Theresa May’s government should move quickly towards the EU exit door by immediately repealing the 44-year-old law that took the country into the bloc, two stalwart Eurosceptic MPs argued yesterday.

John Redwood and Christopher Chope – Conservative MPs for Wokingham and Christchurch, respectively – said that emergency legislation to roll back the European Communities Act 1972 would in effect trigger article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Speaking at a session on the legal route out of the EU following the referendum vote a fortnight ago, the two politicians were supported by Martin Howe, QC, the 8 New Square barrister who led Lawyers for Britain during the referendum campaign.

Howe agreed with the MPs that once the 1972 legislation was repealed, the UK would “legally have left the EU”. However, Redwood argued that it would be “good to comply with our treaty obligations” by going through the article 50 process.

However, Redwood maintained that the negotiations with the EU could be completed far more quickly than the maximum two years allowed under the treaty.

Redwood said that David Davis, May’s new Brexit secretary, should make a simple offer to the EU. “We don’t want to change any of the trading arrangements. All we want to do is lose the free movement provisions and stop the financial contributions. But the trading arrangements would remain unaltered. It shouldn’t take the EU states long to realise that not doing that deal would be detrimental to them.”

Redwood said that if the EU baulked at that offer, Britain should fall back on existing provisions under World Trade Organisation agreements. The MP also said that suggestions that there would be a British “bonfire” of employee protection laws were ill-founded.

Howe warned Brexiteers not to be seduced by suggestions that the UK should join the European Economic Area. Membership of that group, he said, “would be worse than being in the EU”.

See Brexit Countdown below

Nearly a third of British consumers with legal problems do not even consider consulting a lawyer because they fear they will not be able to afford the fees, survey results released yesterday showed.

The researchers found that lawyers routinely have to put the brakes on legal actions or advice because clients exhaust their funds. According to the survey, 90 per cent of lawyers said they have repeatedly had to stop actions midway because clients run out of money.

“Much needs to be done at various levels to overcome the barrier a lack of funds can have on a client's access to justice,” said Yuri Rapoport, the founder of Legal Cost Finance, the business that commissioned the research.

Rapoport is a keen proponent of third-party funding for lower value claims. He said the legal sector “should be no different from any other in terms of how people or businesses can cover their bills.

“What is more important than being able to afford access to justice? You wouldn’t be asked to pay for a house up front and car sales would dip significantly if you had to pay for the vehicle in full before you were handed the keys. So why should legal costs be any different?"

So far, third-party funding in the UK has focused on larger commercial claims. The whole system is highly controversial, with opponents arguing that it breaches traditional concepts of champerty and compromises lawyers’ independence.

Cohabiting couples urgently need beefed-up statutory protection, lawyers said yesterday as figures emerged showing that nearly 10 per cent of the UK population was living in a legally grey area.

Cohabiting couples currently have little legal protection when they separate. Yet the number in that situation has increased significantly over the past 14 years. According to government figures, slightly less than 7 per cent of the population was cohabiting in 2012, with that figure now standing at 9.5 per cent.

Research from the Office for National Statistics shows that cohabiting couples are the fastest growing family type in the UK.

“Under current cohabitation law it’s possible to live with someone for decades and even to have children together and then simply walk away without taking any responsibility for a former partner when the relationship breaks down,” said Graeme Fraser, member of the family law campaigning group Resolution.

“This can have a huge impact on women and children, particularly in cases where a mother has given up or reduced her work to raise a family.”

The barristers’ regulator is looking for a guinea pig to test its ability to oversee new models of legal practice, it emerged yesterday.

The Bar Standards Board announced that it was looking for existing alternative business structures – business employing lawyers but that do not conform to the traditional partnership or chambers model – for a pilot programme.

Since April 2015, the board has been operating a halfway house by regulating lawyer-only bodies known as “entities” or “authorised bodies” that, while not being traditional chambers, were still run by lawyers. In contrast, ABSs can involve non-lawyer owners and financing.

