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07 November 2025 / Sailesh Mehta , Theo Burges
Issue: 8138 / Categories: Features , Criminal , National security , Media , Data protection , Privacy
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The hydra grows another head

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The Afghan leak super-injunction highlights the growing body of national security law spanning ever-increasing areas of practice, write Sailesh Mehta & Theo Burges
  • The increasing volume of national security cases and legal matters involving national security reflects heightened global and domestic concerns.
  • The diverse nature of national security work means a wide range of responsibilities and disciplines are involved, from intelligence and cybersecurity to counterterrorism and enforcement.
  • The evolving national security legal framework is adapting to new threats, technologies and geopolitical shifts.

In July of this year, Mr Justice Chamberlain discharged a super-injunction designed to prevent the reporting of a 2022 leak which put the lives of Afghans who co-operated with the UK in Afghanistan and their families at risk. In August, astoundingly, there was a further data breach in relation to British engagement in Afghanistan. The injunction was primarily granted due to concerns regarding threats to the lives of those connected to the leak, but it also later became clear

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
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