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22 February 2018 / Richard Harrison
Issue: 7782 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Hamilton for lawyers #2

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Richard Harrison returns with Ten DR Commandments inspired by the 2018 Olivier award winner Hamilton

Previously in this journal I wrote an article inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s celebrated musical Hamilton. It looked at the legal career of Alexander Hamilton and some of the lessons, including mediation skills, to be learned from the negotiation of the 1790 Compromise which led to Washington DC becoming the US capital.

One of the main, and tragic, themes of the show is the culture and consequences of the duelling code prevalent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Litigation is nowadays one of the main substitutes for the duel and the elaborate code of challenge, compromise and mediation is now used to deal with legal problems. As is made clear in the song ‘Ten Duel Commandments’: ‘ Most disputes die and no one shoots ’.

And given that the song is highly catchy, I had a think about it in the context of ‘Ten DR (dispute resolution) Commandments’.

The first step in any dispute resolution procedure is to identify

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
Prosecutors will speed up preparations for charging hate crimes, under Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance issued in response to the surge in antisemitic incidents
Improvements to courts, tribunals and the wider justice system in the north are being held back by a lack of national and local collaboration, according to thinktank JUSTICE North
A family judge has criticised the prison authorities for mistakenly freeing a father who abducted his own son
The Law Society has renewed its calls for compensation for legal aid firms affected by the cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency (LAA)
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured a £10m penalty plus £4.8m in costs from manufacturer Ultra Electronics Holdings, under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) for failure to prevent bribery
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