Mishcon de Reya has been accused of having "threatened and harassed" as well as seeking to "financially cripple" murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, by her three sons.

Caruana Galizia's sons Matthew, Andrew and Paul made the accusations about the firm in a letter sent to writers' campaign group English PEN earlier this month, in response to the appointment of Mishcon's deputy chairman Anthony Julius to the board of trustees at PEN.

Caruana Galizia, who had a reputation for reporting on corruption and politics in her home country, was killed by a car bomb in October 2017.

Before her death she had been contacted by Mishcon on behalf of its global citizenship advisory client, Henley & Partners, and threatened with libel action, with her sons alleging in their letter that prior to her death, Mishcon "sought to cripple her financially with libel action in the UK courts".

Despite acknowledging the work English PEN has done campaigning for justice for their mother since her death, her sons allege in their letter that Julius's appointment constitutes a "serious conflict of interest".

The letter, seen by Legal Week, states: "The campaign for justice in our mother's case cannot be disentangled from the abuse that she suffered at the hands of Mishcon de Reya's lawyers. The firm sought to cripple her financially with libel action in UK courts, on the instruction of… Henley & Partners. Had our mother not been murdered, they would have succeeded."

The letter adds: "The choice of Mishcon de Reya, a firm that has consistently threatened and harassed not just our mother, but countless other journalists worldwide, to carry out pro bono work is unfortunate but given your [English PEN's] commitment to our mother's case, we were unwilling to allow it to affect our relationship."

It then continues: "The decision to go one step further and appoint Mr Julius to English PEN's board of trustees is, however, altogether different. We ask you to urgently reconsider this decision."

According to the campaign group's website, Julius has been "hugely supportive to PEN, offering pro bono support from Mishcon".

Julius is best known for advising Diana, Princess of Wales during her divorce from Charles, Prince of Wales in 1996. He also successfully acted for American historian Deborah Lipstadt on a libel suit brought against her by Holocaust denier David Irving in the same year.

According to a response from the English PEN seen by Legal Week, the campaign group is devising a working group of trustees, not including Julius or any other lawyer trustees, to discuss how it should work with lawyers to protect freedom of expression both in the UK and abroad.

Caruana Galizia worked on stories included the so-called Panama Papers, which linked Maltese officials with Shell companies in Panama. Mishcon was one of a number of London law firms whose names appeared in a raft of documents that emerged through the data hack in 2016.

According to The Guardian newspaper, which first reported details of the letter, Mishcon claimed the newspaper concerned had written a defamatory article without giving its client a chance to respond before publication, and that its response to the article was "proportionate".

Mishcon declined to comment to Legal Week.

Photo credit: Ethan Doyle White