Alexander Carter-Silk made headlines in 2015 after praising Charlotte Proudman’s ‘stunning’ profile photo

A City lawyer who found himself at the centre of a media storm over a comment he made in relation to a junior barrister’s LinkedIn profile photo has moved firms.

Alexander Carter-Silk was a partner in the London office of US outfit Brown Rudnick, when in 2015 he fired off an ill-judged private LinkedIn message to Charlotte Proudman in which he complimented her on her “stunning” profile photo.

Proudman, a family law specialist, promptly posted a screenshot of the correspondence to Twitter, describing it as “offensive”, “sexist” and “misogynistic”.

Now, almost four years on, Carter-Silk has made his first career move since the incident blew up, opting to join listed outfit Keystone Law as a “consultant solicitor”. According to his new firm profile, Carter-Silk has over 30 years’ experience in IP law and is well versed in cross-border cases involving multiple jurisdictions.

In response to Proudman going public, Carter-Silk stressed at the time that the comment was in reference to the “professional quality” of her picture which was, unfortunately, “misinterpreted”.

Following the incident, Proudman, now a member of London’s Goldsmith Chambers, was criticised by some, with the Daily Mail going as far as labelling her a “feminazi”. She has since gone on to become a vocal proponent for equality, particularly within the legal profession, and recently revealed how she received a letter on “judicial headed note paper” explaining how she needed a “good spank” following her decision to tweet the message.

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Reality superstar completing legal apprenticeship, with plans to sit bar exam in 2022

Kim Kardashian has revealed she is studying to become a lawyer. Yes, you read that correctly. The social media superstar began a four-year legal apprenticeship with a law firm last summer, with a view to sitting the California bar exam in 2022.

News of Kim K’s fledgeling legal career comes almost a year she met with President Donald Trump to discuss reforms to the US prison system. In an interview several months later, Kim’s husband, Kanye West, said:

“My wife is in law school now, and it’s extremely serious to us”.

But the reality starts representatives later clarified that she wasn’t actually in law school, but “is so entrenched in the legal system with her activism that it is like going to law school”.

However, what Kim K’s people neglected to say was that she was studying to become a lawyer without going to law school.

Speaking in an interview with Vogue, The Keeping up with the Kardashians star has now confirmed she’s completing her studies via a four-year apprenticeship with an unnamed law firm in San Francisco and plans to sit the California bar in 2022. This is possible because California is one of a number of US states that allow aspiring lawyers to sit their final bar exams without a law degree.

During the lengthy interview, Kim reveals how her legal studies are going:

“First year of law school,” Kim says, “you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts. To me, torts is the most confusing, contracts the most boring, and crim law I can do in my sleep. Took my first test, I got a 100. Super easy for me. The reading is what really gets me. It’s so time-consuming. The concepts I grasp in two seconds.”

Given the above, it would appear that the 38-year-old socialite has a natural aptitude for criminal law, just like her father, Robert Kardashian, a US defence lawyer who famously worked on OJ Simpson’s murder trial.

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Sports law specialist reportedly forks out almost £800,000

The footballer Ched Evans has settled out of court with the law firm that represented him at his original rape trial.

Evans, 30, was found guilty in a 2012 trial despite the efforts of north west outfit Brabners but managed to have the conviction overturned with the help of new solicitors. He had already served two and a half years in prison.

A statement on chedevans.com now says that the former Sheffield United star has accepted an out-of-court settlement with the firm for “negligent defence”. It is reportedly worth close to £800,000.

A spokesperson for Brabners said: “We are glad that Ched Evans has agreed not to pursue this case, which we believe was entirely without merit. Brabners put forward a strong defence of Mr Evans claim following a thorough process and we were prepared to vigorously defend our handling of the case.”

The highly controversial case centred on a Premier Inn in Rhyl, north Wales, on the night of 29 May 2011. Evans and a friend, fellow footballer Clayton McDonald, had sex with a 19-year-old woman in the hotel room while others filmed through the window. The pair said that the complainant, though drunk, had consented. The prosecution said that she was so drunk as to be incapable of giving consent.

Evans was convicted of rape after a Crown Court trial in April 2012 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence later that year.

But witnesses then came forward claiming to know the complainant and giving graphic detail of having had sex with her in ways that matched Evans’ account on consensual intercourse.

