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Friend or foe?

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14 May 2015 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7652 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Legal services , Profession
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What impact will the new Lord Chancellor have on the UK justice system, asks Jon Robins

Could our new Lord Chancellor Michael Gove really be as awful as his predecessor Chris Grayling, speculated the legal twitterati as news of the post-election shuffle surfaced over the weekend.

Ask a teacher. The former education’s secretary stormy relationship with that profession makes Grayling’s fractious stand-off with lawyers seem like mere friendly fire.

The last few days have been as tumultuous for lawyers as for the rest of the electorate. Shortly before polling day legal aid lawyers turned up outside the Ministry of Justice for a “farewell to Chris Grayling” party.

By the end of the week, it seemed that the profession’s bête noire was going nowhere, as the prime minister walked back into number 10. Grayling, fresh from being re-elected to the safe Tory seat of Epsom and Ewell (with an increased majority), told constituents that he was “happy to do whatever David Cameron asks me to do”. However, he added, the job he

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Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
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In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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