Career
At the suggestion of his wife and her father, Shamash took up the study of law and qualified as a solicitor in 1976. His early legal career, at PR Kimber, was in criminal and personal-injury law. With Elaine Steel, he founded Steel & Shamash in 1981, based in Waterloo. One of the first firms to be granted a Legal Aid Agency contract, it merged with Edwards Duthie in 2019 to form Edwards Duthie Shamash, and Shamash heads its parliamentary, electoral and media law practice.
Shamash has acted as a solicitor for the Labour Party since 1990, having worked for the party since at least 1983. He advised Labour during the Cash-for-Honours and parliamentary expenses scandals, and acted for public figures affected by the phone-hacking scandal.
In the 1979 general election, Shamash stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate in the safe Conservative seat of Shoreham. He was subsequently elected a member of Barnet London Borough Council at the 1986 and 1990 council elections, representing the ward of Burnt Oak for two terms. Shamash has served as a magistrate in London since 1985.
Shamash was nominated by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for a life peerage and was created Baron Shamash, of West Didsbury in the City of Manchester, on 6 March 2024.
On 31 July 2025, he was a leading signatory of a letter from 38 House of Lords members opposing the UK's plan to recognise a State of Palestine: the peers said Palestine “does not meet the international law criteria for recognition of a state, namely, defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states”.
