The Justice Diaries: Mohsin Zaidi
Mohsin Zaidi is a barrister at criminal chambers 6KBW College Hill, where he focuses on corporate crime. Prior to this he was a solicitor at Magic Circle firm Linklaters working in the Dispute Resolution team and he has also worked as Judicial Assistant to Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson at the Supreme Court.
Before the Bar, Mohsin worked for the Ministry of Justice’s Office of Criminal Justice Reform, the Office of the Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.
He worked on a number of high profile cases whilst at the Supreme Court, including Bull v Hall, the 2013 case involving Christian hotel owners who refused a double room to a same-sex couple.
He studied Law with European Legal Studies at Keble College, Oxford having been born and raised in Walthamstow, East London. He’s also a Governor of his former secondary school and sits on the board of LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall.
His latest book, A Dutiful Boy, focuses on his childhood growing up as a Pakistani gay man in working class Britain.
What have been your career highlights and lowlights…so far?
Working at the Supreme Court for Lord Wilson and Lord Sumption is easily the highlight of my legal career so far. Assisting two of the greatest legal minds in the country was a total privilege. In terms of lowlights, it’s never easy when someone you are defending is found guilty.
How has Covid-19 changed your working life, and do you think it will change for good?
I’m at home a lot but I tend to have a paper-based practise (mainly not in court) anyway so I’m sat at my desk at home rather than in chambers. I hope to return to chambers sooner rather than later because I miss the comradery.
What would you say to a young person starting a university degree in Law this year?
If you think something doesn’t seem right, don’t be afraid to challenge it. Laws are constantly evolving and being refined. That doesn’t happen without constant interrogation of the status quo.
Why do you think it’s important for there to be BAME representation in the legal sector?
The law is the backbone of society. It touches every part of our lives. Laws protect us but they can also wield great power. It is important that something as powerful as this is shaped and understood by all of those who are subject to it.
What are you reading at the moment?
One of my favourite books is Educated by Tara Westover so I’m re-reading that. I highly recommend it to young people as it illustrates beautifully the power of an education.
Why did you decide to tell your own story in A Dutiful Boy?
The book’s dedication read, in part, as follows:
There are lots of reasons I wrote A Dutiful Boy, but one of the most important is so that people like me have some hope and can know that things do get better.
What do you hope people will take away from reading your book?
They say that the best books contain both windows, so that you can see inside another world, and mirrors, so you can see yourself reflected in the story you are reading. I hope that readers will learn something but also that they feel like parts of the book, if not all of it, resonates with something they might have been through. Ultimately, I think so many of our stories of struggle are universal. This one is told with love and I hope that love is felt by people reading the book.
Courtesy: VINTAGE, Penguin Random House
A Dutiful Boy: A memoir of a gay Muslim’s journey to acceptance is available to buy now. Mohsin Tweets @mohsinzaidi_ldn.