|
| Wednesday December 11 2019 |
|
|
|
By Jonathan Ames
|
Good morning.
One of the benefits — cynics suggest the only benefit — of becoming the leader of the Bar Council or the Law Society is a year of foreign travel as there are countless overseas conferences in the international legal calendar. Some venues, however, are a little too hot to handle, which the chairman of the Bar has discovered on what one critic described as a “junket” to China.
Staying with the international theme, human rights lawyers celebrate as starvation in civil conflict is made a war crime, and back in Blighty further warnings are sounded over biased online legal advice.
Scroll down to our Churn column for an update on the City law firm that has wheeled in insurance and accountancy specialists to sit on its board. And our Blue Bag diary reveals that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at some chambers and law firms.
All that and more in this morning's must-read of all things legal, including news, comment and gossip.
Catherine Baksi, a freelance journalist, contributed to today’s bulletin
|
|
Today
|
| ◆ |
BAR CHAIRMAN ACCUSED OVER CHINA 'JUNKET'
|
| ◆ |
Judge sues justice ministry for racial discrimination
|
| ◆ |
Church ashes error incurs judge’s wrath
|
| ◆ |
Comment: Beware the deficiencies of cyber-justice
|
| Tweet us @timeslaw with your views. |
|
Story of the Day
|
|
Bar chairman accused over China ‘junket’
|
|
The chairman of the Bar Council has been accused of naivety after he took part in a legal conference in China branded a “propaganda junket” (Jonathan Ames writes).
Richard Atkins, QC, was criticised by fellow lawyers for attending and speaking at a two-day forum in Guangzhou, which finished yesterday, despite growing concerns over human rights and the rule of law in the country.
PLUS: The Times view on the Bar Council’s presence in China: Fake Forum
|
Read the full story
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Comment
|
|
Beware the deficiencies of cyber-justice
|
|
Digital courts may speed up the sprawling Chinese justice system but Britain should be cautious about following suit, Robert Coffey and Michael Cumming-Bruce write
Conventional wisdom is that the wheels of justice turn slowly, and in parts of the world that may be true. However, in China, which had no formal legal system until the late 1970s, the wheels of justice are whirring at an extraordinary pace.
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
News round-up
|
|
Judge sues justice ministry for racial discrimination
|
|
A judge who alleges that a complaint against him was dealt with unfairly because of his race is suing the Ministry of Justice and two senior judges.
Judge Nawal Kumrai, who is of Indian descent, alleges in a witness statement that he was treated unfairly by the supervising judges who dealt with a complaint against him by a woman whose case he heard in 2015.
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
Church ashes error incurs judge’s wrath
|
A Church of England judge has rebuked the Ministry of Justice for allowing the removal of a man’s remains from consecrated ground (Kaya Burgess writes).
Edith Sadler asked the Church to allow the ashes of her husband, Ronald, who died in April 1999, to be exhumed from the churchyard of All Hallows’ Church in Ordsall, Nottinghamshire. She was asking for retrospective permission, however, because the Ministry of Justice had already given her a licence in January.
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
|
Starvation in civil conflict made a war crime
|
International law has been extended to make the deliberate starvation of civilians in armed conflicts a war crime.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has amended its governing legislation, the Rome Statute, to cover the crime of starving civilians during non-international armed conflicts.
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
|
Unqualified online advisers giving ‘biased legal guidance’
|
Vulnerable people representing themselves in family courts are being given biased and misleading advice by unqualified online advisers, research has found.
Online advisers were found to have given advice that reflected their own views, including those against the courts and social services.
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
|
In Brief
|
- World's most expensive car at centre of legal battle as judge decides who is entitled to £37m vehicle's gearbox — The Telegraph
- British Olympic Association 'dismayed' at legal challenge led by athletes over marketing rules — Mail Online
- E-cigarette regulations survive US legal challenge — Bloomberg
|
|
|
Comment
|
|
Head to head: How will Brexit affect legal services?
|
|
In the febrile debate over the future of exports from the UK to the EU after Brexit, little has been said about legal services, especially those provided to EU clients by UK litigators. This is big business: about 70 per cent of claims in the High Court are issued by foreign claimants.
Clive Zietman, a partner at Stewarts, and Ianika Tzankova, a law professor at Tilburg University in The Netherlands, ask whether demand for English lawyers will decline after the UK quits the bloc.
