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26 January 2026
Categories: Movers & Shakers , Profession
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Red Lion Chambers—Maurice MacSweeney

Set creates new client and business development role amid growth

Red Lion Chambers has appointed Maurice MacSweeney as client and business development director, a newly created role reflecting the set’s continued growth and expanding practice areas. Alongside its long-standing general crime expertise, chambers now advises on serious fraud, financial crime, corporate investigations, professional discipline, inquests and inquiries, and advisory work for corporates, regulators and government bodies.

MacSweeney brings a blend of legal, commercial and strategic experience to the role. After studying law at the University of Cambridge, he spent four years at a solicitors’ firm specialising in white collar crime, before moving into senior business development and strategy roles at 2 Hare Court and Doughty Street Chambers.

Most recently, he spent five years at global litigation funder Harbour, managing more than $1.5bn invested in commercial litigation, where he sourced investment opportunities and developed financing solutions for law firms. He said he was ‘delighted to be joining Red Lion Chambers at a crucial moment’ and is ‘looking forward to meeting clients’ and supporting both them and members of chambers.

Joint heads of chambers Gillian Jones KC and Tom Forster KC said MacSweeney ‘stood out in a highly competitive field’ and will focus on ‘strengthening chambers’ client engagement strategy’, ensuring the set continues to ‘listen closely to the needs of our clients’ while ‘raising the bar on service delivery’.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Cripps—Radius Law

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Commercial and technology practice boosted by team hire

Switalskis—Grimsby

Switalskis—Grimsby

Firm expands with new Grimsby office to serve North East Lincolnshire

Slater Heelis—Will Newman & Lucy Spilsbury

Slater Heelis—Will Newman & Lucy Spilsbury

Property team boosted by two solicitor appointments

NEWS
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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