THIS WEEK’S EDITION

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 11 September 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: 9/11 The Memories Return The events of 11th September 2001 will never be forgotten by those alive at the time not just collectively but individually. As it happens I had been on the…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 4 September 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:Rulers need to Follow the Rules It has been a big week for UK politics with the new Prime Minister facing the House of Commons for the first time. And there was also a…

28 August 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: META AND MIDDLESBROUGH There’s a long distance between the courtroom in the USA where the malign impact of Meta was being discussed and the fatally ‘racing’ cars in Middlesbrough which brought death to two police officers and a gang of youths. What brings them…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 21 August 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:TOP OF THE AGENDA? Of course it pales into insignificance by comparison with the immense news story gripping most of the UK’s front pages this morning (i.e where a celebrity couple will live come…

14 August 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CHECKS IN THE POST Featured today as our lead news story is the publication of Frail Professionalism, a series of lectures delivered by Professor Richard Moorhead of Exeter University about the Post Office scandal and the involvement, especially, of lawyers in how events played…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 31st July 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: MAGIC CIRCLE UNDER A SPELL? The fascinating article in The Times LAW yesterday by Tony Williams, former Managing partner of Clifford Chance and ace legal management consultant at Jomati, charted what some might…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 24 July 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: SMART ALECS? Presumably there are pros and cons for promoting to the country’s top legal job someone who has no legal credentials whatsoever. After all, look what hidden talents previously unqualified Lord Chancellors…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 17 July 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: The Shame of It All Andy Burnham arrives as Prime Minister on Monday without a mandate for his political agenda. Whatever that agenda might include, however, the claim is that it will be…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 10 July 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:BOOK OF JUDGES Even if you have no interest in football the controversy over the honesty of the referees at the World Cup is revealing and significant for the wider world. Immense discretion is…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 3 July 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Man with a Plan? The Starmer era may be coming to an end but as today’s announcement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government makes clear it aims to go out…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 26 June 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Here’s Hoping In a bold statement this week as he previewed this September’s inaugural ‘City Law Senior Leaders Conference’ (see more below) Colin Passmore, Chair of the City of London Law Society, declared,“London…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 19 June 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Tech with Schtick? Hotfoot from the amazingly large and busy fun fest of legal technology LEGALTECHTALK which concluded yesterday afternoon at the InterContinental London – The O2, the Legal Diarist was privileged to…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 12 June 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Jury’s Out? High profile Ministerial resignations ahead of a make-or-break by-election have made this a disappointing week for the Government. But never mind, maybe the announcement by the Ministry of Justice of plans…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 5 June 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: ON THE HISTORY OF A LAW FIRM Big, brash and brutish – that’s the way that the newly merged trans-pond firm of Winston Taylor presents itself in its high-powered promotional campaign. It proclaims…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 29 May 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:SLAPPED ABOUT We run double coverage this week on the increasing challenge from SLAPPS – one article in connection with the latest research from the University of Exeter and another in a piece by…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 22 May 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Facing Charges? As we go into a steaming Bank Holiday the hot issues hanging over the legal world are the possibilities of charges being pursued against Andrew (the man formerly known as Prince)…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 15 May 2026 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Contempt Out of Order Amidst all the shenanigans going on at the Labour Party  those of us who follow the news agenda might imagine that nothing else has happened in the wider…

8 May 2026 Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: LAST ORDERS? Remember the date – Friday 8 May 2026. It might be the opening of a new order. On the one hand there is the arrival of REFORM as a major player…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world May 1st 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Is This A Good Deal I See Before Me? The court-room in the USA where Elon Musk is toe-to-toe with Sam Altman in a dispute over a ‘for profit’ arm of OpenAI is…

24 April 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Believe in the Impossible? It had to happen – and maybe it’s happening already on an unimaginable scale. But for a firm with the resources and heritage of Sullivan & Cromwell to be caught filing a brief in a bankruptcy case that contained fake…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 17 April 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Oh, Africa! If the calamitous events in the Middle East have demonstrated anything it is how deeply interlinked we all are. How many laypeople would have guessed that British farmers were dependent on…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 10 April 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Law: Cheap at Twice the Price? The issue of costs has always been contentious but, as our story below (Costs Experiments Proving Cost Effective) illustrates, progress is being made on bringing some order…

