Edward Fennell’s LEGAL DIARY
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 – notably Liz Truss – brought to the role.
It could, genuinely, be said that a fresh ‘neutral’ eye is what the job requires. Maybe Alex Norris, the surprise announcement to take on the position, will provide this. But the intractability and deep-seated nature of many of the issues will require subtle understanding and imaginative thinking. As Jan Matthews, Managing Partner at Reeds Solicitors, has observed, “We hope that before the Lord Chancellor makes any decision on the reforms inherited from his predecessor, he first takes the time to understand the system he now leads”
Among a number of critical developments the intention to restrict the right to jury trial – at the core of the Courts and Tribunals Bill – is of particular significance. “The Lord Chancellor has an opportunity to look at this with fresh eyes,” says Matthews. “We hope he takes it.”
Fire works or plain vanilla? – who can guess what lies ahead for the almost unknown and possibly unknowing Alex Norris.
The LegalDiarist
In this edition
+ LEGAL DIARY OF THE WEEK
Andy Burnham and the NatWest Three – An (Almost) Forgotten Story
AI: First the Threat then the Opportunity
New Face on the Board of Trustees at Spark 21
The ‘Next Chapter’ Could be Exciting
+ CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Animal Law needs to Go Global by V. Victoria Shroff KC
+ LEGAL COMMENT OF THE WEEK
on UK Constitutional safeguards, the challenges of devolution, OpenAI goes rogue, the case of Laura Tait and ‘meeting by camera’, John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer, space technology, the Laura Collins will case.
+ APPOINTMENTS OF THE WEEK
at GIBSON DUNN
LEGAL DIARY OF THE WEEK
Andy Burnham and the NatWest Three – An (Almost) Forgotten Story
Given Andy Burnham’s elevation to the highest elected office in the land it might be worth remembering that it was twenty years ago today (more or less) that our new Prime Minister got tangled up – or, more likely, got in a tangle – with Foreign Affairs and our relationship with the USA.
He was a minster at the Home Office at the time and the issue was the fate of the ‘NatWest Three’ in the wake of the Enron affair.
Taking advantage of a very ill-judged agreement – described at the time as being “serious imbalanced and asymmetrical” – the US was demanding that the three men David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby – should be extradited to face various charges. This was regarded as highly unfair by UK politicians as diverse as Sir Menzies Campbell (then leader of the Lib Dems) and Boris Johnson.
Notwithstanding the cross party concerns Andy Burnham, the relevant minister at the Home Office, pressed on regardless, arguing that the relationship between the UK and US was, contrary to all the evidence, “in balance.”
One of the key players defending the three bankers was Melanie Riley, now Managing Director of Bell Yard Kysen Communications.
“The NatWest Three’s extradition campaign was one of the most hard fought and in many ways most frustrating of my communications career,” she recalls. “For years we tried to get the Government, and particularly the Home Office, to listen to reason – if British bankers were deemed to have committed a crime against their British employer, why should they not be prosecuted in Britain? The Home Office kept dodging this simple question yet we all knew that they were kowtowing to the US and allowing its extraterritorial reach in the wake of 9/11, however improper and unfair. We challenged various Home Office ministers to debate the failings of the Extradition Act 2004 with us in a time and place of their choosing – but of course they ran from the prospect, with fingers in their ears. It still riles to this day that the very obvious imbalance in rights for British citizens facing trial in the US versus in this country, remains enshrined in legislation – but we put up a damned good fight to be heard. Perhaps Mr Burnham might want to take a fresh look at our extradition arrangements with the US if fairness is one of his mantras as PM.”
So once the Prime Minister gets round to giving some attention to foreign affairs – and our relationship with America in particular – maybe this should be high on his agenda. In the words of 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis – ‘At A Moment Like This’ it is time for a remedy..
AI: First the Threat then the Opportunity
Most readers of the Legal Diary won’t need to be told that the AI revolution is not about to happen. It has happened. And the truth of this is to be seen in the way that significant numbers of top decision makers in the world’s leading law firms are no longer lawyers. They are people (albeit mostly men) with technical AI backgrounds.In other words, the commanding heights of the legal sector are now occupied by tekkies.
This finding comes from Search Acumen which describes itself as ‘a British pioneer of AI in legal and property tech, on a mission to eradicate historic pain points in the day-to-day work of lawyers in the UK’s commercial property market’. And what’s fascinating – but maybe not too surprising – about the trend that’s been unearthed is that while the practice of law is ripe for the capabilities which AI offers there are just not enough qualified lawyers around to implement it. Hence the reliance on people with AI skills alone. As the report comments “The majority (66%) od[Senior AI hires] come from technology-focused backgrounds, suggesting that top-performing firms are increasingly turning to senior external technology experts to successfully integrate AI into legal practice.”
