header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: Spotlight on (virtual) ADR

17 June 2020
Issue: 7891 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , ADR , Mediation , Costs , Procedure & practice
printer mail-detail
The impact on international arbitration of the COVID-19 pandemic is among topics explored in a series of articles in NLJ’s ADR special this week

Barrister and mediator, Professor Suzanne Rab, Serle Court, says ‘digitisation presents new opportunities’ and points out that mediators and advisors will need to adapt. She offers practical advice and highlights that virtual mediation could help ‘mitigate the impact’ of the pandemic on business as well as providing new career pathways for lawyers.   

International arbitration was better prepared than the court system because it already used remote hearings in one form or another, writes barrister Anthony Connerty, 6 Pump Court.

Arbitral organisations moved swiftly to provide webinars and take steps to address any issues arising in virtual proceedings, for example, the slower pace and the danger of witnesses being assisted off camera.

Masood Ahmed, Associate Professor at Leicester University and member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, provides a detailed look at the significance of ADR and the dangers of unreasonable behaviour. He surveys relevant caselaw, for example, on silence in the face of an invitation to ADR and unreasonable refusal to engage in ADR.

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
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
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
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
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
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
back-to-top-scroll