Carl Langdell, who launched his own law firm in August, suspected of killing teacher Katie Locke
A Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) student at BPP University Law School has been charged with murder over the Christmas holidays — and will appear in court this week.
Carl Langdell (pictured), 26, is suspected of killing Katie Locke, a 23 year-old teacher from east London, at the Theobalds Park luxury hotel in Hertfordshire where the pair were staying on 23 December.
According to news reports, despite checking in together, Langdell and Southampton University graduate Locke were not in a long term relationship, with the Mail Online claiming that the teacher “only met her date 24 hours earlier”.
After Locke’s body was discovered on Christmas Day, Langdell — whose undergraduate degree is from Cardiff University, where he graduated with a 2:1 in business management — was charged with her murder on Christmas Day and remanded in custody. He is due to appear before St Albans Crown Court this Friday.
In the meantime, Langdell’s LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles have — so far — remained live. They reveal that, unusually for someone at his very early stage of legal training, Langdell has what he claims is his own law firm, having recently set up ‘Langdell Legal Associates’ .
According to its company page on LinkedIn, Langdell are:
Publicly Accessible Legal Advocates Specialising in Commercial Litigation, International Company Law, Criminal Law, General Civil Law, Contract Law, Medical Adjudication, Employment Law, Mental Health Law, Human Rights, and Immigration Law.
The organisation was registered with Companies House as a private limited company last month, but does not appear on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s register of alternative business structures (ABS) as one of the new breed of post-Legal Services Act law firms that can be run by non-lawyers. Langdell Legal Associates’ website is “under construction”.
Other than that, Langdell’s CV seems pretty standard for a wannabe lawyer hoping to join the profession through the conversion course route.
He has held a host of positions of responsibility — including Athletic Union Social Secretary at Cardiff University Students’ Union — and done a spell as an intern at The Independent newspaper as part of an MA in journalism at Hertfordshire University completed before deciding to pursue a legal career instead.
Langdell’s Facebook makes mention of a legal blog called OrdinaryDecentHuman that he runs. It contains a host of poems and reflections on issues such as female genital mutilation.
When contacted by Legal Cheek this morning, BPP declined to comment.
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