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
Womble Bond Dickinson—Paula Myers
Womble Bond Dickinson appoints Paula Myers to private capital team in Leeds
mfg Solicitors—five promotions
Law firm mfg Solicitors announces five promotions at Birmingham office
Brabners—six promotions
Brabners adds six to partnership in record year for partner promotions
NEWS
Calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 have been renewed, with the Bar Council arguing the current threshold criminalises children too early and risks pushing them towards lifelong offending
The legal profession's AI challenge extends far beyond fabricated case citations, according to a warning about the next phase of technological risk
Law firms should use the transition period before the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) assumes anti-money laundering (AML) supervision to strengthen governance and compliance, experts have warned
Cross-border disputes increasingly demand creative approaches to gathering evidence, with litigators needing to look beyond traditional letters of request
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified the distinction between contracts of 'indefinite' and 'perpetual' duration, with potentially significant implications for commercial drafting
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