THIS ISSUE
The criminal court backlog has grown and the number of part-time judges has fallen.
The InterLaw Diversity Forum launched the latest phase of its research project this week, looking at workplace culture, job satisfaction and job security in the legal sector through the perspectives of social mobility, race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+ identity, disability, sex and other characteristics.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
NLJ Career Profile: Sonya Sceats, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Sonya Sceats, next director and CEO of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, discusses her long-standing mission to uphold and defend the rule of law
Anthony Collins—four appointments
Property and commercial teams bolstered by senior hires
Keystone Law—Ben Knowles
International arbitration specialist strenghtens the team
NEWS
Manchester’s online LLM has accelerated career progression for its graduates
Judging is ‘more intellectually demanding than any other role in public life’—and far messier than outsiders imagine. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC reflects on decades spent wrestling with unclear legislation, fragile precedent and human fallibility
The long-predicted death of the billable hour may finally be here—and this time, it’s armed with a scythe. In a sweeping critique of time-based billing, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, argues in this week's NLJ that artificial intelligence has made hourly charging ‘intellectually, commercially and ethically indefensible’
From fake authorities to rent reform, the civil courts have had a busy start to 2026. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold surveys a procedural landscape where guidance, discretion and discipline are all under strain
Fact-finding hearings remain a fault line in private family law. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors analyse recent appeals exposing the dangers of rushed or fragmented findings
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