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28 March 2025
Issue: 8110 / Categories: Legal News , Charities , Family , Divorce , Pro Bono , Expert Witness
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NLJ this week: Friends in the Courtney library & making expert connections

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An innovative law library and a scheme to match pro bono lawyers with experts both feature in this week’s NLJ, in a charity and pro bono double-bill. First up, Team Courtney explain how Courtney Legal works and how it can benefit early-career lawyers as well as members of the public.

Courtney Legal is an online audio-visual service that makes legal information easy to understand for anyone who is contemplating or going through a divorce. It was launched in January at a panel event attended by Baroness Hale.  

The authors write: ‘If Courtney is to consumers the equivalent of having a lawyer best friend, it is to new practitioners the equivalent of an educative “watercooler” experience.’

Next, Emily Sherratt, project director at the National Pro Bono Centre, covers the benefits of the Pro Bono Expert Support Scheme. This scheme connects pro bono lawyers with a network of volunteer experts, for example, medical or engineering specialists. As Sherratt explains, the expert help given includes translation services, communications advice and investigative work.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

Commercial property and child law teams expand with senior hires

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Set expands London and Singapore offering with senior international disputes hires

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Firm strengthens real estate and litigation teams with partner promotions

NEWS
Behind the profession’s polished exterior, lawyers are ‘internally drained rather than physically tired’, according to a stark assessment of burnout in legal practice
Five years after the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force, concerns remain that the family courts continue to minimise allegations of abuse in child contact disputes
Uber has built a formidable strategy for insulating itself from liability for drivers’ conduct, but the legal terrain differs sharply between the US and England and Wales
The Civil Justice Council’s review of Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 could mark the end of what one commentator calls an ‘outdated’ and overly technical regime governing solicitor-client fee disputes
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber
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