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| Monday July 2 2018 |
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By Frances Gibb and Jonathan Ames
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Somehow Monday just sneaks up on you … Sorry.
We’re not even in the dog days of August yet and the week kicks off with a shaggy tale – but not a happy one. Dog-snatching is rising to epidemic proportions and campaigners are calling for a change in the law to make pet theft a specific crime.
But before the police start chasing dog-nappers, they need to get their own house in order. One force has been fined thousands after an officer helped himself to a couple’s packet of crisps.
It’s all here in this morning’s must-read of all things legal, including news, comment and gossip.
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Today
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LEGAL CHAOS LOOMS OVER 'DEMENTIA CRISIS'
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Slater and Gordon fined £80,000 for breaching client confidentiality
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Police chief faces trial for 95 deaths at Hillsborough
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Deliveroo pays thousands to riders denied workers’ rights
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Adoption struggle may end in sending two boys abroad, court hears
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Blue Bag diary: Queen of Shops was a teenage outlaw
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The Churn: Latham punts on another American Londoner
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Analysis: Judges won’t get dragged into political squabbling over Brexit
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| Tweet us @timeslaw with your views. |
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Story of the Day
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Legal chaos looms over "dementia crisis"
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Britain is in the grip of a dementia crisis, with a huge gulf between the numbers of people who will be affected by it and those preparing for it, a report will warn on Monday.
Dementia is the biggest single cause of death in England and Wales, responsible for 12 per cent of deaths in 2016, and the number given a diagnosis of the condition has risen by 54 per cent in ten years, it says. However, while three quarters of the population fear dementia or the loss of capacity to make decisions, 97 per cent have not made relevant legal provision.
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Read the full story
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Analysis
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Judges won’t get dragged into political squabbling over Brexit
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Remain campaigners will have to stick to the legal arguments if they want to bring judicial reviews against the government, write Nusrat Zar and Mark Smyth
British courts have little tolerance for the use of judicial review for overtly political purposes around Brexit, as demonstrated by two recent judgments. The hearings are part of a trend of claimants seeking to change the course of the UK’s departure from the EU or to shape negotiations through legal challenges.
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Read the full story
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News round-up
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Slater and Gordon fined for disclosure breach
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Slater and Gordon -- a law firm renowned for its television advertising campaigners targeting the personal injury claims market -- has been hit with a bill for more than £130,000 after it breached client confidentiality. Two branches of the legal practice were fined £40,000 each and ordered to pay £52,000 in costs.
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Read the full story
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Deliveroo pays thousands to riders denied workers’ rights
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Deliveroo has paid out a six-figure sum to a group of couriers who were denied basic employment rights by one of Britain’s leading “gig economy” businesses. Lawyers confirmed today that 50 cycle and moped delivery riders were paid compensation of up to £45,000 each in a settlement that means the dispute will not proceed to an employment tribunal.
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Read the full story
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Police chief faces trial for 95 deaths at Hillsborough
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Relatives of Liverpool fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster yesterday shouted “thank you” to a judge who gave permission for the senior police officer on duty that day to face trial (writes David Brown). David Duckenfield, a retired chief superintendent, has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence relating to alleged failings during the FA Cup semi-final in April 1989.
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Read the full story
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Adoption struggle may end in sending two boys abroad, court hears
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Two brothers could be sent to Poland because there are only three Polish speaking families in Britain willing to consider adopting more than one child, a family court has been told. A social worker has described the difficulties she faces trying to find adopters who meet the cultural and language needs of the two boys taken from the care of their Polish mother.
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Read the full story
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Dog snatching wave prompts clamour for tougher laws
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Almost 1,900 dogs were stolen last year, compared with 1,500 in 2013, police records obtained through freedom of information requests have shown. But campaigners claim that the the figure could be closer to 3,000, because of recording discrepancies -- and they the victims of dog thefts are calling for a change to the law.
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Read the full story
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Police face £40,000 bill in harassment case over a packet of crisps
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A police force faces hefty costs after an officer harassed a couple in a case that began over a packet of crisps. Merseyside police face paying more than £40,000 after Richard and Michelle Hall, both 45, sued the force for breaching their human rights.
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Read the full story
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In Brief
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- Google searches for way round EU copyright – The Sunday Times
- Solicitor watchdog grants regulation waiver to ‘Which?’ – Legal Futures
- ‘Ban prostitution sites that fuel sex trafficking’ – The Times
- Civil partnerships: You’ve lost, minister. Let us be partners in love — and law. The Sunday Times
- Book review: Compelling human stories from the dock by Sarah Langford – The Sunday Times
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Comment
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EU and UK cannot afford brinksmanship on security
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Officials on both sides recognise the need for smooth extradition and intelligence-sharing, so threats to withhold co-operation are worrying, Nick Vamos writes
Michel Barnier's view that the UK will not be allowed to use the European arrest warrant after Brexit is no surprise – it is what many British lawyers have been saying for some time.
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Read the full story
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Tweet of the day
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| That’s 3 of the more soccerish nations knocked out of the championships now. Could this represent a real chance for our chaps? I ruddy well hope so!
#30YearsOfHope
#NeverStopBelieving |
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@shitbarrister
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Analysis
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Businesses are fast losing patience over Brexit
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As the government struggles to decide on a future trading relationship with the EU, companies are preparing for the worst, writes Charles Brasted
The Stanford marshmallow experiment in the late 1960s demonstrated that a child who waited quietly for a greater reward rather than opt for instant gratification was more likely to have a life of health, wealth and happiness. There is growing consensus that any gratification has been delayed with Brexit, and businesses in the UK and Europe are increasingly unwilling to play the patient child.