3 April 2026 GOOD FRIDAY Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Blue Sky Thinking? As events this week have demonstrated, humanity is back in the business of exploring space. Obviously the main focus is on the USA (illustrating that some good things can still emerge from that country) but the UK also has…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 27 March 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Whither the UK (Down the Drain) ? The publicity for the City UK’s annual International Conference – appropriately being held on St. George’s Day, April 23 – coincided with the unsurprising revelation that…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 20 March 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: BRINGING AI INTO THE FOLD? It is good to see that the Legal Services Board is starting to grapple with some of the issues – practical and philosophical – thrown up by the…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 13 March 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: HER FINEST HOUR? Those who have followed with interest the determined actions by the organisation ‘Detained in Dubai’ – and notably its CEO, Radha Stirling – on behalf of foreigners who have fallen…

LEGAL DIARY Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 6 March 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: MUDDLED MISSILES No-one should be surprised that the response of our lawyer Prime Minister and former head of the Crown Prosecution Service to events in Iran should be legalistic. Totally in…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 27 February 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CROSS IN THE BOX? There will be alarm bells blaring across the political Establishment over the weekend at the result of yesterday’s by-election. As well as the voting pattern, however, there will be…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 20 February 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: BROTHERS-IN-LAW A man in his 60s, living remotely in Norfolk, was arrested by the police yesterday and interviewed about something which happened many years ago. The world went crazy. Apparently he is somebody’s…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 13 February 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CUTTING THE RED ( WHITE AND BLUE ) TAPE Recent figures indicate a growing number of complaints about law firms. Those involved in house conveyancing seem to be particular targets of frustration. No…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 6 February 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Gating Epstein Condemnation by association seems to be the rule of thumb in the midst of the mayhem generated by the release of the Epstein papers. One might almost suggest that we are…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 30 January 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: AI Requires More Qualified People Amongst the many ways in which AI is changing the way the legal business operates – notably in areas such as reviewing and comparing documents – it might…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 23 January 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Courting History JPMorgan Chase has been added to the long list of people and organisations whom President Trump is currently suing. In this case it is because Trump accuses the bank of debanking…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 16 January 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: PLODDING ON WITH AI? Were it not so serious the world would be in stitches at the farcical gullibility of West Midlands police in naively believing everything they read online via AI regarding…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 9 January 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK EU/UK – Back Together? The perennial debate about how Britain should live with its continental neighbours is taking another turn with the Prime Minister hinting that a closer relationship might be a good…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 2 January 2026 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SUCCEED “This is our moment,” pronounced Steve D’Amore, the Chair of Winston & Strawn as he sat down with Steve Cleghorn of Taylor Wessing to chew the cud…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 28 December 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Still working over Twixmas? Well don’t let it go to waste. Congratulations if you are at work and reading this over the period when, for most of us, one day blends into the…

19 December 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: AI Versus Human – Taste the Difference The legal sector has been dominated over the past year – as in many other areas of business – by the irresistible rise of Artificial Intelligence and its spin-off implications. For lawyers it is not just how…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world (As for) 12 December 2025 NOTE: Due to the Christmas season we are publishing to a slightly different schedule until the New Year Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: LONDON LEADS According to the latest report from The City UK, London dominates…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 5 December 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Rebalancing the (Financial) Scales of Justice Julian Taylor, the senior partner at Simmons & Simmons, attracted some interest this week when he floated the idea that the legal profession should ‘rethink its profit…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 28 November 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Looking for Lamination You’ve got to love, David Lammy. He may be a former choir boy but like other choir boys in history and literature – think ‘ Lord of the Flies’ –…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 21 November 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Caught Out? Alarm bells seem to be sounding loud and clear about the fragile state of the justice system in the UK. See the report below from the House of Lords about its…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 14 November 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Broadcasting Failure The muddled mess into which the now-notorious ‘Panorama’ programme has plunged the BBC over its bungled editing of President’s Trump’s speech will be with us for some time to come. It…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 7 November 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: All Present and Incorrect? The ‘Power of Presence’ motto is likely to gain traction in the weeks ahead as part of on-going debate about WFH and persuading recalcitrant lawyers back into the office.…

