The legal industry has been shown to have some uncomfortable associations with the slave trade and imperial colonialism.

Some of the U.K.'s top firms including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance and Farrer & Co all had dark ties to these trades and all three have apologised for their role.

However, the legal industry also played a role in the fight against slavery worldwide: bringing tests cases to the court, drafting legal frameworks for abolition and campaigning on the issue of slavery.

Examples of court cases include Somerset v Stewart which ruled that chattel slavery was not constitutional under common law in England and Wales and R v Hodge, where slave-owner Arthur Hodge was found guilty of the murder of his slave, and abuse of other slaves.

Many of the key legal figures of the time hailed from partnerships which have long since disappeared. However, here are a few of the figures from present-day firms, particularly Ashurst, who helped influence the move towards the abolition of slavery on both sides of the Atlantic.

William Henry Ashurst

William Henry Ashurst, the namesake and founder of Ashurst

The Ashurst of today traces its roots back to its namesake William Henry Ashurst, who in collaboration with John Morris, founded the firm in 1822. Ashurst himself was a powerful force in U.K. politics, and a vocal reformer. 

He was an ardent campaigner for the abolition of slavery, as well as the emancipation of women. A member of the anti-slavery society, he participated in the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840, but protested its refusal to admit women, according to an 1840 edition of the Leicestershire Mercury. 

Ashurst played a significant role in forging a network of abolitionists across both sides of the Atlantic, penning articles for two journals, The Liberator and The Reasoner. 

Ashurst raised four daughters, Elizabeth, Caroline, Matilda and Emilie, all of whom were proponents of abolition and emancipation, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 

According to an Ashurst newsletter, the Ashurst family's anti-slavery campaigning continued another generation further, stating that a three-volume anti-slavery novel titled 'White and Black: A Story of the Southern States' has been attributed to William's granddaughter Elizabeth Ashurst Biggs.

William Shaen

Training under Ashurst at his partnership, William Shaen was another radical reformer who campaigned on the issue of abolition, particularly in the United States. 19th century newspapers including the Northern Star, Newcastle Guardian and London Daily News note his involvement in a number of campaigning groups including the Anti-Slavery League. 

Shaen was also part of the so-called Jamaica Committee, a group established to campaign for justice over the ruthless suppression under martial law of a violent uprising among the black peasantry at Morant Bay by the colonial governor, Edward Eyre. Whilst they successfully brought prosecution against Eyre, they ultimately failed in court. 

Sir George Stephen

George Stephen trained under James William Freshfield and acted as solicitor to the Bank of England, helping to build out the firm's bankruptcy business. It was his work towards abolitionism that is perhaps better remembered. 

Stephen's father had been a key figure in the abolitionist movement, and the brother-in-law of William Wilberforce. He took after his father in this cause, acting for the House of Commons in an investigation of illegal slave-trading in Mauritius. 

A prominent member of the anti-slavery society, Stephen also represented slaves in their legal bids for freedom, as noted by the Morning Chronicle in 1845, which described Stephen as "the indefatigable friend of the slave". 

He also co-founded a radical sub-group of the anti-slavery society in 1831, called the Agency Committee. This aimed to lobby parliament to pass a bill abolishing slavery, leading to the 1833 Act, according to the National Archives.

Stephen published a large treatise of work entitled "Antislavery Recollections".

Other lawyers too are descended from the lines of prominent abolitionist campaigners. Thomas Paine of Paines Plythe & Huxtable, which merged with Linklaters in 1920 , was a descendant of American abolitionist Thomas Paine,

As editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, Paine published an anonymous article titled "African Slavery in America," one of the first prominent piece in the colonies calling for the abolition of slavery.

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