nurse and midwife at the city's maternity hospital on Oxford Street where she delivered about 3,000 babies in her 40-year career.

Dame Lorna, who later became president of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "To have recognition for this work by the city of Liverpool is very special indeed and I am deeply grateful for this honour."

Mr Abrahamson is director and head of major inquests and inquiries at Liverpool law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, which he joined in 2010.

He is currently working with families as part of the public inquiry into Covid and previously represented people wrongly arrested at the time of the Toxteth riots and families affected by the Birmingham pub and Manchester Arena bombings.

Mr Abrahamson also represented 20 families during the Hillsborough inquests and supports the campaign working towards implementing a Hillsborough Law.

He said: "I am Liverpool born and bred and am honoured and amazed by this nomination."

Mr Tafari is a performance poet who has also written plays, toured with the British Council and been Writer in Residence at Charles University in Prague.

He also spent two seasons as poet in residence with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and has run countless workshops in schools, colleges and in prisons.

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