Another Doughty Street barrister gets the tabloid treatment

Jennifer Robinson caught in crossfire as newspapers target key Labour figure

A top human rights barrister has been caught in the middle of a media storm after apparently being photographed in a “clinch” with one of Jeremy Corbyn’s top political aides at a swanky east London hotel.

Jennifer Robinson, a public law and media specialist at Doughty Street Chambers, is reported to be the woman spotted cosying up to married PR guru Seumas Milne, according to “Labour sources” cited in The Times (£).

The report — which includes a number of what appear to be mobile phone snaps — claims the pair were hanging out on a terrace area of the five-star Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch, London.

Since The Times ran its story, there have been follow-up pieces in The Sun and the Mail Online.

So what do we know about Robinson? The 36-year-old is an accomplished cross-qualified lawyer who was called to the bar of England and Wales just last year having spent the bulk of her legal life in her native Australia. She completed her joint degree in law and Asian studies at Australian National University before going on to study a bachelor of civil law (BCL) at Oxford. Around this time she completed vac schemes at Shearman & Sterling and Baker McKenzie, according to her LinkedIn, before training as a solicitor with Finers Stephens Innocent (now Howard Kennedy). She later qualified as barrister, joining Doughty Street in January.

Though she represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during extradition proceedings in 2010 when she was a solicitor at Finers, for the tabloids her career highlight came in 2014 when she attended the star-studded wedding of Doughty Street pal Amal Clooney.

Today’s story didn’t sit well with a number of Times readers, some of whom may be lawyers. One went below the line to write:

This is the sort of article that you would expect in a down-market tabloid. Which editor decided that this was to added to the “Politics” section?

While another blasted:

Disgraceful that [The Times] choose to use our subscription returns to pay for this spiteful excrement, which has absolutely zero public interest.

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