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Frances Gibb and Jonathan Ames bring this morning’s must-read of all things legal, including news, comment and gossip. Today - Call for mandatory reporting of child abuse
- Ministers ease path for ‘Turing’s law’
- Lawyer for English trader warns off US prosecutors
- Taxman raided a fifth of UK corporates over three years
- Health and safety fee penalties rocket by 25%
- Lifeline for two King & Wood Mallesons teams
- Comment: Think tank Justice pivotal to reform
- The Churn: ‘Unknown quantity’ Jo Johnson takes government’s IP brief
- Blue Bag diary: From Law Society to the silage heap
Tweet us @TimesLaw with your views.
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Call for mandatory reporting of child abuse suspicions
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Mandatory reporting of child abuse must be brought into force to end the culture of “cover-up” across institutions, a leading child abuse lawyer said today. Liz Dux (pictured), who acted for 168 of Jimmy Savile’s victims as well as victims of Rolf Harris and those claiming against the late Lord Janner, says that without such a law, child abuse is likely to continue. The historical child abuse cases indicate a “terrible problem” because the abuse was covered up, she tells The Times. “We have to have confidence that it can’t be covered up again. It is dangerous if we say it is just historical. We’re still dealing with cases where, for example, teachers are still teachers, people are in hospitals; there is still abuse taking place. Maybe not on the same scale, but there is still a massive concern that our institutions are now more concerned about their reputation than safeguarding.” Dux is calling for a new law to require anyone in a regulated activity – churches, schools, hospitals – with knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse to report it. Such legislation could have covered the hospitals and the BBC in the Savile scandal, she says, as well as in the football club cases that have since emerged. Dux spoke to The Times as she was set to take up a new role, leaving child abuse case work behind her. She has resigned from the law firm Slater & Gordon to take a position as director of the barristers’ chambers Littleton in the Temple. Dux strongly backs the current Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse. “It is hugely important. We, as a society, must support it. It has been beset with problems but Professor Alexis Jay commands a huge amount of respect for her previous work.” She also said that she was against anonymity for those suspected of sex offences before charge. |
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Ministers ease path for ‘Turing’s law’
Thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of now-abolished sexual offences are set to be posthumously pardoned under a “Turing’s law” that will reach the statute book in weeks. The government and MPs from all parties gave unopposed support to grant a formal pardon to an estimated 49,000 men convicted of consensual same-sex relationships. The amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill mean the plans have cleared their final Commons hurdle. The amendments also provide for statutory pardons to be granted to the living in cases where offences have been successfully deleted through the “disregard” process, under which any mention of an offence from criminal records is removed. Anyone living who has been convicted of these now abolished offences can already apply to the Home Office to have their names cleared through that process. Sam Gyimah, the justice minister, said: “I am deeply sorry that so many men died without being pardoned in this way. I am sorry too that our country was blind to a simple fact – that love is love. Whilst we can never undo the hurt caused, I am pleased these men could soon be formally pardoned.” The amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill were first tabled by Lord Sharkey, Lord Cashman and Lord Lexden with government support, and will deliver ministers’ commitment to build on the case of the enigma codebreaker Alan Turing. Turing, the homosexual mathematician who broke the enigma codes during the second world war, committed suicide in 1954 at the age of 41 after his conviction for gross indecency. He was posthumously pardoned by the Queen in 2013. However, the government does not support a separate private members’ bill on the subject brought forward by the Scottish Nationalist MP, John Nicolson. His bill proposes a blanket pardon for the living without the need to go through the disregard process. But the government argues that adopting that measure could lead in some cases to people claiming to be cleared of offences that are still crimes – including sex with a minor and non-consensual sexual activity.
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Lawyer for English trader warns off US prosecutors
The lawyer for the English trader in the crosshairs of US investigators for market-rigging said yesterday that he should not be prosecuted in America. Reports from the US said that prosecutors were on the verge of charging Chris Ashton, the former head of spot trading at Barclays along with two other bankers who are also based outside America. The Bloomberg news agency said the three were alleged to be part of an online chat group known as “The Cartel”, which was alleged to be used to rig foreign exchange rates. But Sara George, a partner at the City of London law firm Stephenson Harwood, said that Ashton complied fully with what he understood to be the legal and compliance requirements of an English bank”. The lawyer went on to say that her client “was never given any legal advice, guidance or instruction by Barclays in relation to US law”. In a statement, Stephenson Harwood pointed out that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office conducted a 16-month investigation that cleared Ashton. “The very same documents were provided to the US Department of Justice,” said George. “A detailed review of the evidence led the SFO to the conclusion that the alleged conduct, even if proven and taken at its highest, would not meet the evidential test required to mount a prosecution for an offence contrary to English law.”
