header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: Unlikeable clients

28 May 2021
Issue: 7934 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , International justice , Legal services
printer mail-detail
49933
Should lawyers choose clients that match their own beliefs? They should not, says John Gould, senior partner at Russell-Cooke, in this week’s NLJ.

He refers to the furore around David Perry QC accepting work from the Hong Kong Department of Justice earlier this year. Perry later bowed out. But what about the cab rank rule? And a lawyer’s independence from their client?

Gould writes: ‘Barristers are “hired guns”. It is not necessary (or even desirable) that they express anything but the position of their clients. They argue and represent others for money. They are not soldiers in their own country’s cause.’

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Freeths—Ruth Clare

Freeths—Ruth Clare

National real estate team bolstered by partner hire in Manchester

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Partner appointed head of family team

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

Firm strengthens agriculture and rural affairs team with partner return

NEWS
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched a recruitment drive for talented early career and more senior barristers and solicitors
Regulators differed in the clarity and consistency of their post-Mazur advice and guidance, according to an interim report by the Legal Services Board (LSB)
The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
A Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruling has reopened debate on the availability of ‘user damages’ in competition claims. Writing in NLJ this week, Edward Nyman of Hausfeld explains how the CAT allowed Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen’s alternative damages case against Meta to proceed, rejecting arguments that such damages are barred in competition law
The next generation is inheriting more than assets—it is inheriting complexity. Writing in NLJ this week, experts from Penningtons Manches Cooper chart how global mobility, blended families and evolving values are reshaping private wealth advice
back-to-top-scroll