A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE (AND GREAT) SIMON (“SPIKE”) MULLINGS: “STAY SAFE EVERYONE AND MAKE SURE YOU HUG YOUR LOVED ONES”
I was devastated to learn of the death of Simon Mullings over the weekend. The tributes that have been paid from housing lawyers and many others have reflected his position as one of the foremost housing practitioners and campaigners. Giles Peaker sums this up in his post on Nearly Legal. I wanted to add a few words of my own. I knew Spike for many years, he has featured on this blog more than once and I once called upon his services as a bass player. He was a force of nature and a force for good.
“… a long-beard housing law caseworker and newly anointed co-chair of the Housing Law Practitioners’ Association.”
HOW I KNEW SPIKE
I used to joke that Spike and I first met when we were entering the House of Commons. This was in fact true. We were both in the queue to go to a celebration that a local MP had arranged for Sue James who had been Legal Aid Lawyer of the year. I guessed we were going to the same event and we successfully navigated the corridors of power together. Spike then made a typically effusive and generous speech about Sue. Despite working in different areas of law Spike and I kept in touch.
SPIKE’S PATH TO POWER
Spike had started his working life as a music student, studying in Leeds. He was bass player in the band the Snapdragons and spent many years touring and recording with them (two albums and four singles). At the House of Commons event he described how he had seen a job advert for a housing adviser, borrowed a book on housing law and for the interview (from Sue James) and as they say – the rest is history.
A few months ago Spike chaired a session at the Legal Action Group Housing conference where I was speaking with Giles Peaker on personal injury claims for housing lawyers. He was again generous and effusive in his introduction and chairing of the event. During the course of the day we sneaked away together for 20 minutes to get some “real coffee” from a local café. There was not, I’m afraid, much talk about law. We discussed music, musical instruments and Spike’s latest project – renovating a vintage guitar and our (fairly tentative) plans to organise a gig for housing charities – we were getting as far as the set list.
SPIKE ON THIS BLOG
Spike was the 7th member of the “(Not so) Lonely Litigator’s Club that this blog ran during the darkest days of lockdown. The photo above is the one he chose to illustrate his post, the description of himself is also Spike’s own.
“I am working from my room in the attic of my house in Forest Gate, East London. You may call me Mrs Rochester, or just plain Bertha if you prefer.”
In answer to the the most difficult thing about working remotely Spike wrote:
“Lack of client contact. I am a legal aid practitioner working at times with very vulnerable people. It may sound a little bit calculating and to be honest it is, but empathy is the fuel that legal aid lawyers run on (it certainly isn’t remunerative reward) and so not meeting in person with clients means we have to work harder to bridge the gap remotely.”
BOOK REVIEW
In March 2021 I reviewed the book that Spike had written with Sue James “Housing Possession Duty Desk”. I wrote
“There are some books you read when you know that the authors know their stuff. This is such a book. The emphasis on the word “practical” is an accurate one.”
“SOMEONE I HAD NOTHING BUT RESPECT FOR”
Spike matched his detailed knowledge of housing law with a practical and pragmatic approach. It is notable that among the tributes paid to him in the Law Society Gazette is from a local authority Court Officer who was often against him
SPIKE THE BASS PLAYER
When we recorded the winner of the annual Legal Christmas Song Competition in 2020 (all done remotely in the middle of lockdown) Spike laid down the bass line.
It was not, as he said himself, the most difficult of bass parts, but it was an essential part of the mix. The bass being the fundamental element of music. I can see why Spike was such a good bass player, he was always keen to support people and anxious not to put down an overbearing bass part.
GILES HAS THE BEST WORDS
In relation to Spike as a lawyer, campaigner and person I can’t improve on anything that Giles Peaker has written. We worked together with Spike. Spike chaired (his view was that he was “refereeing”) a talk we gave together earlier this year at the LAG Housing Law Conference. Just a short paragraph, of many in Giles’ post, gives the flavour.
“He was one of those people who is unequivocally an improver of life, a force for good, a provider of energy, imagination, determination and laughter. Such people are to be treasured because they are so very few and far between. To spend time with Spike was to come away feeling that not only was a better world possible, but that you had a definite part in getting there.”
HOW DO WE REMEMBER SPIKE?
When we went for that coffee Spike insisted on paying. I insisted I would pay next time. I remain in his debt for a number of reasons. The best way of concluding this is in Spike’s own words on this blog, at the end of his post about working during the Covid lockdown.
“Stay safe and stay well everyone, and make sure you hug your loved ones, physically if you can, but by any means necessary.”
The last time I was with Spike. Celebrating the end of a successful Housing Law Conference.
“Although we were always on the opposite side to one another he was always a genuinely nice guy to deal with and someone I always got on well with inside and outside of court and someone I had nothing but respect for.”