And the pace of these appointments is impressive. “What surprised me with our analysis was the sheer volume of firms on both sides of the Atlantic with a Chief AI Officer already in place at the very top level”, said Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen. “This tells me that top firms are taking it seriously, both as a tool for productivity and commercial advantage, and as a threat to how law is practised itself.”
The use of the word ‘threat’ is telling. For the past 300 years mechanisation and automation have been changing work styles and patterns. The arrival of the technology is always accompanied by the growth to power of the technologists. The smart people from the old order have to adapt to survive. But it’s tough. Of the male C-suite/senior AI hires, a mere 33% are qualified lawyers.
As Lloyd continued, “For the largest and arguably most successful firms, it’s not enough just to plug AI in. Instead, it’s part of a permanent strategy where AI is governed, trained and evolved to ensure that it delivers in a controlled and measured way.”
In short – multi-skill or die.
For further details go to: searchacumen@farrerkane.com
New Face on the Board of Trustees at Spark 21
The Next 100 Years (which is dedicated to achieving equality for women in law) shows no sign of losing momentum but, instead is continuing to grow its team and widen its brief.
The latest recruit as a Trustee of Spark21, the charity which stands behind the Next 100 Years, is Yanthé Richardson (left) who is herself developing an impressive portfolio of roles.
As well as being a partner at Foot Anstey LLP, she is the former President of CILEX (the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) and a member of the Home Buying and Selling Council. She has also represented CILEX on the Land Registry Advisory Council and Digital Property Market Steering Group.
“Through her work at CILEX, Yanthé has been committed to advancing the representation of women in the legal profession, to increasing diversity and supporting women into leadership positions,” said Dana Denis-Smith OBE, CEO of Obelisk Support and founder of Next 100 Years.“Her experience will be a great asset to the charity as we continue to celebrate those trailblazers making a difference to the progress of women in law, highlighting role models past and present and campaigning for the changes to law firm culture that will enable women to thrive.”
With a roughly equal male/female divide between new entrants to the profession enormous strides have been taken on equality in recent years. But new challenges are appearing. What was particularly striking about the findings of the Search Acumen survey (reported above) was the disparity between the genders.
In terms of hiring trends. 81% of senior AI hires at the top UK law firms were men while in the USA it was 70%. With women already trailing so significantly in this critical area it suggests that there may well be a new problem in the making. AI is the future of law. Action needs to be taken now.
The ‘Next Chapter’ Could be Exciting
Last week a celebration was held at the Nottingham office of Browne Jacobson to mark the culmination of the pilot of a six-month programme designed to help university students who had previously been in-care with the confidence, knowledge and skills to make decisions about their future and progress into rewarding careers. Through the pilot initiative for ‘The Next Chapter’ four 2nd-year Nottingham Trent University students received monthly one-to-one mentoring sessions with Browne Jacobson professionals. They also had the opportunity of a two-week paid work placement at one of the firm’s offices along with life skills including financial management guidance, and application and interview support.
“Running our Next Chapter pilot has been one of the highlights of my career,” said Victoria Howard, Senior Social Mobility Inclusion Manager at Browne Jacobson, “It’s been such a pleasure to work with these four wonderful young people, as well as colleagues at Browne Jacobson and Nottingham City Council who have put so much time, energy and heart into giving our mentees the best experience possible.”
“Care-experienced young people often face unique challenges entering professional careers, including limited professional networks, financial pressures requiring paid work during studies, and fewer opportunities to access unpaid internships and work experience that build crucial career connections.
“As a firm that wants to help tackle society’s biggest issues, we’re proud to have taken small steps forward in addressing these structural hurdles by collaboratively designing a programme with the mentees, listening to their needs and taking action to do things differently. Our ambition is to learn from this pilot and roll it out wider across our firm and with other employers.”
CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
ANIMAL LAW NEEDS TO GO GLOBAL
By V. Victoria Shroff, KC
Climate change, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss all have at least one thing in common: no respect for sovereignty. Similarly, wildlife trafficking, industrial farming, overfishing, habitat destruction and the global trade in animal products all connect nations through shared markets, ecosystems and supply chains. Yet our laws still treat animal protection largely as a domestic issue.
It’s a mismatch that’s becoming impossible to ignore. Clearly, meaningful protection for animals cannot stop at national borders.
Consider wildlife trafficking. It is among the world’s largest illicit trades, threatening biodiversity while fuelling organised crime across continents. Or animals that are raised under one country’s welfare standards being routinely sold in another, while global demand encourages production to shift wherever regulation is weakest.
Rather than isolated animal welfare concerns, these are global governance challenges. As the recognition of the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health grows, our law makers are responding. But slowly.
