Lawyer, writer and Good Law Project founder Jolyon Maugham is announced as the next speaker in the DARE Liberty Lecture series, where he’ll discuss his new book, Bringing Down Goliath: How Good Law Can Topple the Powerful, with Paul Wragg, Professor of Media Law at the University of Leeds.

Part of the ground-breaking partnership between Opera North and the University of Leeds, the DARE Liberty Lectures connect the curious and the experienced through a programme that has become an established part of Leeds’ cultural offering.

Jolyon tells his story for the first time, explaining the journey that inspired him to dedicate his life to legal activism: from homelessness at 16 to being appointed Queen’s Counsel and described by The Times as “one of Britain’s leading barristers” to then becoming a campaigning lawyer and founder of the Good Law Project.

Maugham’s first major book is a revealing and empowering read, telling the stories behind Good Law Project, which, since its inception in 2017, has become the biggest legal campaigning group in the country, winning some of the leading constitutional cases of our times, and setting the political agenda around Government pandemic sleaze.

In his book, he reveals why he believes that the power of the courts may be under more threat than ever from an increasingly authoritarian state, illuminating the hidden fault lines of our judicial system, and demonstrating how the law can work better for us all.

You are warmly invited to attend Jolyon’s Liberty Lecture on Thursday 4 May 2023 at 7.30pm in the Howard Assembly Room. Tickets cost £8 (£5 for Under 30 members). More info can be found on the Opera North website, and tickets can be booked here.