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Allegations & NDAs

06 October 2023 / John Gould
Issue: 8043 / Categories: Opinion , Regulatory , Profession
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Should lawyers be required by regulators to refuse to participate in NDAs in relation to allegations of sexual misconduct? John Gould investigates

Complaints against the former TV personality Russell Brand are just the latest of almost daily allegations of sexual misconduct against celebrities producing high levels of publicity. Whatever the rights and wrongs of any case, the issue of when and how allegations emerge is an important one. Often sexual criminals have been able to cover up their wrongdoing but reputations have also been tarnished by the publicity around false allegations. Recently the Legal Services Board closed its call for evidence on the role of lawyers’ conduct in the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). The Bar Council has attracted trenchant criticism from those who campaign for legal restrictions to the use of NDAs for the evidence it submitted.

The controversy centred on the role of lawyers and legal regulators in preventing the perceived misuse of NDAs by clients. Should lawyers be required by regulators to refuse to participate in NDAs in relation

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NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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