The European Union formally recognised animal sentience in the Lisbon Treaty and continues to strengthen welfare standards across farming, transport and trade. Courts and legislatures in several countries are gradually moving away from treating companion animals as mere property. Successful legislation inspires governments elsewhere; Canada’s prohibition on cosmetic animal testing followed earlier reforms in Europe and the United Kingdom. Family law reforms recognising the interests of companion animals are likewise beginning to influence other jurisdictions.
As scientific understanding of animal cognition continues to grow, older legal assumptions become increasingly difficult to defend. But what is still missing is a broader recognition that many of the problems affecting animals require international legal cooperation from the outset.
This does not mean every nation must adopt identical laws. Legal systems reflect different histories, cultures and priorities. But greater cooperation around shared principles—recognising animal sentience, reducing unnecessary suffering, improving enforcement and strengthening international agreements—would help close the gaps that currently allow exploitation to flourish.
There are reasons for optimism. Animal law is expanding rapidly in universities, courts and legislatures around the world. Scholars, practitioners and advocates increasingly collaborate across borders, sharing research and legislative innovations that would have been far more difficult to exchange only a generation ago.
In an interconnected world, it is vital that our legal systems recognise what science, economics and ecology already demonstrate: the welfare of animals is no longer a purely national concern.
Global challenges require global legal thinking. Animal law should be no exception.
V. Victoria Shroff, K.C. is Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and Canada’s first and only animal law lawyer appointed King’s Counsel. She has been practicing animal law for over 25 years in Vancouver at Shroff Animal Law (Shroff & Associates).
LEGAL COMMENT OF THE WEEK
TOPIC: The decision by the House of Lords Constitution Committee to launch an inquiry into the UK’s constitutional safeguards
COMMENT BY: Lord Strathclyde, Chair of the Constitution Committee
“Our constitutional democracy is something of which we are rightly proud in this country. Whilst it has been tested at various points throughout its history, and it continues to evolve, it has survived and continues to form the basis of our political life. At this present moment, however, there is a sense from many across the political spectrum that our constitutional democracy is facing a particularly acute threat, in which the safeguards that have served us so well in the past may no longer continue to do so.
“In light of these concerns, the Constitution Committee is launching an inquiry to examine the threats to, and vulnerabilities of, our constitution. We will begin by scrutinising the effectiveness of the UK’s constitutional safeguards.
“We want to understand what the network of constitutional safeguards looks like, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. In so doing, we will identify where the UK’s constitutional arrangements are at their most vulnerable, and where action may need to be taken to shore up our constitutional democracy for the future.
“We encourage anyone with knowledge or expertise in this area to come forward and share their views, knowing that they are a valuable contribution to this inquiry.”
TOPIC: The challenges of devolution facing Andy Burnham
COMMENT BY: Laura Hughes, Partner and Head of Public Law, Browne Jacobson
“Real fiscal autonomy holds the key to devolution delivering meaningful change in areas such as transport, skills and housing. Without genuine control over taxation and revenue, local areas remain fundamentally dependent on the centre – and that dependency undermines the very accountability that devolution is supposed to create.
“The Treasury was already developing a roadmap for fiscal devolution ahead of the Spending Review 2027, including proposals to let localities retain more benefit from local economic expansion.
“Burnham should accelerate this work and be explicit that it extends beyond England. The asymmetry between the devolved nations remains a structural problem – Wales and Northern Ireland do not enjoy the same degree of fiscal devolution as Scotland, and that imbalance creates real tensions in the intergovernmental landscape that no government has yet resolved. Burnham has already ruled out reforming the Barnett formula.
“A genuine fiscal devolution settlement has to be a whole-UK conversation, not an English one conducted in isolation. Having spent a decade arguing that the centre holds too much power, the new Prime Minister is better placed than most to make that case. But he will need to grapple with the structural questions that have been ducked for too long.”
TOPIC: The news that some of OpenAI’s most advanced AI models had gone ‘rogue’ and hacked a start-up during a security test
COMMENT BY: Fiona Phillips, AI & Cyber Security legal advisory practice, Marks & Clerk
“This shows just how dangerous it is not to regulate these models coming out of big tech and allow companies like OpenAI to self-regulate.
“We have OpenAI saying they expect this to become much more prevalent in future and their attempts to control the model, e.g. putting it in a sandbox and restricting access to the internet didn’t work.
“The model was being evaluated under a benchmark so it went to extreme lengths to achieve the goal at any cost – this shows how AI can cause harm when the right guardrails aren’t built in on top of the goal.
“There is an imbalance of power right now, where governments and institutions responsible for safety don’t have the same level of technical expertise or the awareness of what’s happening inside these model developers to keep us safe and hold them to account.
“At least OpenAI was honest about what happened, but what will be the response of regulators – likely very little.”