31 October 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Thrilling news? No doubt there will be astonishment at today’s news that the number of UK visitors to the Pornhub website has decreased by 77% since the introduction of more rigorous age checks for sexually explicit sites were introduced under the Online Safety Act.…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 24 October 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Let Me Think About It We have plenty of important – some REALLY important – stories in the Legal Diary this week but maybe the one of greatest long term significance comes from…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 17 October 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:Until Death Do Us…erm ‘Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?asked Groucho Marx famously. And his scepticism seems to be catching if the latest data are anything to…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 10 October 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Chinese Whispers The hapless duo Berry and Cash, allegedly spies for China, have been characterised in recent weeks as like something out of a John le Carre novel. If only. Immense amounts of…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 3 October 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: More time, better performance? Over in the USA Lexitas has just announced the national rollout of its powerful new case tracking tool, eLaw®. Previously available only for New York and New Jersey trial…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 26 September 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: IDENTITY CRISIS As evidenced by our LEGAL COMMENT section (below), immigration and how to control it is the compelling issue of the week. It has, however, been supercharged by the Government’s mapping out…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 19 September 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CRACKING ON The stage management of the Trump state visit demonstrated that the UK still leads when it comes to pomp and circumstance. But it did raise questions about whether gilded carriages can…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 12 September 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Humouring Hate Speech? The murder in the US of the charismatic right-wing campaigner Charlie Kirk has sparked angry exchanges about the possibility of America descending into a frenzy of violence based on sectarian-grade…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 5 September 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Ray of Intelligence The Angela Rayner stamp duty case will become a small inflexion point in the story of the Starmer regime. Her resignation marks not least a contrast in style between a…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 29 August 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Judgment Day? There has been comment recently in other parts of the legal media on the likely long term impact on high profile law firms, primarily American but with offices in the UK,…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 22 August 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: PLASTIC CRISIS NEEDS A FLEXIBLE RESPONSE? There was understandable gloom a few days ago because of the collapse of the UN Global Plastics Treaty talks in Geneva. The aim was to develop some…

15 August 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Poles Apart Legally? The imminent tête-a-tete between Trump and Putin signals a monumental moment in the nightmare that is Ukraine’s self-defence against a trigger happy neighbour. By the time you read this it may be all over bar the bombing. But if – as…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 8 August 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Lost its way home? The end of Section 21 Notices (that is landlords being able to evict their tenants almost on a whim) featured significantly in the Labour election manifesto. It wasn’t important…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 1 August 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: PONDERING THE ANGLO-AMERICAN PROBLEM Across the pond the ‘Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination’ issued this week by the United States Justice Department is the inevitable end-product of the culture…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 25 July 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: (Another) China Crisis? However inept the Starmer regime may be in growing the economy and calibrating measures designed to attract and retain wealth in the UK, it can claim some credit for its…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 18 July 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Employment Laws: Coming or Going? The contradictory pressures on the employment market make it a nightmare for a Government trying to reduce immigration whilst also ensuring that employers have the skills they need…

Diary news, commentary, insights and appointments from the legal world 11 July 2025 Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Verdict on Leveson? “The right to a trial by jury, one of the most time-honored inheritances from Magna Carta in United States law, refers to the guarantee that courts will depend on a body of…

Diary news, commentary, insights and appointments from the legal world 4 July 2025 Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Any future for legal Human Resources? “The evidence that entry-level jobs in areas such as law, finance and consulting are becoming scarcer should set alarm bells ringing both in Westminster and in boardrooms,” reported The…

JUNE 27 2025 Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Rules? What Rules? “The Prime Minister – himself a human rights lawyer – should heed the legal advice he is receiving and avoid dragging the UK into another military adventure lacking a clear legal basis,” says Kubo Mačák, professor of international law at the University…

Diary news, commentary, insights and appointments from the legal world June 20 2025 Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: THE PERILS OF EXTRADITION The UK’s Extradition Act is coming under scrutiny again with signs that the Law Commission could welcome a review of the way it currently operates (often, it might seem, with perverse…

Diary news, commentary, insights and appointments from the legal world June 13 2025 Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: MAKE YOUR EXCUSES AND LEAVE? Climbing on board bandwagons is always a risky business – after all, you cannot tell where (or to what extremes) they might be going. But timing when to drop off…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 6 June 2025 81st Anniversary D-Day Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: True or false? Image courtesy of Dame Vera’s Official website With a new and more canny Chair (albeit interim) in the shape of Dame Vera Baird now overseeing the Criminal…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 30 May 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: THE ART OF THE AI DEAL? The battle lines in the fight to acquire or protect creative works for AI training are moving rapidly as highlighted by this week’s news that the New…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 23 May 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Facing Up to Face Time at the CCRC The report from the Justice Committee on the failures at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has been out for a few days now but…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 16 May 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK : Law is the Real Deal The practical impact of Keir Starmer’s success in racking up trade deals with the US, India and (maybe) the EU will take some years to evaluate. In…