Lady Justice Hallett, hearing a second appeal, commented that the witnesses “all describe a woman who in May and June 2011, having been out drinking, engaged in sexual intercourse in a particular way; she was not only an enthusiastic participant, she directed her sexual partners to have sexual intercourse with her in particular positions including the ‘doggie position’ and used a distinctive expression demanding intercourse with her harder. Their accounts bear sufficiently close resemblance to the appellant’s account as to make the evidence ‘so similar’ that it cannot be reasonably explained as a coincidence”.

The Court of Appeal accepted that the new evidence was enough to overturn the conviction. A retrial found Evans not guilty, kicking off furious debate in the legal professional.

The statement on behalf of Evans says: “In late 2016 Ched began litigation against his original defence team of Matthew Bennett and Stuart Ripley of Brabners LLP for negligent defence. On Thursday 4 April 2019 Ched accepted an out of court settlement”.

It had previously been reported that the damages sought were to cover loss of earnings. Evans was released by Sheffield United following the original conviction and a mooted move to Oldham Athletic after his release from prison fell through.

Brabners, which has offices in Manchester, Liverpool and Preston, is well known for its sports law work.

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Lied to police in bid to avoid a speeding charge

A junior lawyer turned Labour MP who lied to police in an attempt to avoid a speeding charge has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).

Fiona Onasanya, 35, was convicted on indictment of a single count of doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said in a notice published this morning.

The regulator confirmed it had charged commercial property specialist Onasanya with failing to uphold the proper administration of justice, failing to act with integrity and failing to behave in a way that maintains the trust the public places in her and the provision of legal services.

The allegations are subject to a hearing before the SDT and are as yet unproven.

During her trial, the court heard how Onasanya’s Nissan Micra was photographed by a speed camera doing 41mph in a 30mph zone in Thorney, near Peterborough, on 24 July last year. The prosecution alleged that the ex-Eversheds (now Eversheds Sutherland) lawyer had plotted with her brother to deceive police by claiming a former tenant, Alek Antipow, was driving her vehicle at the time of the incident. It later emerged that Antipow was visiting family in Russia at the time.

Onasanya, who still maintains her innocence, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice following a retrial and handed a three-month custodial sentence earlier this year.

Comments on this article are closed for legal reasons.

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Trainee numbers jump from 22 to 30

National player Shoosmiths has launched a training contract scheme in London.

This is the first time the 11-office-outfit, which has city centre sites in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, is expanding its trainee solicitor programme into the City of London.

The corporate outfit confirmed it has already recruited its first trainee who will join its swish sixth-floor St Paul’s base in September 2019 and will likely recruit two trainees to join in September 2020 and another two the following year. The London lot will start lawyer life on a first-year salary of £38,000, rising to £39,000 in year two, Legal Cheek can reveal.

Shoosmiths has also confirmed it will be upping overall trainee places by 36%. The UK-headquartered firm previously recruited 22 rookies each year, but this will increase to an intake of 30 from September 2019. The firm is recruiting around 30 additional spots from this year’s application round to fill the extra vacancies for the next three years.

The rise follows news that the number of TCs across the major 70 UK-based corporate law firms has risen by 0.5% — from 2,024 to 2,035 during the 2018/19 graduate recruitment window.

Samantha Hope, Shoosmiths’ graduate recruitment manager, said:

“To ensure Shoosmiths is moving in the right direction, every three years we take a fresh look at our firmwide strategy. With this comes a renewed focus on the number of trainees we recruit per year as we plan ahead for the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE), and we are pleased to confirm this will include London as part of the ambitious growth strategy for that office.”

The firm has also split its annual trainee intake into two. The programme will include a March intake as well as its usual September intake commencing from March 2020. The firm’s London office, however, will just have the one intake from September until the firm reviews the growth and success of the office.

Shoosmiths has also posted a perfect 100% retention score for its first-ever spring recruitment round. All nine of its March-qualifying associates-to-be were offered and accepted permanent deals. Seven newly qualified (NQ) lawyers are corporate-bound, while one will join the real estate team and the other will qualify into business advisory.

Commenting on the result, Stephen Porter, head of Shoosmith’s corporate division, said: “Significant growth has been earmarked across all corporate specialisms at Shoosmiths, and our recent number of NQ recruits this spring shows that talent retention is a key driver for growth in the firm and will support a major recruitment drive across all areas.”