TOPIC: The case of Laura Tait who successfully sued her employer for failing to provide a number of “reasonable adjustments” in relation to her participation in a work meeting with her camera on which made her feel “overwhelmed”
COMMENT BY: Jo Mackie, employment law partner, Michelmores
“It’s an interesting decision which many employers will take issue with. If there are specific reasons to have a camera off (it’s lunchtime for example and you’re eating while joining an online meeting over lunch) then that makes sense. It could also be the case that a disability that affects the way a person looks could make them feel uncomfortable and in that case it could be reasonable to allow a no camera rule. However, a lot of communication is non-verbal and having a camera on enables a much more integrated and collaborative conversation.”
TOPIC: The appointment of John Healey as Chancellor
COMMENT BY: Hilesh Chavda, Partner, Spencer West LLP
“There has been understandable client anxiety in recent years around cumulative tax changes and fiscal drag. While John Healey’s appointment as Chancellor came as a surprise to many, there is genuine optimism given his previous Treasury experience and his established working relationship with the Prime Minister. What individuals, family businesses, and investors need right now is fiscal stability and predictable policy—rather than relying on taxation as the primary lever for every objective.
Expectations are high, and all eyes will certainly be on the Autumn Budget to see how this approach takes shape.”
TOPIC: The announcement by the Government that it plans to invest more than £62 million to develop homegrown space technologies so as to boost the UK’s national resilience and help protect its independence in an important sector
COMMENT BY: Phil Merchant, Principal (Patent Attorney) and Head of Space Technologies, Marks & Clerk
“This news is very welcome for an industry where, in terms of funding, the UK continues to lag behind our European partners. Like AI, space technology is a field with wide utility potential across multiple sectors, including Agritech, cybersecurity, and telecommunications, and will be a driving force of future economic growth.
By funding homegrown innovators and scientists at an early stage, companies can be provided breathing room to not only develop great science, but to commercialise their inventions. This includes greater focus on their intellectual property, the protection and utilisation of which is essential to providing a strong foundation for continued growth within the UK’s borders.”
TOPIC: The family dispute after Laura Collins died without making a will resulting in siblings facing a £59k bill
COMMENT BY: Kate Harris, Partner, private wealth disputes team Birketts LLP
“This case is an extraordinary example of how family conflict, when combined with a lack of estate planning, can create years of delay, distress and needless expense. The judgment is a sharp reminder that the courts will intervene where disputes between family members prevent the dignified administration of an estate.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of this case is not the size of the estate, but the human cost of the prolonged impasse. The court was faced with the deeply troubling reality that almost four years after Mrs Collins’ death, her body remained unburied because her children were unable to agree on the next steps. The judgment underlines that where an estate becomes paralysed by disagreement, the court will not hesitate to remove or pass over individuals who are obstructing the proper administration of the estate and appoint someone else to take control.
For practitioners, the decision is a reminder that disputes about the disposal of a body and funeral arrangements often require urgent action. Delays can quickly escalate costs and entrench family divisions. Where there is a deadlock, advisers should be prepared to explore court intervention rather than allowing matters to drift indefinitely. The court’s emphasis on dignity, practicality and the need for clear decision-making reflects the broader principle that estates must be administered efficiently and in the interests of all beneficiaries.”
LEGAL SECTOR APPOINTMENTS OF THE WEEK
GIBSON DUNN
Angus Lennox has joined the Real Estate Practice Group of Gibson Dunn in London. He arrives from Simpson Thacher where he advised financial sponsor clients on cross-border M&A, joint ventures, restructurings, and platform deals. He had previously worked at Blackstone as a Managing Director in the European Real Estate business, where he oversaw some of the largest real estate transactions in Europe.
“Extending our real estate capabilities in London—across both debt and equity—is a clear strategic priority for the firm,” said Eric Feuerstein, Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Real Estate Practice Group. “Angus is an exceptional addition. He has a wealth of experience leading some of the largest transactions in the market and is uniquely positioned to advise our clients on their most complex and strategically important initiatives. Angus’s arrival enhances our position as the go-to firm for complex real estate M&A and take-private work and as a market-leading equity platform in Europe.”
ALIUS LAW
Richard Mumford (left) has joined Alius Law as a partner in the drive to make the firm, just five years old, the leading aviation finance disputes practice in the UK focused on high-value, international aviation disputes.
With 30 years of experience specialising in complex aviation disputes across the world Mumford had previously been with the global aviation practice at Clyde & Co. His career before that involved nine years as Head of Dispute Resolution at asb law, followed by roles in Stevens & Bolton and REN Legal (acquired by Clyde & Co in 2021).
“Aviation finance is going through one of the most turbulent periods I have seen in 25 years and clients need advisers who can move fast and think commercially,” said Mumford. “I was drawn to Alius as they prioritise client outcomes without the constraints of traditional law firm structures. I am looking forward to working alongside a team that shares that mindset and contributing to a firm that can genuinely claim to be the market leader in aviation finance disputes.”
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