9 May 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: YESTERDAY – Era-making or just erratic? Official portrait View and download portraits and cropped portraits of Lord Mandelson. Lord Mandelson does not currently have an official portrait. [Image courtesy of Lord Mandelson’s Parliamentary page] Big day yesterday – VE celebrations, new pope greets the…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 2 May 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: TIMELY REFORM? The dramatic impact of Reform on yesterday’s local (and, minutely, Parliamentary) elections has echoed the brief explosive successes of other interloper parties in recent decades from the SDP to UKIP. Whether…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 25 April 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Divine Justice? If there is any state that can up-stage Britain when it comes to ceremony, tradition and the theatre of power then it is the Vatican. Over this weekend the pageantry will…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 18 April 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Who Chooses the Loos? The paradox of this week’s decision by the Supreme Court on what constitutes a ‘woman’ is that despite being acclaimed for being ‘common-sense’ and ‘definitive’ it still leaves open…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 11 April 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A Role Model for Doing the Right Thing Along with a number of other legal journalists I had the privilege this week of an advance briefing by top US law firm Jenner &…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 4 April 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: US Justice – not just blindfolded but gagged? Today the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), which represents lawyers in 45 countries, issued a powerful condemnation of the measures adopted…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 28 March 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: SHAKESPEARE IN AN AMERICAN ACCENT? As the otherwise unmemorable Dick the Butcher declares famously in Shakespeare’s Henry VI (Part Two), “The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers.” Dick is a…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 21st March 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: RED TAPE – SNIP IT WITH CARE You don’t want to be coming back here too often The need to improve and speed efficiency in achieving legal outcomes has becoming a guiding principle…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 14 March 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: JOB DONE? Guidance HM Courts and Tribunals Service information bulletins Figures released today show that Employment Tribunal open single cases have shot up from 33,000 to 43,000 in the past year. This represents…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 7 March 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Everyone Has A Past This week’s row over the new Sentencing Guidelines have brought together the Government and Opposition in concerns about an emerging Two Tier justice system regarding those entitled to pre-sentence…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 28 February 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Time to Come Clean Two significant events occurred last night regarding the fight for justice by ordinary people against a defensive and evasive state. On TV the Corby pollution scandal of the 1990s…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 21st February 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: SUPREME BEING? Whether the next four years will prove to be a burp or a watershed in US history remains to be seen. But already the bland indifference by the Administration to the…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 14 February 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: WIDENING THE CAREER LADDER  We are at the end of National Apprenticeship Week and it is good to see that it has been garnering plenty of publicity (even on BBC Radio 4 this…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 7 February 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Desert Island Risks If you enjoy the privilege of WFH then you might haver indulged yourself this morning by listening to the latest edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. This week’s castaway…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 31 January 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CORRIDORS OF POWER? There was a profound sense of deja-vu this morning as sources close to the Government started to complain about the law and, more particularly government lawyers. Referring to the Attorney…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 24 January 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: THE PRINCE PRESSED ON There are many lessons from this week’s battle between Prince Harry and the power of NGN. Exactly what they are will depend on your perspective. For many it will…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 17 January 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:IT’S DORA’S DAY Today the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience in the Financial Sector (DORA) regulation comes into force with scope across most regulated entities in the European financial sector. That includes credit institutions and…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 10 January 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: The Return of the Wild West? Images of the terrible fire destruction which ravaged Los Angles this week will stay with us for a long time. But alongside that catastrophe there have been…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 3 January 2025 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Steady job? According to reports in the press this morning Gen Z has moved away from the footloose and fancy free tendencies of its predecessors and would prefer to settle down in a…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 27 December 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: More law, less lawyers? Analysis published just before Christmas highlighted that one of the contributory factors to the UK’s miserable last economic quarter was a decline in the…

