English lawyer imitating breaking free? (8)

I believe the answer is:

escaping

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'breaking free?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'english lawyer imitating' is the wordplay.
'english lawyer' becomes 'esc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'imitating' becomes 'aping' ('ape' can be a synonym of 'imitate').
'esc'+'aping'='ESCAPING'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for escaping that I've seen before include "Fleeing" , "Getting away from confinement" , "Breaking free" , "Getting free" , "Breaking loose" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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