My friend Stuart Le Pla, who has died of cancer aged 67, dedicated his life as a lawyer to public service rather than private practice, first as an articled clerk in Reading, then as a solicitor in Huddersfield and Kirklees, West Yorkshire, and ultimately, for more than 20 years, at Rochdale metropolitan borough council.
In Rochdale, he put his belief in empowering ordinary citizens into practice. By the end of his time there he was the council's assistant chief executive with responsibility for community partnerships.
The way Stuart lived his life reflected his liberal and democratic ideals. He was proud that his unusual surname could be traced back to the French Huguenots – people who stood up to persecution and oppression. Stuart was born in Chapeltown, Sheffield, son of Frederick, an engineer who had played rugby for Saracens, and his wife Winifred. Stuart and I were at school together, first in Sheffield, then at St Peter's, York, before Stuart went on to the London School of Economics to read law and then qualified as a solicitor.
In the mid-1970s in Huddersfield, Stuart was instrumental in setting up a free legal advice service in the evenings for the Citizens' Advice Bureau, persuading other local solicitors to join him. After his retirement in 2001 he was appointed a non-executive director of Huddersfield Central primary care trust. He was a great believer in the NHS, but he distrusted the concentration on targets and internal markets, preferring always to put people as individuals first.
Stuart was keen on many sports, especially swimming and rowing, had an eclectic taste in music which ranged from Tom Lehrer and Bob Marley to Bach and Elgar, and loved fast cars, particularly the MGA sports car which he owned for over 40 years.
Before anything else, though, came his family – his wife Auriel, whom he married in 1968, and who cared for him at home to the end, their son Nathaniel, daughter Jessica and three granddaughters. They all survive him.