President of Nowhere? Some points on Lord Neuberger being drawn into the PO...
Well, how very rude I can hear the great and the good of the legal profession say. You can’t diss David Neuberger the former President of the Supreme Court KC. He’s ace. So let me begin in another...
View ArticleEthically dysfunctional: the problem with designation in leveraged finance
Trevor Clark The Lawyer has kindly allowed me to reproduce the text of my opinion piece, published on Tuesday. Last week The Lawyer reported that lenders on the recent £3.5bn financing of The Access...
View ArticleClass Walls
So a story in the Guardian reports Geraldine van Beuren’s calls for more working class lawyers to out themselves. Having once been described as the gayest heterosexual man on the planet,* I feel a bit...
View ArticleThe Home Office: Collective failure, individual insouciance?
One of the issues I am interested in is whether the courts take ethical failure in legal proceedings seriously enough. This week brings forth an interesting example to consider. The case is an...
View ArticleWhat’s wrong with SRA Guidance on Confidential Information
Graeme Johnston, Jenifer Swallow and I have written a paper on this topic which we have submitted to the SRA and can be downloaded here. It begins like this… The issue of lawyer involvement in...
View ArticleSLAPP guidance: a quick comment
The SRA has issued welcome guidance on the conduct of SLAPP cases. It can be seen as part of their broader thrust to wean solicitors, and their firms, off the idea that they can act for clients as...
View ArticleA lesson in conventional unfairness
In the light of yesterday’s PO Inquiry hearings on compensation, I looked back at something I wrote in July, on my Post Office devoted substack, and thought the analysis there pretty much stands the...
View ArticleWhat may Zahawi’s lawyers have got wrong?
I hesitate to be another person to drawing attention to Dan Neidle’s allegations about Nadim Zahawi, but it seems to me the finer, but important, points about what Neidle thinks the lawyers have got...
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Round up – Feb03
I thought it would be a good idea to try and round up interesting lawyers’ ethics related stories from time to time. Pressure on NDAs, the BSB, and the SRA With the BSB receiving a very poor report...
View ArticleSRA on SLAPPs
The SRA’s first SLAPPs thematic review is out. It’s not very convincing as a piece of work, but my sense if this is the first foray, and its good that the SRA tried it. “We spoke to a few lawyers...
View ArticleContinuing the conversation on SLAPPs
I have taken a closer look at the SRA’s thematic review on conduct in disputes, slightly oddly named as it centres SLAPPS. It is the first of at least two such reviews. Having spoken to 25 heads of...
View ArticleSexuality and the ‘Credible’ Barrister
In 2016, Marc Mason and I began a project looking to explore the experiences and attitudes of LGBT+ barristers. We launched a report on our research (a survey of 126 barristers and Bar students, plus...
View ArticleThematic credibility
The SRA have published a very interesting document. A Thematic Review into In-House lawyers. You can read it here. And you can expect your heart to sing because the CEO of the SRA says the results are...
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Team Justice? Independent Reviews
The PO Scandal is marked by a number of supposedly independent reviews from lawyers and others. Those reviews did, or were used to, play up the positives and play down the negatives. The latest one to...
View ArticleLights out at the rank?
A gauntlet is being tossed down to the Bar and it is on an issue that has been making the wider profession nervous for some time: the rights of evil swine to have access to justice just like you and...
View ArticleCab Rank – Who’s rule is it anyway?
Jeremy Hopkins wrote this blog 10 years ago on the Cab Rank. For our purposes it’s worth knowing he is a former clerk. This was his take then, he says it still holds good today and has allowed me to...
View ArticleA SLIPP or a SLAPP? Schillings and the Revolut-ion
An interesting story in the FT last week saw Schillings deny misleading the FT. It relates to Revolut’s accounts. Their auditors BDO had provided a qualified opinion on the fintech company’s financial...
View ArticleThematic Credibility Part II – there are more questions than answers…
This post is authored by Dr Karen Nokes (UCL) and Pf. Richard Moorhead (Exeter) The SRA published its Thematic Review into In-House Lawyers last month and you can read it here. The findings have...
View ArticleDishonest? Not if you think everyone is at it?
A legal textbook tells you a dubious tactic is common practice. Do you adopt that tactic in a likely doomed attempt to win your client’s case for them? That was the scenario that presented itself for...
View ArticlePast high tide for the ethics deniers?
It’s been an interesting year or so in the lawyers’ ethics world. The Law Society President made ethics a priority but as a PR problem. The IBA have done similar. Ukraine and SLAPPs debates (most...
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