THIS ISSUE
From January 2025, independent schools will be subject to 20% VAT, leading to much head-scratching by school bursars. Writing in this week’s NLJ, Liz Brownsell, partner & head of charities at Birketts, and Kieran Smith, VAT partner at Crowe UK, look at a variety of options independent schools might consider to make the best of the situation.
Physician-assisted suicide should be the preferred term rather than ‘assisted dying’ when discussing the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, writes Professor John Keown, senior research scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, in this week’s NLJ.
Whether it’s a call to ‘bring me more Sir Geoffreys’ or a prediction gleaned from assorted discussions that ‘a series of reforms look certain for 2025’ (read the column to find out more), The Insider aka Professor Dominic Regan, of City Law School, serves the perfect Christmas cocktail of light-hearted stories and serious topics in his column this week.
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue.
Your mind is not a kettle. Product liability and neurotechnology is the subject of Crown Office Chambers barrister Harry Lambert’s fifth article in his astonishing series on neurotech law, in this week’s NLJ.
As it’s Christmas, and in lieu of frankincense and myrrh, NLJ offers a bumper two pages of Gold this week. Festive Civil Way topics include the bailiff dress code, PP arrears, DAPOs and the personal injury discount rate.
Will the latest arguments in favour of the Leadbeater Bill be as flawed as those that came before? Professor John Keown considers what lessons can be learnt from history
Dominic Regan presents A Christmas Carol: enter, the ghosts of Christmas past (the Solicitors Act 1974), present (the new intermediate track), & future (PACCAR legislation)
With a raft of unwanted changes on the horizon, Liz Brownsell & Kieran Smith explore some of the options available to charitable independent schools
Did the Supreme Court ask for a can of worms for Christmas? Ian Smith wraps up the year in employment law with some final twists & turns
MOVERS & SHAKERS
NLJ Career Profile: Daniel Burbeary, Michelman Robinson
Daniel Burbeary, office managing partner of Michelman Robinson, discusses launching in London, the power of the law, and what the kitchen can teach us about litigating
Joelson—Jennifer Mansoor
West End firm strengthens employment and immigration team with partner hire
JMW—Belinda Brooke
Employment and people solutions offering boosted by partner hire
NEWS
The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
In a striking financial remedies ruling, the High Court cut a wife’s award by 40% for coercive and controlling behaviour. Writing in NLJ this week, Chris Bryden and Nicole Wallace of 4 King’s Bench Walk analyse LP v MP [2025] EWFC 473
A €60.9m award to Kylian Mbappé has refocused attention on football’s controversial ‘ethics bonus’ clauses. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Estelle Ivanova of Valloni Attorneys at Law examines how such provisions sit within French labour law
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