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Shah Rukh Khan recognised for human rights work, alongside top QC and diversity champion

The University of Law (ULaw) has awarded Bollywood megastar turned champion of justice, Shah Rukh Khan, an honorary doctorate in philanthropy.

The award comes as recognition of Khan’s public-spiritedness outside of India’s film industry. Beyond the big screen, Khan is known for championing human rights, access to justice and crime prevention in India, as well as his work with several charities, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

This is Khan’s third honorary degree, having previously received doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Bedfordshire for his contribution towards art, culture and charitable causes.

Speaking last week at ULaw’ graduation ceremony in London’s Barbican centre, Khan said:

“I believe that charity should be done in silence and with dignity. One cannot speak about their charitable acts because it loses its purpose. I have been privileged to be able to use my status as a public personality to champion causes close to my heart … I firmly believe that I have to give back to the world that has given me so much.”

Khan, who has starred in over 80 Bollywood films, took to Twitter to show his appreciation for the allocade:

Thank u for the honour @universityoflaw & my best wishes to the graduating students. It will encourage our team at @MeerFoundation to strive ‘selfishly’ to share more. pic.twitter.com/IBI1I6UlFY

— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) April 4, 2019

ULaw also awarded an honorary doctorate to Guy Beringer QC in recognition of his work as chairman of the Legal Education Foundation, a charity dedicated to the advancement and support of legal education in the UK.

Also picking up an honorary doctorate was diversity campaigner Miranda Brawn for her work as founder and CEO of the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to increase diversity and inclusion, particularly within the workplace.

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‘Unexpected passing’ of Paul Rawlinson confirmed yesterday evening

The global chair of Baker McKenzie has died.

“It is with great sadness that we convey to you the news of the unexpected passing of Paul Rawlinson,” Bakers said in a statement yesterday evening. “The firm’s thoughts are with Paul’s wife Alison and their two children, whom the firm will be helping through these very difficult times.”

Rawlinson, who served as the firm’s global chair for the past two and a half years, died on Friday, aged 56.

The statement continues: “Our thoughts also go out to the very many friends at Baker McKenzie and outside the firm that worked with and admired Paul. For all of us Paul was a visionary, a true leader and a good friend. He will be greatly missed.”

News of Rawlinson’s passing comes almost six months after he’d taken temporary leave following advice from his doctor in response to “medical issues caused by exhaustion”.

The Manchester-born lawyer previously led Bakers’ global IP practice from 2004 to 2010, along with a spell as London managing partner between 2013 and 2016. He studied law at the University of Kent.

Jaime Trujillo was appointed global acting chair of Bakers in October 2018 and will continue in his role while the firm identifies a permanent successor.

Bakers confirmed it will be providing counselling to staff who would like to talk to a professional advisor.

Comments on this article are now closed.

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Aims to remove ‘stereotyping or challenges’ around flexi-working, magic circle player says

Trainees and junior lawyers at Linklaters will now be able to work from the comfort of their own homes without needing to explain why.

Links said key changes to its UK working policy mean that “any employee” can now request to work flexibly, no matter how long they’ve been at the firm, and without needing to provide a reason for the request. The update goes over and above the statutory requirement of having been employed for 26 weeks to be eligible to make a request.

The firm hopes the move will remove any stereotyping or challenges that may exist around who can work flexibly and the structures in place.

Nick Porter, partner and chair of the London people committee at Links, said:

“We believe that agile working is for everyone and that the right to request formal flexible working should be open to all. Looking at how it can work rather than why ensures we continue the journey of shifting mindsets about working flexibly and the reasons for doing so.”

Links’ flexi-working shake-up comes almost two years after it offered its lawyers the option to work fewer hours for less money. The pilot, which took place across the outfit’s four German offices, eventually saw a number of associates accept a 33% reduction in salary, on the understanding they’re only expected to work a standard 40-hour week.

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Legal Sector Workers United wants trainees and pupils to help fight oppression and inequality

Junior lawyers of the world, unite: a new trade union branch for legal sector workers has been launched and wants solicitors and barristers in training to sign up.

Legal Sector Workers United (LSWU) says that it aims to bring interns, trainee solicitors and pupil barristers into a workers’ alliance with support staff such as cleaners and security guards.

