Michael Cross

United Kingdom

News Editor at The Law Society Gazette

Correspondent and Editor at UKAuthority

Journalist in Muswell Hill, London (and Broadstairs). News editor Law Society Gazette; free data fan. Views personal, retweet not an endorsement, obviously.

Articles

Attorney general Lord Hermer attacks 'pseudo realist' approaches to international law

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

A selective, or ‘pick and mix’ approach to international law will lead to its disintegration, the attorney general warned yesterday in forthright attack on calls for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and other international treaties.
SRA sanctioned by LSB over Axiom Ince failures

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

'Binding directions' requiring the Solicitors Regulation Authority to improve the way it identifies and responds to risks have been imposed by the Legal Services Board, the oversight regulator said today. The measures follow regulatory failures identified in the independent report into the SRA's actions before the 2023 closure of Axiom Ince with the loss of £60 million in client money. It is the first time that the LSB has issued directions under the Legal Services Act.
SRA chief Paul Philip: 'Essential that we learn' from Axiom Ince debacle

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

Solicitors Regulation Authority chief executive Paul Philip today conceded that the regulator has lessons to learn from the Axiom Ince debacle - despite previously rejecting criticisms of its actions in the runup to the 2023 intervention. In a statement responding to the Legal Services Board’s announcement of sanctions, Philip said: 'Legal services help people live and thrive, as well as supporting business investment and economic growth.
Breaking: SRA sanctioned over Axiom Ince failures

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

'Binding directions' requiring the Solicitors Regulation Authority to improve the way it identifies and responds to risks have been imposed by the Legal Services Board, the oversight regulator said today. The measures follow regulatory failures identified in the independent report into the SRA's actions before the 2023 closure of Axiom Ince with the loss of £60 million in client money. It is the first time that the LSB has issued directions under the Legal Services Act.
Top Indian firm joins CMS network

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

In a further sign of the opening of the Indian legal market to international collaboration, the country’s seventh largest firm, INDUSLAW, has joined forces with international firm CMS. Under the arrangement, INDUSLAW remains an independent firm under the CMS brand.
Grave concerns as Istanbul Bar Council members face criminal trial

1 week ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

The Bar Council of England and Wales has endorsed expressions of solidarity and support to the Istanbul Bar Association in advance of a court hearing scheduled to take place this week at the city’s Marmara prison. Ten members of the Istanbul bar including its president face criminal charges for ‘terrorist propaganda’ and ‘public dissemination of misleading information’.
In depth: Mastercard - how will the £200m be distributed?

2 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

The £200m settlement in the high-profile Mastercard claim could potentially benefit 44 million people. Yet payouts could go as low as £2.50, raising difficult questions about the outlook for class actionsMillions of Britons are being invited to sign up online to receive free money. It is not a scam.
Mastercard: Merricks demands apology from funder as £200m settlement approved

2 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

Nearly nine years of litigation entered its last lap this morning with an order for the assessment of legal costs in the mammoth collective action over Mastercard interchange fees. The Competition Appeal Tribunal's judgment in Merricks v Mastercard reveals the appointment of retired costs judge Andrew Gordon Saker as an independent expert.
In depth: ECHR withdrawal 'no longer just the headbanger's view'

2 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

Thinktank Policy Exchange is seeking to propel withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights – once ‘the headbanger’s view’ – into mainstream political debateIt’s called the Nixon-in-China paradox. The theory is that the leader best placed to slaughter a political sacred cow is the one hitherto presumed to be its strongest defender.
Book review: In a Rain of Dust: Death, Deceit and the Lawyer who Busted Big Asbestos

2 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | Michael Cross

In a Rain of Dust: Death, Deceit and the Lawyer who Busted Big AsbestosDavid Kinley£22.50, John Hopkins University Press★★★★✩Is there a mineral more cruel than asbestos? Was there a political doctrine more cruel than apartheid? The mining of the most lethal variety of the first under the rigorous application of the second combined, over decades, in an unspeakably cruel public health disaster – the rain of dust of the title.