“We encourage anybody who is thinking about establishing an ABS or entity to please get in touch with our entity regulation team to discuss your needs,” said Oliver Hanmer, the BSB’s director of supervision.

A market for regulators will emerge once the BSB becomes a fully-fledged regulator of ABSs, with the organisation competing for business with the much larger Solicitors Regulation Authority. But critics argue that competition will drive regulators to the lowest common denominator in a bid to land business.

Alan Blacker, the solicitor admonished by a judge for “looking like something out of Harry Potter”, has been struck off the roll.

A disciplinary tribunal in London found that the lawyer had failed to maintain proper accounts and that he had faked qualifications and titles on his online CV.

Blacker – who styled himself as Lord Harley of Counsel – failed to attend the hearing, claiming that he was unwell and that the date conflicted with his birthday. Nonetheless, the Solicitors Disciplinary tribunal found the case brought the regulatory body to be proved to the criminal standard. Blacker came to the attention of the authorities after being told off by a judge at Cardiff Crown Court in 2014 for adorning his gown with various badges, ribbons and medals.

In addition to being struck off, Blacker was slapped with a costs order of £86,000; he has 21 days from the publication of the tribunal’s written reasons to appeal. A spokesman for the Solicitors Regulation Authority told The Brief that in practice, Blaker could have up to 10 weeks for an appeal.

Young mother barristers are to be given advice on balancing family and career lives through a programme launched yesterday by their professional body.

The Bar Council – which represents some 15,000 barristers in England and Wales – is beefing up its guidance to new mothers with a maternity mentoring scheme.

The programme will allocate to those with newborn children a mentor described as an “experienced parent who has been through the whole process, and has returned to a flourishing practice”. According to the council, the “maternity mentoring will prove invaluable to barristers who are either contemplating a career break, are currently on parental leave, or are returning to practice”.

Launching the scheme, Chantal-Aimée Doerries, QC, the council’s chairwoman, said: “Parenthood should not mean an end to a flourishing career at the Bar. We know many women in particular leave the Bar because of the challenges they face in their careers on becoming a parent.

“To support those women as well as men who become parents, and to avoid the leak of talent, we have added this new scheme to the Bar Council's growing suite of support initiatives.”

The move came a day after the Bar’s regulator released figures showing that up to 40 per cent of women barristers said they had experienced sexist harassment or discrimination in chambers.

Arbitration to stay safe in London

Opportunists among the remaining EU countries that want to take advantage of the uncertainty in London following the UK vote to leave the bloc are beginning to attract legal business.

Among the many claims has been that London will lose its role as a key arbitration centre. However, it stands to reason that arbitration is likely to become more popular because of its independence from national law.

As the London office of K&L Gates, a US law firm, comments in its Hub series: “Parties may wish to consider arbitration as their chosen dispute resolution forum, rather than court litigation, as Brexit will not affect application throughout the UK (or the EU) of the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, which governs such matters.”

The firm argues that those banking and financial services – traditionally sectors more inclined to resolve disputes by litigation – might take another look at potential advantages offered by arbitration.

Whether London should remain as popular as ever for its arbitration services because they will be unaffected owing to the status of the New York convention, K&L Gates comments: “The historic attractions of England as a place to resolve disputes are well known. A precedent-based system of law, top quality, commercially-orientated, highly-experienced judiciary, and a significant concentration of commercially-minded legal expertise have all kept London among the world’s truly global jurisdictions.

“There remain plenty of potential opportunities to craft individually-tailored arbitration agreements that reproduce a number of the features which have made London such an attractive venue in which to resolve commercial disputes.”

So come what may, it seems there is no sensible reason for London to give up its grip on the arbitration market.

New government must tackle ‘dying’ legal aid system – Solicitors Journal

Party donor goes to court over ruling that put Corbyn on ballot – The Times

Eversheds Consulting hastens Ireland launch after Brexit pitch loss – The Lawyer

Cravath elects first female presiding partner – Legal Week

‘Radical’ practice code reforms will widen access to justice, says solicitor regulator – Law Gazette