The new organisation was launched yesterday by trade union United Voices of the World (UVW), part of the LSWU. It has been representing Ministry of Justice cleaners locked in a wage dispute with the outsourcing firm that employs them, but is now trying to bring legally qualified workers into the fold.

UVW says that the legal sector is in “dire need of greater unity” to improve working conditions, adding that “strategic action is required to reduce exploitation and oppression”.

LWSU is open to anyone working in the legal sector, including practising solicitors and barristers. The only proviso is that members can’t have “the power to hire or fire“, so there’s no risk of running into the managing partner on the picket line.

The union says that the legal sector is “riddled with poverty pay and huge wage inequality”, pointing out that “paralegals often do not even earn the real London Living Wage of £10.55 per hour, yet equity partners in the same firms can take home over £2 million per year”.

In a pitch to overworked trainees — like those we exclusively revealed were asked by their firm to pull an all-nighter or have a damn good reason why not — the new grouping says that “junior legal workers are subject to enormous pressure from multiple sources. Too often this results in high workloads, low salaries and inadequate support”.

LSWU also has its eye on the notoriously underpaid junior criminal bar. It cites the £46.50 flat fee sometimes paid for a day in court — which works out as less than the going rate for flipping burgers at Maccy Ds.

Lucie Wibberley, a criminal defence barrister at Garden Court Chambers, said that LSWU “signifies a turning point in the politics of legal provision and a step towards a brighter future”. Veteran silks John Hendy and Michael Mansfield are also backing the new organisation.

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Freshfields lawyer Lloyd Rees on the reaction to his blog, the road to recovery and raising awareness

In 2018 I wrote a series of blogs about my own battles with mental ill health. I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety for nearly ten years and my blog posts covered a particularly difficult period where I had a serious episode over the course of about six months and the recovery which followed.

The blogs prompted a large reaction which took me by surprise. There was surprise that I was even talking about this stuff and then the surprise at what I was actually saying. I was deliberately open about how I had been feeling, including an episode of suicidal thoughts. I received hundreds of messages from people I knew well, less well and those I’d never met before. At least half (or probably more) said they identified with some or all of what I was saying and wanted to thank me for sharing it publicly.

Looking back with the benefit of a year’s hindsight, I didn’t realise at the time how big a deal it was to write those blog posts. To me it wasn’t a big deal. I was just fed up of the hushed tones mental health was talked about it in. It was very much the poor relation to anything related to physical health and I figured if even in a miniscule way I could help change that then I should do it.

Since writing those three blog posts my recovery has continued. I have learnt much more about my condition and I can spot the warning signs even earlier now. That’s not to say it’s plain sailing every day — far from it. Depression and anxiety is not something you can really be cured of. It’s something you learn to manage and live with. I’ve become much stricter with myself over things like free time, rest time and also doing more of what I enjoy. It’s important to take a step back and do what you like doing. For me that’s going to the theatre to see a musical, cooking or sitting in front of a great television series. It’s not always easy to find the time to do these things but I see them as an investment in my good mental health.

As part of my recovery and learning more about my condition I decided to train as a mental health first aider (MHFA). I did this through my work at Freshfields. MHFA is a two-day course and is accredited by MHFA England. On World Mental Health Day 2018, Freshfields committed to train up a minimum of one in 25 members of staff in MHFA skills across our global network by World Mental Health Day 2019. To date, we have over 170 MHFAs trained up across our global network. There are a range of other supports available too and it’s important to me to work somewhere which is committed to mental health initiatives.

There is however more work to do across our profession — particularly for junior lawyers. You only have to look at the survey recently conducted by the Junior Lawyers Division to see some stark and worrying numbers. Forty-eight per cent of respondents said they had experienced mental ill health within the last month with 13.9% of those stating that they had experienced suicidal thoughts during this time.

Our profession and society at large needs to be more open about mental health issues and how to improve and maintain good mental health. If you asked a room full of people who had done physical exercise in the last week, the majority would put their hand up. If you asked that same room who had done some form of mental wellbeing to help their mental health, the response would be far, far lower. The sooner we put physical and mental health on an equal footing the better, and hopefully we can talk more about that in the mental health, wellbeing and resilience session at Legal Cheek’s Future of Legal Education and Training Conference 2019.

Freshfields knowledge lawyer Lloyd Rees will be speaking during the afternoon session, ‘Mental health, wellbeing and resilience’ at the Future of Legal Education and Training Conference 2019. First release tickets are available to purchase until midnight on Wednesday 17 April. General release tickets at full price will be available from 18 April.

