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The insider: 11 July 2025

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This month our intrepid insider, Dominic Regan, brings us up to speed with turgid claims, blockbuster judgments, fee spats & judicial elevations

What is going on? Last month saw several cases reported where pleadings, as I fondly still call them, were not up to scratch. Given that the substantive requirements have been with us for decades and more, this is puzzling.

Mr Justice Rajah in Illiquidx Ltd v Altana Wealth Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 1566 (Ch) considered there to be a basic injustice on account of the claimant failing to identify its case and plead it with particularity and precision: ‘Pleadings are there to mark the parameters of the case and inform the other side of the case they have to meet. Vague and expansive pleadings do not do that….’. The expensive sanction was to deny the claimant 50% of its substantial costs.

The Court of Appeal moved with astonishing alacrity when it heard an appeal against an order made by Mrs Justice Joanna Smith

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Jersey litigation lead appointed to global STEP Council

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

Firm invests in future talent with new training cohort

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

Investment banking veteran appointed as chairman to drive global growth

NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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