header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: Can Starmer charm the lawyers?

26 July 2024
Issue: 8081 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Criminal , Legal aid focus , Constitutional law
printer mail-detail
183120
What do lawyers hope for as the Keir Starmer government gets to work? In this week’s NLJ, Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC calls for more access to justice while Mary Young sets out a wish list from the legal profession

Bindman praises the government’s ‘immediate action’ on the prison crisis and hails ‘a welcome commitment to continued adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights and to international law more generally’.

Young urges government action to address the PACCAR situation on litigation funding, as promised by the previous administration, as well as on other lawyerly matters in need of legislation.

She writes: ‘Litigation funding may not have made the manifesto cut, but the claims brought by subpostmasters which, eventually, helped expose the colossal miscarriages of justice they suffered, could not have been brought without litigation funding.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
back-to-top-scroll