Football was lucky in 1985. Both Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were born but not immediately signed up by Manchester United. A wide breadth of legislation received assent embracing areas of landlord and tenant, companies, insolvency, surrogacy arrangements, child abduction, enduring powers of attorney at al. Walter Merricks, for whom collective proceedings and Mastercard had yet to form into a dream, and who had spent around three years exposing in the NLJ what was going on at various institutions, including the Law Society, ceased his column. Among his disclosures had been the departure from the Society in controversial circumstances of its last secretary of the professional and public relations department, and the withdrawal of a former MP from his application to succeed. So where had Merricks gone? To the Law Society. For dinner? No, as assistant secretary-general, heading the communications and law and practice directorate divisions,
Archive: Civil way: 24 February 2023
Stephen Gold discovers a criminal poet, Clerkenwell solicitors cut up rough over PACE pay, & the NLJ gives the thumbs up to Spider Woman
MOVERS & SHAKERS
NLJ Career Profile: Nikki Bowker, Devonshires
Nikki Bowker, head of dispute resolution at Devonshires, on career resilience, diversity in law and channelling Elle Woods when the pressure is on
Ellisons—Sarah Osborne
Leasehold enfranchisement specialist joins residential property team
DWF—Chris Air
Firm strengthens commercial team in Manchester with partner appointment
NEWS
The government will aim to pass legislation banning leasehold for new flats and capping ground rent, introducing non-compulsory digital ID and creating a ‘duty of candour’ for public servants (also known as the Hillsborough law) in the next Parliament
An Italian financier has lost his bid to block his Australian wife from filing divorce papers in England on the basis it was no longer her domicile of choice
Reforms to the disclosure regime in the business and property courts have not achieved their objectives, lawyers have warned
The Law Society has urged ministers to hold a public consultation on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the justice system as a whole
Ministers have proposed bringing inquest work under a single fee scheme for legal help and advocacy legal aid work
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