20 December 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: The Year of Starmer? Do barristers make good Prime Ministers? With Keir Starmer most likely to be in office until 2029 that will represent twelve years of barrister leadership of the country in the 21st century. Effective barristers are able to make the most…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 13 December 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A Role Model for a Flailing Society? This morning’s news that the economy has contracted marks definitively the end of the meagre-to-miserable Honeymoon period for Labour. Now we have to just get on…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 6 December 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Getting On-Board with ESG How far does a law firm or barristers’ chambers have to go to demonstrate its ESG credentials? For Clarke Willmott it seems that you need to set your stall…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 29 Novembe 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: PHONES – OUR PHONY FRIENDS What looks like the demise of Louise Haigh’s career as a Cabinet Minister and the suspension of Jim Colwell, as the acting boss of the Devon and Cornwall…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 22 November 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Opening locked gates through the law? Abuse of its dominant position with regard to online search advertising is the charge that will be levelled by collective redress law firm, KP Law, acting on…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 15 November 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Legal Tech Shedding Light on Exports We are just at the end of International Trade Week and last evening the Chancellor expressed her disappointment at the pathetically weak growth in the economy. The…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 8 November 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A LEGAL FIRST? There is just one final, intriguing (and scarcely believable) twist in the Trump election story and one which will certainly constitute a legal precedent What will the felon face when…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 1st November 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: NO BUDGING REEVES OVER BUDGET From small farmers to small businesses and religious schools this week’s Mammoth Budget seems to be crushing all kinds of valiant but vulnerable innocents as it sways clumsily…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 25 October 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Reparations by whom? The Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 had been preceded by a decade or more of petitions from local communities to Parliament for this radical change in British law. While…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 18 October 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: China Crisis David Lammy arrives in China today for what is billed as hard talk over a range of contentious issues. Yet the see-sawing between the wish to confront and the desire to…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 11th October 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Employment Law Changes: A Mazy Muddle The Legal Diary has seldom received as much comment as this week’s on the proposed changes to employment legislation. Whatever we end up with in a year…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 4th October 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Last confession ‘To be or not to be’ – that is, literally, the question posed by the proposed Assisted Dying Bill. Hamlet highlighted the benefits of escaping “the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 27 September 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Justice Beyond the Grave?  Who’d be a whistle-blower? Who’d report the boss for abusive behaviour? As a society we are not good at dealing with these questions. Whether that be at Harrods or…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 20 September 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Owning the Goal The Prime Minister appears on the front cover of the current edition of The Aularian, the magazine of St Edmund Hall, the Oxford college where he undertook his post-graduate legal…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 13 September 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Time Up for Inquiries As has been well-publicised, there have been eighteen public inquiries taking place this year covering everything from COVID and Grenfell to the Post Office Horizon case with some, like…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 6 September 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Flaming Indignation, Flimsy Foundations Can changing the law be enough to change people’s values? “The Building Safety Act began the process of ensuring the Grenfell tragedy never happens again,” commented Richard Beresford, Chief…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 30 August 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: BIT TIGHT ON TIME? “We think that flexible working is actually good for productivity,” has said Baroness Smith of Malvern, the Minster for Skills speaking to LBC. “What we’re talking about there is…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 23 August 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: No Comfort? Just a little. The awful tragedy of the death of Mike Lynch and his friends and family members -notably Clifford Chance partner Christopher Morvillo  and his wife Neda – so close…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 16 August 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON After having been President of the UK’s Supreme Court where might one go to add a final flourish to one’s staggeringly glittering legal career? In the case of the Rt…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 9 August 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Flying the Flag: On the Streets and in the Arenas “Just two years ago, I was a full-time lawyer in the City, so I feel incredibly lucky to be going to the Olympics this year,”…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 2 August 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Lessons from History Students of the history of rioting might will be struck by the parallels between what has been happening this week and events of two hundred years ago (Autumn 1830) in…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world July 5  2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Where do I put my ‘Very Cross’ Amidst today’s celebrations and recriminations there might also be a reflection on our so-called ‘broken electoral system. The LegalDiarist was one of the many thousands who…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 28 June 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: What does it mean to be a lawyer? A turf war seems to be breaking out across the legal profession as to the respective status and reach of solicitors and chartered legal executives.…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 14 June 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Change or Changeable? Like the non-appearance of the British Summer this year there are no rabbits coming out of hats in the Labour Manifesto – and yesterday our future Prime Minister took some…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world June 7 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: What are we fighting for? In a week when we are commemorating the historic fight for freedom and the courage of individuals it is timely to absorb also the findings of The IBA…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 31 May 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELON Pundits are uncertain as to how much marginal damage Donald Trump will suffer following the ‘Guilty’ verdict yesterday by a dozen New Yorkers. This is supposed to…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 24 May 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A BARRISTER IN NO. 10? Given the likelihood that Keir Starmer will be installed in Downing Street by the middle of the Summer one has to compare his credentials to those of Tony…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world May 17 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Whose company do you keep?  A mighty list of the great and the good of UK business appeared in the national press yesterday to mark Better Business Day. They were backing a ‘simple…

Diary news, commentary, insights, appointments and arts from the legal world 10 May 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: COULDN’T MAKE IT UP According to a report on the TODAY programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning, a company is now offering the public the experience of being members of jury in…