Feeling stressed? You can contact LawCare by calling 0800 279 6888 in the UK.

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Pictured with torts textbook

Hot on the heels of her recent revelation that she is studying to become a lawyer; social media superstar and business mogul Kim Kardashian has now taken to Instagram to defend her unusual career move.

Revealing the news in May’s issue of fashion bible Vogue, the 38-year-old socialite confirmed she had begun a four-year legal apprenticeship with an unnamed law firm in San Fran last summer, with a view to sitting the California bar exam in 2022.

Like with most moves the reality TV queen makes, her decision to pursue law did not go unnoticed and sparked a comments storm online. “While I wish Ms Kardashian well, I highly doubt she will pass the bar,” expressed one Legal Cheek critic at the time.

Pictured alongside her two attorney mentors Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney (below), and surrounded by paperwork and a tort law textbook, the Keeping up with the Kardashians star responded to her haters in an Insta post on Monday. She wrote:

“I’ve seen some comments from people who are saying it’s my privilege or my money that got me here, but that’s not the case. One person actually said I should ‘stay in my lane’. I want people to understand that there is nothing that should limit your pursuit of your dreams, and the accomplishment of new goals. You can create your own lanes, just as I am.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Apr 15, 2019 at 8:40am PDT

Studying law is no mean feat, especially when you’re Kim K. The KKW Beauty businesswoman will be studying a minimum of 18-hours per week for the next four years and will take written and multiple-choice tests monthly. This week she has a “big torts essay due on negligence”. The mother-of-three (soon to be four) went on to explain how she is juggling her multiple commitments:

“My weekends are spent away from my kids while I read and study. I work all day, put my kids to bed and spend my nights studying… I changed my number last year and disconnected from everyone because I have made this strict commitment to follow a dream of mine.”

Despite not possessing a university degree, Kardashian’s path into law is possible because California is one of a number of US states that allow aspiring lawyers to sit their final bar exams without a law degree. “The state bar doesn’t care who you are,” explained Kardashian. “This option is available to anyone who’s (sic) state allows it… You need 60 college credits (I had 75) to take part in ‘reading the law’… For anyone assuming this is the easy way out, it’s not.”

Kardashian’s law school ambitions haven’t materialised out of thin air. News of Kimmie’s fledgling legal career comes almost a year after she met with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss reforms to the US prison system, while her late father, Robert Kardashian, was a US defence lawyer who famously worked on OJ Simpson’s murder trial.

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‘The MCQ format was very patronising and far too easy. It was like a dummies guide to the law!’

I was one of a number of people who sat the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) stage one pilot last month. The candidates ranged from LLB graduates to Legal Practice Course (LPC) graduates but most of the candidates were working in practice. My background is not ‘conventional’ and I took the pilot because I was interested in knowing whether the SQE would cater for people like me. I do not have any GCSEs or A-levels because I left school at the age of 14 to care for my ill mother. I studied for my LLB over six years and then completed a combined LLM-LPC over two years.

The SQE1 pilot was a three-day assessment consisting of 360 multiple-choice questions on the foundations of legal knowledge, namely business law; property law; wills and trusts; criminal law; EU law; public and constitutional law; tort law; contract law; and professional conduct. There were also two research questions and four writing questions. No materials were provided, and the exams were closed-book. Prior to the exam I emailed the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for revision guidance and was referred to the pilot specification which told me that anything within the above topics would be examined.

Day one

The exam started with three rounds of 60 questions with 110 minutes for each on a mixture of the topics outlined above. The questions were scenario-based (one scenario per question) with five possible answers. Most of the questions were simple but after speaking with some recent LLB graduates it became clear that they did not know many of the answers — especially to the questions on the topics that are exclusively covered on the LPC.

The questions often dropped big hints towards the answers which could be guessed by the facts of the scenario. I gave answers which were my best guesses based on both the questions and also the five answer options. Some I could have argued more than one answer was correct. There was no mention of any specific law, the SRA Code of Conduct, the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) or the Criminal Procedure Rules (CPR) in any of the questions.

I found the MCQ format very patronising and far too easy — it was like a dummies guide to the law! The questions did not test my legal knowledge to the standard that my law degree did. The time allocated for each question was far too long, and because the exam was closed-book and conducted in front of a computer, there was nothing I could do if I did not know the answer. I finished each round with around 40-50 minutes to spare. The whole day was timed so I was unable to leave until the clock ran down.

