Telecoms lawyer revives secular society

A leading in-house telecommunications lawyer has resurrected Britain's Lawyers' Secular Society and encouraged legal professionals to campaign against 'religious privilege'.

Campaigning against 'special advantages' for religions

Charlie Klendjian – a legal department lawyer at mobile network operator Everything Everywhere – has taken on the secretary role at the society, which was originally established by barrister Carla Revere, reports The Lawyer newspaper.
Now, Mr Klendjian, a former trainee at London law firm Howard Kennedy, is encouraging others to join the 100-member organisation, which, according to its website, promotes the view that ‘no weight should be attached to religious doctrine, belief in the supernatural or so-called cultural traditions’.

Special advantages

High-profile members of the group include Matrix public law barrister David Wolfe QC and anti-Sharia Law campaign One Law for All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters.
The LSS does not provide legal advice itself, but says that its members can separately give assistance to those ‘affected by laws which give special advantages to those who assert religious beliefs’.
Mr Klendjian commented: ‘Some of the key employment cases in the ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] this year are centred on the key areas of interest we’re focused on in terms of religious privilege, such as the freedom of Christians to wear crosses at work and refusing to support same-sex relationships.
‘Our stance is that behaviour which would otherwise be wrong cannot be justified in the name of religion. Our clear line is that freedom of religion is incredibly important, but that doesn’t mean the freedom to discriminate. Because we have such a good legal system in this country, the court process shines a light on the issues.’
The society is holding its next meeting on 4 February at 6 King’s Bench Walk Chambers in London.

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