Over to you: assessing your training need in the age of ‘continuing competence’

In October 2017, solicitors will make their first declaration that they have ‘reflected on and addressed any identified learning and development needs’. Continuing professional development (CPD) is the latest aspect of solicitors’ lives to convert to an outcomes-focused approach, under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)’s continuing competence regime. Continue reading “Over to you: assessing your training need in the age of ‘continuing competence’”

Beware the Black Swan

Imagine the worst: within the last 72 hours, your company has been hit by a major crisis. There may have been serious damage to the community in which you operate. Your customers may have suffered, people’s livelihoods may have been destroyed, the environment may be irretrievably damaged. Some of your employees and contractors may be injured, or worse. Your investors will be livid, and the board looking to assign blame. By the end of the first week, chances are your organisation will be facing dozens of lawsuits, some set to become class actions over time.

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Whose dime?

Even for City lawyers used to increasingly heavy-handed tactics in panel reviews from banking groups, it proved something of a shock. News earlier this year that Deutsche Bank had notified pitching firms of its unwillingness to pay for trainees and newly-qualified lawyers during its last adviser review sent a jolt through the UK legal market. The practice of writing off the time of junior lawyers has been common for years in the US, reflecting in part higher relative salaries, charge-out rates and a propensity to clock up more tangential work as billable hours stateside.

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The long, long game

On 19 May, Iran went to the polls for what many believed would be a tightly-fought election. By the next morning it was clear that the analysts’ predictions had been wide of the mark. Incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, leader of the Moderation and Development Party, secured a landslide victory over his nearest rival, Ebrahim Raisi, chair of the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces. Shortly after the results were announced, Rouhani appeared on state television to say the election had shown Iran was committed to improving relations with the rest of the world. To investors and businesses that have been eyeing the country for years, it was a positive sign, but hopes of an open market have been dashed before. Sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme were lifted in early 2016, but businesses have so far been frustrated in the ongoing difficulties they face in the market.

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Get in the ring

Is the general counsel the ringmaster managing risk effectively within their organisation, or a stage prompt waiting in the wings? These were the main discussion points of a recent panel debate before an audience of more than 40 senior in-house lawyers gathered together at Eight Members Club in Moorgate.

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Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules July 2017

A new statement of changes to the UK Immigration Rules was presented to Parliament on 20 July 2017, to implement changes to the family Rules under Appendix FM following the Supreme Court judgment in MM (Lebanon) & ors v the Secretary for the Home Department [2017]. In particular, the statement of changes inserts new general provisions for meeting the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) for these applications. MM (Lebanon) & ors challenged the compatibility of the requirement with the rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), specifically Articles 8 (Private & Family Life), 12 (To Marry and Found a Family) and 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination). The case also contended that the Rules failed to incorporate the Secretary of State’s duty to have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children when making decisions that affect them (s55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act (BCIA) 2009).

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The revolution in food and agricultural technology is only beginning

In 2009, the UN-FAO released a report predicting that the world’s population would grow 34% by 2050. Among the many challenges posed by a growing world population, a primary challenge will be to ensure an adequate food supply for this vast population. This challenge is further complicated as the predominance of population growth will occur in regions of the world where food security issues are already rampant. The predicted increase in global demand for food has brought the agricultural and food production industries into the spotlight. As a global community, we will not only need to find ways to produce enough food to feed a growing world population, but we will need do so in a way that is sustainable and economically viable.

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An analysis of the UK’s offering to EU Nationals living in the UK post Brexit

On Thursday 23 June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom voted for a British exit (Brexit) from the European Union in a historic referendum. Almost exactly one year later, on 26 June 2017, the UK government published its proposals to ‘Safeguard the position of EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU’. Continue reading “An analysis of the UK’s offering to EU Nationals living in the UK post Brexit”