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What not to review - AKA the Coffee Machine Contract Conundrum

It is a basic principle of in-house lawyering that you are supposed to refuse to advise 'the business' (aka clients) on things that don't really require legal advice. Or if you are the GC or a senior lawyer, you are supposed to avoid advising on matt...

02 Feb 2012 | 15:06 | 1 comment

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inner image IP valuation - how much is a footballer worth?

"31 January is the closing date for the English and Danish "transfer windows" within which football clubs can sell their overpaid, under-performing players to their rivals and use the money to buy overpaid, under-performing players..."

31 Jan 2012 | 12:33

inner image The minimum salary for trainees: in real trouble this time

Every time there is a recession, the solicitors' profession likes to reconsider minimum salaries for its trainees. For a while this was a kind of annual sport. Chairs of the Trainee Solicitors' Group and the Young Solicitors' Group Lawyers (I did both...

26 Jan 2012 | 14:20

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L'enfant terrible - headlines, controversy and outrage at the European Court of Human Rights

A bit like news of a wayward celebrity, judgments from the European Court of Human Rights are now awaited with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Whatever are those crazy unelected judges going to do next? Will this be the latest 'Judgment dayâ€...

18 Jan 2012 | 12:43

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Do O'Dwyer and Tappin cases highlight a need for reform of UK extradition laws?

Last Friday, retired businessman Christopher Tappin learned that he had lost a High Court battle to resist his extradition to Texas on charges of conspiring to export goods for use in Iran's missile programme. Several hours later, Westminster Magistra...

17 Jan 2012 | 13:54

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Do we need the Obscene Publications Acts?

"The Obscene Publications Act equally protects the less innocent from further corruption, the addict from feeding or increasing his corruption"- Lord Wilberforce in DPP v Whyte [1972]...

12 Jan 2012 | 08:34

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Now we're talking - about the Scottish referendum

In a post on this blog in November of last year I suggested that it would be worthwhile talking about the proposed referendum on Scottish independence which Scotland’s First Minister has pledged to hold sometime in the lifetime of the current Scott...

12 Jan 2012 | 08:00

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Blacks and La Senza: aggression vs seduction?

This week has seen the first of what will most likely be a wave of pre-pack administrations of high street names this year, with both Blacks Leisure and La Senza going into administration and immediately thereafter their businesses (or at least the pr...

11 Jan 2012 | 10:53

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Taking out the heat - key points to avoid in legal letter writing

During my early legal days, I became embroiled in increasingly snarky correspondence with a respected firm of solicitors. They knew I wasn't a qualified lawyer at that stage and, I felt, they had taken several opportunities in correspondence to let me...

11 Jan 2012 | 10:03 | 2 comments

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Are some rights to private life just not cricket?

Given previous poor reporting of human rights cases, alarm bells began to ring as the Sunday Telegraph reported student Abdullah Munawar's appeal on human rights grounds against a refusal to grant him leave to stay in the UK, citing his playing cricke...

10 Jan 2012 | 09:12 | 2 comments

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Wombs and weight: an eye-opening account of life as a female barrister

In this blog, female barrister seeyouatthebar recounts some experiences which suggest the Bar may still have some way to go in terms of gender equality...

09 Jan 2012 | 11:02 | 3 comments

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Can solicitors be social? A sceptical look at the LawSoc guidance on social media

I wrote briefly last year about the practice note on social media issued by the Law Society at the end of December. I'm sure there will be some commentators who bemoan the fact that the Law Society "just doesn't get social media..." and that any ki...

06 Jan 2012 | 13:05 | 6 comments

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We ain't no angels - TV's mixed efforts to portray life at the criminal Bar

You may have spent an hour of your life last night watching the first episode of new ITV1 legal drama Eternal Law. If you missed it, in short, two angels have been sent from heaven to practise at the criminal defence Bar, and they're not allowed to ha...

06 Jan 2012 | 12:15

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Does the legal profession need scholars?

We do not need practising lawyers to be devoted purely to the pursuit of knowledge. We cannot expect it of them, nor would it be in their client's best interests. Lots of lawyers do not have to think or learn in the scholarly sense. They understand, r...

05 Jan 2012 | 13:56 | 1 comment

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A second bite - why the Stephen Lawrence verdict means the abolition of double jeopardy is here to stay

Eighteen years after Stephen Lawrence was killed in a racist attack in southeast London, Gary Dobson and David Norris have been convicted of his murder. As well as bringing a sense of closure, the convictions represent a significant legal milestone as...

04 Jan 2012 | 13:08

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