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11 October 2024
Issue: 8089 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal , Crypto , Cybercrime , Regulatory , Insolvency
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NLJ this week: Crypto seize & freeze, & the digital landscape

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NLJ serves up a double helping of crypto this week. First, Andrew Bird KC takes a detailed look at the powers to freeze and destroy digital assets. Next up, Iain Young covers the legal landscape of crypto in Scotland & England

Criminal gangs are exploiting crypto to hold and trade the proceeds of crime. Consequently, new powers were added to the crimefighter’s arsenal in April. Bird KC, of 5 St Andrew’s Hill, takes a detailed look at what’s available and how the powers can be used.

Bird writes: ‘The extension to the criminal powers brings cryptoassets squarely within the scope of restraint and enforcement powers.’

Meanwhile, Scotland has different laws on digital assets and therefore faces unique obstacles in this area, as Young, partner at Morton Fraser MacRoberts, explains.

Young covers key questions about the transfer of digital assets in Scotland and England, as well as their legal status, security interests, traceability, accessibility, title proof, and the implications of insolvency.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

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
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
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
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’
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’
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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