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NLJ this week: Rethinking ethics

10 June 2020
Issue: 7890 / Categories: Legal News , Profession
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Current pandemic and financial woes make this a good time to rethink our approach to professional ethics, Russell-Cooke senior partner John Gould writes in this week’s NLJ

Gould asks: are current sanctions too harsh, and should firms share the responsibility for individual misconduct? He highlights recent controversy over the newly-qualified Capsticks solicitor struck off after losing a briefcase, panicking and trying to cover up her mistake.

‘Sometimes individual justice must give way to the public interest in deterrence,’ he writes.

‘Deterrence is, however, better served by the probability of detection than exemplary punishment for a very few. Would a solicitor be significantly less likely to risk an untruth to a colleague if the risk was, say, only suspension or some other published and painful sanction rather than the end of a career?’

@RussellCooke @newlawjournal

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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