Diary news plus insights,commentary and appointments from the legal world May 3 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK UK-UKraine – The In-Laws With the Russo-Ukraine war now grinding depressingly into its third year it is hard to find any crumbs of comfort. Nonetheless, a tiny one appeared this week, however, with an…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world April 26 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Woopee! It’s WIP Day Yes, it’s World Intellectual Property Day (image above) and all over the world intellectuals everywhere are partying like there’s no tomorrow. Just as a timely illustration of the muscle…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world April 19 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Fancy a coffee? I apologise for writing this little short thought. If the team here at the Legal Diary were really on the ball we would already have installed an ’AI assistant’ to…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world April 12 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Who’s Complaining? Published today are the findings of a review by Fieldfisher of the Bar Standards Board’s complaints process. The verdict? It is good – but not good enough. Like most everything else…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world March 28 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CUTTING COMMUNICATIONS? Go to the Russia section of the Legal 500 and you will find just seven firms listed there. It’s a dramatically reduced number from two decades ago when things were looking…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world March 22 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A BAR FOR STARMER When Keir Starmer slips into Downing Street in the Autumn how far up his list of priorities will be the Crown Prosecution Service? On the face of it the…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world March 15 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: EXTREMELY CONFUSED? Just how extreme are you feeling this morning? In the muddle over Michael Gove’s attempt to define administratively (but not legally, as far as we can understand) what constitutes an extreme…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world March 8 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: NO CAUSE TO CELEBRATE? Asking herself the rhetorical question this morning on BBC’s Thought for the Day ‘Why do we still need an International Women’s Day’, the writer Anne Atkins supplied the blunt…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world March 1 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: GET A LIFE In the press today former Defence Secretary-of-State Ben Wallace speaks about the addictive nature of work in Westminster but also the appalling toll it tales on MPs’ personal and family…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world February 23 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: DIVERSITY- CUT THE CHASE In this month’s edition of ‘Reports Legal’ the editor, Dominic Carman, highlights that, “Beyond the big three diversity issues – gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation – social mobility has…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world February 16 2024 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: CRITICAL CHOICES FOR LAW FIRM MERGERS It was one of those ‘closing doors’ moments in transatlantic legal history. Was the up-and-coming and highly ambitious (but relatively small) Bird & Bird going to merge…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 22 December 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: In the bleak mid-winter? With things looking pretty bleak right now – both internationally and domestically – one might be hard-pressed to find much to say about comfort and joy in the present season. But we…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 15 December 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Looking Forward to AnOther Election? Next year will be dominated by elections – in politics for the President of the USA and for Prime Minister of the UK. But in the law it will be for…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 8 December 2023 Editorial Contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Economical with the Law? When Jonathan Sumption, the former member of the UK’s Supreme Court, weighs in against you then you need to start worrying. In connection with the Government’s intention to legislate…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 1 December 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner There were twenty-eight categories at this week’s British Legal Award. With one or two exceptions those who walked off with the titles were the ‘usual suspects’ – and very well…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 24 November 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: When ‘Inclusivity’ Falls Short One of the clarion calls of the LGBTQ+ movement in recent years has been for the right of people to ‘be their authentic selves’ in the workplace. Many law firms have adopted…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 17 November 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Last Post for Post Office Lawyers? This lunchtime, shortly after this Legal Diary is published, BBC Radio 4 will be running Episode 17 of its series ‘The Great Post Office Trial’. It focuses on the notorious…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 10 November 2023 SHORT THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: The Police Need AID By the time you read this it could well be Monday morning and the outcome of Saturday’s Palestine march will be known. Will the Met have made the right decision or was…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 3 November 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: PRO BONO? Next week is a celebration of the pro bono activities by lawyers. Encouragingly, the Bar Council has just released data from its Barristers’ Working Lives 2023 survey indicating that 49% of barristers had provided…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world 27 October 2023 SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Lawyers’ Role -Trick or Treat? Halloween is almost upon us and Sergio Abreu, a Legal Adviser at DAS Law, has been offering advice on the legal quagmire that it constitutes.“Amidst all the excitement, it’s important to…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world October 20 2023 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Momentous events? All over or just the beginning of something big? 2001 has gone down in history for 9/11. Last year, 2022, for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This year, sadly, for what is…

Diary news plus insights, commentary and appointments from the legal world October 13 2023 Editorial contact: fennell.edward@yahoo.com SHORT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK What’s The Shame In a Name? In the aftermath of last weekend’s unspeakable atrocities many people have been caught up, entirely understandably, in rows about flying flags, issuing public statements and debates about…