The Beckwith Case

SRA v Beckwith turned on two allegations said to be breaches of the principles under the SRA Code of Conduct 2011, namely that a solicitor must: act with integrity (principle 2) and behave in a way that maintains the trust the public places in you and in the provision of legal services (principle 6). In …

Cybernetic Contracts

A while back I wrote a post about cybernetic ethics and for some time I have been thinking about cybernetic lawyering. By this I mean lawyering embedded in, responsive to, the social systems it works in, in ways that meaningfully use evidence to improve that social system. And by evidence I mean more than chats …

секреты:does big law have a Russian problem?

Friday's* Guardian had a really interesting and detailed story on money laundering. It is well worth a few minutes of anyone's time. Professional commitment to money laundering regulation has always been somewhat equivocal. I have heard senior, well-respected lawyers say money laundering reporting requirements had signaled the death-knell of professionalism. But I want to concentrate …

Time for SRA to update warning notice on NDAs

The SRA warning notice was a significant step forward in acknowledging the harm that solicitors can do when they misuse their power and status.* But much has changed since early 2018: knowledge on problematic practices is becoming clearer, as are the roadblocks to progress. The Women’s & Equalities Select Committee reported on the need to clean up the use on …

#Day1Law

Those of you on twitter may have seen me post a plea for thoughts on people's first day at law school #day1law. Over 400 people responded. The responses were fabulous. Stretched across the legal world and well beyond. Contained a good deal of information about teenage drinking in Scotland, and several pleas for some feedback on …

NDAs. The Law Society. Are they telling the truth?

The Law Society and Vice President, David Greene, is denying in today's Times that the Practice Note on NDAs was watered down during its formulation. I have strong reasons to doubt that. They also claim, "Developing guidance requires input and learning from those who have been actively involved in the relevant area of law." These …

SQE tests show openness, reliability and fairness concerns.

The SRA has put great store in the reliability of the assessment mechanisms for the SQE. So it was with interest, that I read the two reports on their Stage 1 pilot. Relative to many academic colleagues and practitioners, I am not particularly sceptical of MCTs, willing to be persuaded they can be more sophisticated …

Consumer Tracker Survey: Don’t Compare.Com

The Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) commissions an annual snapshot of lay users of legal services. Interestingly, but not illegitimately, its dominant focus is competition, not service or access. One finding from this year's LSCP Tracker survey is a reminder that we need to be careful when thinking about surveys in asymmetric markets. Consumers rate …

Business Driven Outsiders and the Challenge to Ethics

There's a great piece on Kirkland Ellis in the FT (£). It portrays a firm of scrappy outsiders, highly financialised, recruiting young lawyers on the promise of high remuneration and - interestingly- high levels of autonomy. A former partner describes the Kirkland deal thus: “They say, ‘here’s an office, here are your phones, hire who you …

Future Law Society Pres Put Head Above Parapet on NDAs

David Greene, Deputy Vice President of the Law Society has written a piece on NDAs, which is both curious and, I'd say, rather foolish. For instance, he says: The Law Society has produced accessible guidance for the public to detail their rights and dispel popular misconceptions that have crept into the public consciousness – for …