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Read the full story
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Blue Bag
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Queen of Shops was a teenage outlaw
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Mary Portas, television’s one-time Queen of Shops (pictured), was the star attraction at the annual “pride lunch” at the City of London offices of Hogan Lovells, the transatlantic law firm. Over a slimmer’s portion of grilled fish, she entertained guests by rattling through her life and career. What was her darkest hour with either the law or lawyers … or both?
“I’ve had plenty of run-ins with the law,” she responded intriguingly before adding: “But during my childhood and let’s not get into that.”
As far as lawyers were concerned, Portas said she had never had much to do with them, and she did not look as though she thought she had missed out.
Portas, 58, was a bit more forthcoming on sexual politics. In 2010 she came out as gay and had a civil ceremony with Melanie Rickey, a fashion editor. But she resists attempts to file her in the box of sexual orientation rights campaigner.
“I’ve been in love with just three people in my life,” she said. “Once with a gay man, once with my former husband and now with my wife.”
And she certainly had not harboured stifled gay desires as a morose teenager. “I never sat around in my bedroom pining at pictures of Dusty Springfield thinking of how much I’d like to snog her,” she told a bemused crowd of legal suits.
Hey baby – just a little bit …
Next year HogLovs should consider asking Aretha Franklin to do a turn at the firm’s annual lunch. She may have been married to two blokes and no women, but she is renowned for her barnstorming recording and performances of the Otis Redding classic, Respect.
Which is presumably the tune that partners, associates and all other staff at the firm have to belt out during new training sessions. Against the backdrop of the #MeToo campaign over sexual harassment, the Hogan Lovells “global chief people officer” — these days, even the phrase human resources is passé — has put in place a programme of “respect” classes.
Let’s hear it from the management committee in the back: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Should HogLovs be proud of choking whales?
Hogan Lovells was one of the first City law firms to jump on the corporate social responsibility bandwagon, launching in 1997 a discrete, full-time pro bono department under the management of Yasmin Waljee, who has since bagged an OBE for her efforts.
Disappointing, then, to see that the firm is failing the David Attenborough Blue Planet test for environmental awareness.
Tables at Friday’s Pride luncheon were festooned with dozens of plastic ducks which, while resplendent in thei rainbow colours, will undoubtedly be cast aside and end up in the world’s oceans. Countless sea creatures can look forward to indigestion at best and choking at worst, thanks to the transatlantic law firm.
I am the law, goo goo g’joob
Staying on a musical theme, it is more than half a century since J Lennon intoned, I am the walrus and added goo goo g’joob for good measure. Now the Bar Council has launched its own take on that theme, although sadly it seems to be a little less psychedelic.
"I am the Bar" is the organisation’s latest online social mobility campaign, which “aims to encourage more people with the necessary talent and potential” to become barristers “irrespective of their socio-economic background”.
The initiative launches today with the council’s chairman, Andrew Walker, QC, acknowledging that “there is still a perception that to join the Bar you have to come from a wealthy or privileged background”.
Must be something to do with those fees for the bar professional training course hovering above the £18,000 mark.
In any event, Walker argues that the Bar “wants and needs to attract the best talent from across the country, irrespective of socio-economic background, and to do so we need to break down barriers to aspiration and to the attainment of students’ full potential”.
The I am the Bar campaign involves the appointment of 11 barristers as “social mobility advocates”, who will spread the word about qualifying from non-traditional backgrounds.
One is Tunde Okewale, a criminal law barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, who launched Urban Lawyers, an initiative that aims to spread access to the law to less socially advantaged areas of London.
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The Churn
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Latham punts on another American Londoner
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Latham & Watkins is taking a punt on a second London-based US lawyer to take the helm, announcing on Friday that Richard Trobman had been appointed as its chairman and managing partner.
Bill Voge (pictured) resigned from the post in March after admitting to sending graphic sexual messages to a woman he met through a male Christian support group. Mr Voge is an American citizen but was based in London and was the first partner outside of the States to lead the law firm.
Latham, based in Los Angeles, is one of the richest legal practices in the world. Mr Trobman, a banking and private equity specialist, is based in at its Square Mile outpost. He was elected to the role of vice-chairman in 2017 after serving on the practice’s executive committee for three years.
The lawyer joined Latham in 1991 as an associate in Los Angeles, transferred to New York in 1993, and has been based in the London office since 2000. He was elected to the partnership the same year.
In a statement, the firm said that Mr Trobman had had a range of responsibilities at the London office, including a two-year stint on the practice’s “women enriching business” committee.
Mr Trobman skirted round the issue of his predecessor’s sudden resignation. “We thank Bill for his many contributions to our firm. I will endeavor to build upon our accomplishments and to lead the firm as we strive to meet the challenges of the ever-evolving dynamics of the market.”
The firm would not comment on whether Mr Voge was still with the practice. His profile remains on the firm’s website, but he is listed as a “retired partner”.
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Quote of the day
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“Mr Fraser wishes to talk to you, [I was told]. When we spoke, he told me ‘I’m writing my autobiography and you’re going to do it’. Everyone advised me not to go near him, but we went ahead.”
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James Morton, the former criminal law solicitor turned author and regular contributor to The Brief, telling the Law Gazette about the first time he was approached by “Mad” Frankie Fraser, the former hard man for the Richardson gang in London.
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Read the full story
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