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: Daniel Burbeary, Michelman Robinson
Daniel Burbeary, office managing partner of Michelman Robinson, discusses launching in London, the power of the law, and what the kitchen can teach us about litigating
Joelson—Jennifer Mansoor
West End firm strengthens employment and immigration team with partner hire
JMW—Belinda Brooke
Employment and people solutions offering boosted by partner hire
NEWS
The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
In a striking financial remedies ruling, the High Court cut a wife’s award by 40% for coercive and controlling behaviour. Writing in NLJ this week, Chris Bryden and Nicole Wallace of 4 King’s Bench Walk analyse LP v MP [2025] EWFC 473
A €60.9m award to Kylian Mbappé has refocused attention on football’s controversial ‘ethics bonus’ clauses. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Estelle Ivanova of Valloni Attorneys at Law examines how such provisions sit within French labour law
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