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Cause & effect

13 June 2013 / David Greene
Issue: 7564 / Categories: Opinion
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David Greene takes issue with excessive & ineffective political grandstanding

Lawyers are not the most popular band of professionals. Certainly from a politician’s point of view, much easier to blame greedy lawyers for the ills of society than portray them as the upholders of the rule of law, human rights and the justice process. 

The issues in relation to legal aid betray the easy criticism that lawyers are simply looking to line their pockets at public expense. This is of course far from the truth with legal aid practitioners working at rates and returns which place substantial economic burden on them to maintain practice. 

For lawyers it is not an easy sell. The fact is that if rights are to be effective then it has to be in the economic interests of someone to pursue them. If it makes no economic sense for a lawyer to represent clients, they will not do so. There are many examples in recent years in which legislation is invoked without consideration of how it is actually going to

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
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
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
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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
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
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