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24 January 2008 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7305 / Categories: Features , Legal services , Divorce , Family
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Employment Law Brief: 25 January 2008

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SICKNESS DISMISSAL DEVELOPMENTS
A CROSS-OVER WITH DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES AND EC LAW

I suppose that one of the few advantages of being an employment lawyer is that things go quite quiet over the ever-expanding Christmas break and may take a little time to come back on stream afterwards, during which time the employment lawyer can make innocent fun of his colleagues in the family and divorce law division who are snowed under on the first working Monday of the year (D-Day) sorting out the devastation done to personal relationships by so many not-so-merry Christmases.

Of course, the government could be trusted to play the Scrooge act and try to wreck our peace by publishing the Employment Bill just before the break. This is the sort of state of the art law that tends to make the brain hurt, but as we stare down the barrel of yet more change in 2008 it is perhaps comforting to see in the recent case law some developments in two longstanding and

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sponsored by
Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
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Legal Action Group set out 2026 events calendar
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
NLJ this week: When saying no to mediation pays
Refusing ADR is risky—but not always fatal. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed and Sanjay Dave Singh of the University of Leicester analyse Assensus Ltd v Wirsol Energy Ltd: despite repeated invitations to mediate, the defendant stood firm, made a £100,000 Part 36 offer and was ultimately ‘wholly vindicated’ at trial
NLJ this week: Mandelson, Epstein & the court of popular opinion
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
NLJ this week: Volunteers, promotions & perilous appeals
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
NLJ this week: How sure is ‘sure’ enough?
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
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