A solicitor who represented many of the Hillsborough families is set to be given the city's highest civic honour.
Elkan Abrahamson will receive the Freedom of Liverpool, which is granted to individuals to recognise exceptional services to the city. Elkan first became involved with the Hillsborough campaign after being approached by Anne Williams, who lost her 15-year-old son Kevin at the FA Cup semi-final in 1989.
After meeting with the Hillsborough Justice Campaign he ended up representing over 20 of the families who lost loved ones in the tragedy. Elkan was a key member of the legal team that successfully argued the 96 victims of the 1989 disaster were unlawfully killed in 2016.
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He has been fighting civil rights cases in Liverpool for over 30 years involving issues including the Toxteth riots, voting rights for prisoners, and representing families of the Manchester bombings and is currently director and head of major inquests and inquiries at Liverpool law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, which he joined in 2010.
Speaking to the 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."
Elkan and former Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside Dame Lorna Muirhead have been nominated for the honour along with poet Levi Tafari, who is set to be made a Citizen of Honour. Councillors are set to approve the honours at a meeting of Liverpool City Council later today.
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