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26 July 2024 / Richard Scorer
Issue: 8081 / Categories: Features
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Sister in Law: Fighting for justice in a system designed by men

"I hope many young lawyers will read it, be inspired by it, and go on to build on Wistrich’s extraordinary achievements"

Author: Harriet Wistrich
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781911709268
RRP: £22


Harriet Wistrich became a solicitor in the 1990s after an earlier career as a film maker. She went on to handle some of the most high-profile cases in recent years, including the ‘spy cops’ scandal, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, and the overturning of the release on parole of the taxi cab rapist John Worboys in 2018. In 2016, she set up the Centre for Women’s Justice, which now regularly brings cutting-edge legal cases. In this book, which examines various cases from her career, she delivers a devastating indictment of a justice system that routinely fails female victims of male violence, and describes the catalogue of lawsuits and campaigns through which she sought to challenge it.

The first case featured in this book involved Sara Thornton, a woman serving a life

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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