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Taxman raided a fifth of UK corporates over three years
Nearly a fifth of Britain’s large corporations endured a dawn raid by tax investigators in the past three years, with research revealing the authorities are adopting increasingly aggressive tactics. Only companies based in Germany were more likely in Europe to receive an early-morning knock from the taxman. Some 18 per cent of British corporations were subject to a dawn raid since 2014, while 21 per cent were investigated by the tax flying squad in Germany. The figures, from research conducted by YouGov for Allen & Overy, one of the five “magic circle” law firms in the City of London, found that corporations in Italy were also under the cosh, with 17 per cent having experienced dawn raids from the taxman. Dutch companies were the least likely to fall under the spotlight – only 4 per cent in the Netherlands reported having received an early-morning visit. “Just a few years ago, the tax authorities used to be, in most cases, co-operative,” said Gottfried Breuninger, Allen & Overy’s Munich-based global head of tax. “There was a constructive atmosphere, a co-operative spirit and reasonable solutions. “That has to some extent changed now. The authorities increasingly have a tendency to criminalise normal tax cases and dawn raids are becoming much more common.”
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Health and safety fee penalties rocket by 25%
Health and safety watchdogs hit UK companies with a rise in penalty fees of nearly 25 per cent over the past year, a City law firm has reported. The Health and Safety Executive charged businesses a record £15 million through a new policy of levying a fee for intervening. Under the scheme, fees leapt by 23 per cent from £12m the year before. The scheme allows officials to recover intervention costs from businesses that it maintains have materially breached health and safety law, irrespective of any formal enforcement action. According to Pinsent Masons, the Square Mile law firm, HSE officials are not required to provide evidence of why they suspect a business of wrongdoing and most appeals against the fees are heard by the HSE itself. In addition to alleging that the investigation process is unfair, the firm also claimed that the scheme was not efficient. It claimed that despite forcing businesses to pay £15 million in fees last year, the costs of administering the scheme were higher. According to Pinsent Masons, “the scheme fell short by £2.7 million in 2015-16, which represents an increase of 53 per cent on the shortfall of £1.8 million for 2014-15”. Kevin Bridges, a partner at Pinsent Masons, said: “This is a very unpopular scheme with businesses and its costs are continuing to mount.”
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Lifeline for 26 King & Wood Mallesons teams
For those addicted to the twists and turns of King & Wood Mallesons’ continuing saga, today’s update involves two teams totalling 26 lawyers jumping into a life raft. Goodwin, the City law firm, confirmed that it had found a home for the private equity and private investment funds practices at the struggling London office of the Sino-Australian firm. Not only did the deal mean that the lawyers, including six partners, will have a new home, but, according to website Legal Week, that KWM will drop ongoing litigation against Goodwin involving the poaching in 2015 of the firm’s Paris-based private equity team. The six partners now moving to Goodwin are: Michael Halford, Ed Hall, Laura Charkin, Shawn D’Aguiar, Patrick Deasy and Ajay Pathak. The deal also involves Goodwin taking 15 associates and five trainees. A report in The Lawyer magazine said that Goodwin was not the only firm in the market for bulk lawyer transfers from KWM – the London office of another US firm, Reed Smith, was also in the frame “to purchase a number of practice before the end of the week”. Earlier this week, KWM filed its second court notice of intention to go into administration. A report in The Lawyer quoted one insolvency expert as describing the London branch of the firm as being “more mismanaged than BHS”.
