In 2005, Sir Keir Starmer’s star was on the rise. It was the start of what colleagues later called his “golden era”, leading to his appointment as Director of Public Prosecutions. It was also the year his path appears to have first crossed with Phil Shiner, another prominent human rights lawyer whose career would later take a very different turn. By 2017, while Sir Keir was re-elected MP for Holborn and St Pancras with an increased majority, Shiner was struck off by the Solicitors Regulation