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Spring initiatives

28 March 2014 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7600 / Categories: Opinion
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Roger Smith celebrates some seasonal highlights

As the weather warms and the sun comes out, three initiatives to celebrate: a new career; an institutional drive; and international support to be given.

A career reborn

Former DPP Sir Keir Starmer QC shows every sign of smoothly moving to the next stage of his life. He is widely tipped to replace the long-serving Frank Dobson as MP for Holborn and St Pancras. And he is making his own luck as to issues. First, he has developed a nice line in defending the human rights of victims, writing about this in The Guardian and assiduously speaking on the subject at constituency-based venues like Camden’s Working Men’s College. Second, the government’s proposals for HS2 are presenting him with a wonderfully convenient canvass on which to argue that there has been inadequate consultation, as required by the Human Rights Act 1998, at the heart of his putative constituency around Euston.

Sir Keir is a Dartmouth Park resident, physically near to Ed Miliband himself. It would be surprising if there was not

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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