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In Brief
In today’s Times Law … And elsewhere … - Report flags delays in bringing solicitor disciplinary cases – Legal Futures
- Motorists flee more accidents to avoid ‘crash-for-cash’ scams – The Times
- 140,000 give views on press regulation – The Times
- Trainee solicitors ‘underpaid and overworked’ – Law Gazette
- ‘Lying’ VW agrees to plead guilty over diesel scandal – The Times
- Trump law chief given rough ride in Senate hearing – The Times
- Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance behind scenes in Trump team – Legal Week
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From Law Society to the silage heap
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Either Catherine Dixon, the soon-to-be-former boss of the Law Society, is a secret fan of The Archers or life at Chancery Lane became so unbearable that she embraced the first friendly face that came along – even if it had a strong whiff of the farmyard about it. Dixon, who joined the society two years ago after heading the NHS Litigation Authority, will soon take the reins at one of the UK’s biggest agricultural colleges. Askham Bryan College – which has 4,000 students spread across ten campuses in the north of England – said Dixon would become its chief executive from April. The lawyer’s hitherto unreported fascination for pig arks and milking machines emerged after her dramatic resignation letter was sent to the Law Society council last week. In that no-holds-barred missive, Dixon lambasted the organsation’s ruling body for failing to grasp the nettle of a streamlined corporate governance structure. Sources close to Chancery Lane have whispered to The Brief that Dixon was “pretty bloody pissed off” (to use the technical jargon the society is so keen on) with what she perceived to be a dinosaur attitude on the council. She was keen to slim it down considerably from its current membership of 100; most council members appear reluctant to go. In any event, it can hardly be the lure of mammon that has prompted Dixon into a wax jacket and pair of muddy wellington boots. Her annual salary package at the society is estimated to be more than £235,000 – not the sort of figure many further education colleges can match.
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Eastern ambitions for BPP law school?
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Peter Crisp, the barrister turned dean of BPP University’s law school, is renowned across the legal profession twittersphere for updating his followers on his urbane lifestyle, which features regular attendance at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican and the National Theatre, among many other culture-vulture perching posts. Occasionally, Crisp drops in a tweet related to his professional role and a couple of days ago he set tongues wagging with a teaser saying he was off to Beijing and Bangkok on a work mission. Not so long ago, it used to be the mighty College (as it was in its pre-university days) of Law that stoked rumours that it was on the verge of opening an overseas campus to bring English legal training to grateful hordes of foreigners. Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and even Dubai were frequently mentioned as possible sites for the swashbuckling Nigel Savage (the intuition’s former chief exec) to plant a flag. But since Savage’s departure, the now University of Law has had a string of owners and bosses and seems lucky to be able to hold on to its branches in Blighty, let alone extending to foreign climes. Could it now be Crisp donning a pith helmet? Sophisticated London town will miss him …
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A run down of the big partner and team moves this week
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‘Unknown quantity’ Johnson takes government’s IP brief
Specialist lawyers described Jo Johnson as an “unknown quantity” as the Conservative MP for Orpington and brother of Boris took over the ministerial intellectual property brief. Johnson succeeds Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, who moved to the Treasury last month. She would be missed, said lawyers. “Before her appointment there had been a long list of short-term and quickly forgotten IP ministers, reinforcing the impression that IP was not taken seriously by successive governments.” said Mark Owen, a partner at Taylor Wessing, a City of London law firm. Owen said IP specialists were not familiar with Johnson’s views on their field. “It will be vital and difficult work,” he said, “and we hope he will show the same level of interest and engagement as Baroness Neville-Rolfe. Elsewhere on the roundabout … Kennedys, an insurance-specialist law firm in the City, has shifted its partner Michael Hennessy from its Miami office to Mexico City, where he will plant another flag for the practice. The move involves the firm poaching two additional partners for its new office in Mexico: Alberto Torres Martínez, who joins from his own firm Bufete Torres Martínez & Asociados, and Gerardo Plata Iturralde, who was in-house at local insurance companies. Back in London, the City office of White & Case, the US law firm, has poached Marc Israel from Macfarlanes. The competition lawyer joins as a partner. Wiggin, the London media and technology law firm, has pinched two partners – one from a rival and the other from an in-house department. Chris Hanson joins from DLA Piper, and Gráinne McKenna was head of legal at NBC Universal International TV Production. And Shoosmiths has recruited three partners to its London office: Bill Molloy, a dispute resolution lawyer, joins from Fasken Martineau, Andrew Lockerbie, an insolvency specialist, jumps from TLT, and David Pacey joins from the Financial Conduct Authority.
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Plain-speaking coppers
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The proposal that all police officers should have a degree is something of a throwback to the pre-war unsuccessful scheme of “direct entry” police officers who were streamlined for promotion with little experience on the beat, writes James Morton. During this ill-fated experiment in 1933 candidates for places on a course at the Police College were required to present themselves with a dinner jacket, four dress shirts and patent leather shoes. It was a short-lived exercise. Not that there seems to be any such thing as “on the beat” today, but one thing that will be lost is the plain-speaking officer. A case in point from the past is the policeman who, when told by an Old Bailey judge that he should keep watch on an acquitted defendant, reassured him saying, “Don’t worry, your lordship, I’ve already clocked his boat”. James Morton is a former criminal law solicitor and now author
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