THIS ISSUE
After a quiet few weeks, Ian Smith breaks the silence & tackles a Polkey reduction & the meaning of ‘because of’...
Patrick Allen & Bahareh Amani highlight the importance of championing diversity & inclusion
Marian Bloodworth, ELA chair, outlines the current pressures on practitioners & calls for change
Family Arbs: the likely bill; Human Rights alive; Champers with water for tenants; Fit and proper on the pitch
The High Court has struck out a gigantic group action with more than 200,000 claimants against BHP Group over the 2015 Fundão dam catastrophe in Brazil, releasing iron ore mine tailings into the Doce River, which resulted in 19 deaths and destruction on a massive scale, including the obliteration of entire villages
A Joint Committee on Human Rights report, ‘Black people, racism and human rights’, published this week, has drawn stark conclusions on inequalities in healthcare, criminal justice, immigration and democracy
Global law firm DWF has launched a work placement programme for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals interested in pursuing a career in law
Tenants will be protected from eviction until 11 January 2021, at the earliest, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has said
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson
International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire
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
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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