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26 July 2024 / Mary Young
Issue: 8081 / Categories: Opinion , Profession
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Dear Sir Keir…

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Mary Young sets out a lawyer’s wish list for the new prime minister & the Labour government

Overcrowded prisons and an underfunded criminal justice system are already demanding the attention of our new prime minister. However, given his pre-politics career, Sir Keir Starmer will understand better than most several other issues lawyers are currently grappling with which would benefit from government review. While these are unlikely to feature on the public’s priority list, they can only be resolved through government intervention. Here is one lawyer’s wish list for Sir Keir’s first year in office (assuming the first 100 days agenda is already full):

PACCAR & the Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill

The Supreme Court decision in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) (Appellants) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others (Respondents) [2023] UKSC 28, [2023] 4 All ER 675 changed the litigation funding landscape in the UK. The decision held that litigation funding agreements which enabled funders to take a payment based on the amount of damages recovered fell within

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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