Zietman: UK’s reputation will see us through
Tzankova: Optimistic Brexiteers are living in the past
|
|
|
Tweet of the day
|
| Today’s festive tweet:
Today at court, Mr Christmas was representing a client who had been arrested on a warrant wearing a Santa Tshirt emblazoned with the legend ‘WANTED’
Yes. I saw this with my own eyes. |
|
@MAM12CP
|
|
Comment
|
|
Employers must expect scrutiny over responses to harassment claims
|
|
Firms can no longer afford to mishandle internal investigations into sex misconduct complaints, Jill Greenfield writes
Baker McKenzie is the present law firm under the spotlight as a result of sexual harassment allegations but alarm bells are ringing across the City as to who could be next. After campaigns such as #MeToo and Times Up, victims — mostly women — are increasingly emboldened to report inappropriate behaviour and more firms are likely to find themselves dealing with a serious complaint that could have happened years ago.
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
Blue Bag
|
|
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
|
|
There may be one day to go before the country goes to the polls, but a glance at the advent calendar shows there are still 14 sleeps until families are forced to spend a whole day together, look grateful for disappointing gifts and eat their own body weight in chocolates and Brussels sprouts.
But for those lawyers not gripped by election fever, in the crazy online world it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
The website of the barristers’ chambers 3 Paper Buildings is sporting a festive holly leaf and berry combo above its logo and virtual snow drifts across the homepage.
That is nothing compared to the antics of solicitors at Makin Dixon, a West Yorkshire law firm. Makin’ good use of their time, several of them have used a website to transform themselves into dancing and body-popping Christmas elves.
Jane Campbell, a partner, proudly tweeted the result, with the explainer: “@MakinDixonLtd partners getting into the spirit #Christmas #ChristmasCountdown”. You can view the result here.
And if you want to do likewise, you can “elf yourself” at this site — but don’t forget that the managing partner may be looking over your shoulder.
|
|
|
Quote of the day
|
|
My hope for the next 100 years is that the parity which women have achieved in joining the profession will lead both women and men to do whatever they can to promote the cause of women’s equality in the future — not all women are feminists but many men are and that gives us hope for the future.
|
|
Baroness Hale of Richmond, the president of the Supreme Court, giving the recent Denning lecture to the Bar Association for Commerce, Finance & Industry in London
|
|
Read the full story
|
|
The Churn
|
|
Clyde & Co creates independent slots on management board
|
Insurance and accountancy heavyweights have joined the board of a City law firm after the practice created to slots for independent members.
Dame Inga Beale, the former chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, and Stephen Chipman, a former boss of the US office of Grant Thornton, are to join the board of Clyde & Co at the beginning of next year.
Ms Beale was in charge at Lloyd's for four years from 2014, during which she led its expansion into China, Dubai and India. Mr Chipman held senior roles at the accountancy firm for 20 years, most notably as chief executive in the US and China.
Peter Hirst, Clyde & Co’s senior partner, described the first-time appointments of independent board members as “a significant move for us as we seek to ensure that we have industry-leading governance and decision-making structures in place that reflect the size, global nature and ambitions of the firm”.
He said that they would “provide us with objective and independent views, advice and constructive challenge to help inform our decision-making and ensure that the voice of the client is at the heart of our governance”.
|
|
Closing Statement
|
|
An Australian sop to Cerebus
|
Interesting developments in Australia from the firm Nyst Legal in the northeastern state of Queensland (James Morton writes).
This year the state government expanded the definition of murder to include “a reckless indifference to human life”. Last week a mother whose two young daughters died after she allegedly left them in the heat of her car parked at home near Brisbane became the first person to be charged under the reformed law. If she is convicted the penalty is mandatory life imprisonment.
It seems that the code has been changed because of public opinion fuelled by elements of the press over a series of cases attributed to negligent or reckless parenting. Apparently, about 30 children die every year after having been left in cars. The test will be whether juries will convict in these cases or whether they will bring in manslaughter verdicts.
After all, there have been many examples in the past when juries have refused to convict because the death penalty has been in operation. Will they adopt the same principle in these cases? It will probably be some years before we know if this legislation has been simply a sop to Cerebus.
James Morton is an author and former criminal law solicitor
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
If you no longer wish to receive these communications, please follow this link to edit your email preferences. You will continue to receive newsletters with exclusive benefits and updates, Times+ newsletters, offers and promotions and market research emails, provided you have not unsubscribed from those individual communications.
This email is from a member of the News UK group. News Corp UK & Ireland Limited, with its registered office at 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF, United Kingdom is the holding company for the News UK Group and is registered in England No. 81701. VAT number GB 243 8054 69.
To see our privacy policy, click here.
|
|
|
