My son, Phil Michaels, who has died of cancer aged 42, was a passionate environmental lawyer who, as head of the legal department of Friends of the Earth, made a deep impact on the way environmental law and freedom of information was utilised.
Phil was born in Hendon, north London, and went to the Hall school, followed by Mill Hill. He read social and political sciences at Robinson College, Cambridge, where he met his future wife, Abi Allanson. After qualifying as a lawyer with Theodore Goddard, Phil joined Friends of the Earth in 2001. He led a number of important, high-profile and successful legal challenges, including the campaign to block the dismantling in Hartlepool of a "ghost fleet" of decommissioned US Navy warships, which were packed with asbestos and deadly chemicals.
In 2006 Phil pushed the government into a U-turn over the scrapping, without consultation, of the operating and financial review, which obliged companies to report on the environmental and social effects of their operations. He also forced the Metropolitan Police to climb down over banning the Critical Mass bicycle ride in central London, and brought successful actions against various government bodies on fuel subsidies for the poor and elderly, GM foods, destruction of woodland, and access to public information.
In 2007 he was named as one of the Lawyer magazine's Hot 100 Lawyers in recognition of his achievements. What really distinguished him was his steadfast dedication to helping ordinary people hold powerful interests to account through the law. He set up the Coalition for Access to Justice for the Environment, and one of Phil's lasting legacies was establishing Friends of the Earth's Rights and Justice Centre, the UK's first pro bono or affordable legal advice centre for environmental public law.
Michael Fordham QC, who worked closely with him on a number of cases, said: "Phil exuded basic human decency and was a truly principled person, someone who had thought through the values and practicalities of living his life on the planet, and who got on with doing what he knew to be right."
Phil loved travelling and camping and drove from London to Nigeria with Abi and his brother Joe. A few years later, he spent six weeks cycling around Kenya with Joe. A few months before he died, when he knew he was seriously ill, Phil took Abi and their three sons, Isaac, Aaron and Seth, on a road, rail and ferry trip to Greece via Venice and Puglia. He felt flying to be immoral.
He spent considerable time taking his children walking and camping, and at an early age they could recognise bird sounds and trees. When he was first diagnosed, and was forced to stop working, he built with the help of friends and cousins a chicken run in their garden, complete with four hens.
Phil is survived by Abi, Isaac, Aaron and Seth, his mother, Lesley, and I, his brothers, Joe and Sammy, and his grandmother, Charlotte.
