John Hyde

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

A York firm has joined the growing band of legal businesses converting to employee ownership. Guest Walker, which has a staff of 31, is now owned and run by an employee ownership trust (EOT) after partner of 41 years John Walker relinquished control. The move is designed to help the firm grow whilst ensuring its future independence. Walker and co-directors Sean Gallagher and Louise Elliott will remain in position but will form part of a newly-formed EOT board.

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

Law firms should keep clients informed about delays caused by third parties, the Legal Ombudsman has advised. In the latest of a series of articles taking lessons from past complaints, the ombudsman said it was unlikely ever to sanction a firm purely over a delay caused by an organisation such as HM Land Registry or a medical expert.

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

The judge in a case to decide whether a seriously ill child should have treatment withdrawn has lamented multiple disclosure failings on the eve of the final hearing. Mrs Justice Morgan said disclosure was so mishandled that 3,000 pages of material – much of it said not to exist or be available – was produced in the week before trial by the trust making the application.

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

The barristers’ regulator has dropped controversial plans to impose a new diversity and inclusion duty on the profession. The Bar Standards Board said today that following feedback, the proposal for a core duty to ‘act in a way that advances equality, diversity and inclusion’ will not be taken forward. The BSB Handbook states that barristers ‘must not discriminate unlawfully’, but regulators wanted to bring the duty into line with that of the solicitors’ profession.

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

An executive order handed down against a law firm by the Trump administration has been comprehensively defeated in court after a judge found it violated the constitution. Describing the action as a ‘blunderbuss’ of an order, District Judge John D Bates said the attempt to restrict Jenner & Block violated the first amendment, protecting free speech.