Day two

Day two consisted of two rounds of one research question and two writing questions. I was given an email from a partner of a firm telling me he was advising a client on their obligations to file accounts; he told me he was working on the technical areas of the advice and asked if I could research the simpler part of whether a small to medium enterprise (SME) had to file accounts. I was given eight pieces of material and had to sift through these to find the correct answer. I did not feel as if this was ‘legal research’ and I was not required to carry out any research myself using legal databases. I liken it to being passed a pile of car magazines and asked to find a red car in them. I was then required to type a memo to the partner.

The next section was writing. I was given another email from a partner telling me he had to advise a client and was handling the technical part, while I was required to write a paragraph to insert into the letter explaining section 36 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The final writing section consisted of a memo to a partner explaining Part 24 of the CPR. Both of these sources were provided. The next round was the same as above.

This section of the assessment did not test my research or writing ability at all because I could cut and paste (and did) several parts from the material provided. The spell-check facility was disabled so at least that was something. The main issue I found was the noise: 15 people typing at the same time was deafening (even with ear plugs!) I was not required to apply the law or to advise but just explain the area of law in “everyday English”.

Day three

The final day followed the structure of the first day: three rounds of 60 multiple-choice questions which focused on the areas of law outlined above. When speaking with some of the other candidates post-exam it was obvious they had the same set of questions I had on day one and vice versa. The questions were, again, simple but this time they were poorly written and I had to take extra time today (than I did previously) due to the poor grammar and punctuation.

Final thoughts

I do not believe the MCQ format enables candidates to demonstrate knowledge of the law; it is all a matter of common sense. There was no application of the law nor was I given the chance to demonstrate wider knowledge or make an argument one way or the other. I do not feel the questions allowed any of the skills required in future practice to be demonstrated such as problem-solving or the ability to be analytical. What these questions allow for is someone to study the exam but not the law or the skills required to be a lawyer. Overall, I felt the questions were condescending and pandering in their nature. It remains to be seen what SQE2, which will be piloted later this year, holds.

Richard Robinson (pseudonym) is a paralegal.

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‘They are a key part of the solution’, says Law Society president

Male lawyers need to play a greater role in tackling gender imbalance across the upper ranks of the legal profession, the Law Society’s president Christina Blacklaws has suggested.

Speaking in an interview with The Guardian yesterday, Blacklaws stressed the importance of keeping the discussion surrounding gender equality alive, particularly when it comes to recruitment and pay. “It takes a lot of undoing to think and act differently [otherwise] we revert to operating an old bias, which does lead to discrimination,” she warned.

Continuing, Blacklaws said “we need men to step up and take responsibility”, adding: “They are a key part of the solution.”

Research published in 2016 found that nearly two-thirds (62%) of female lawyers felt their gender had hampered their progression within the legal progression. This compared to just 16% of male lawyers. But almost half of respondents believed quotas — enforced or otherwise — were not the answer.

Elsewhere, Blacklaws cited a recent Law Society survey in which respondents identified the “masculine shape of the law” as a big disincentive for many women, while many admitted reaching senior positions by becoming “men-shaped women” — working late, drinking and playing golf.

Despite these findings, the Society president — who previously ran her own business and directed Co-Op Legal Services — remains confident that a career in law still presents a “really attractive” opportunity for women. She said:

“It’s intellectually stimulating and involves a whole range of emotional intelligence. There are various, really attractive career paths. And there’s the opportunity to be a boss and run your own business. I have loved every minute of it.”

Earlier this year, former magic circle lawyer turned legal entrepreneur Dana Denis-Smith called for the introduction of quotas to help boost the number of women in top legal roles. Her comments came amid growing frustration over the ineffectiveness of gender targets.

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Only five weeks to go until day-long event at Kings Place London on 22 May

First release tickets for Legal Cheek’s Future of Legal Education and Training Conference 2019 close at midnight tonight (Wednesday 17 April) — just five weeks before the biggest law training gathering of the year.

Registered delegates at the day-long Conference, which takes place on Wednesday 22 May at Kings Place, the canal-side venue in Kings Cross, London, include graduate recruitment and development teams from over 60 leading law firms and chambers, and nearly 30 law schools, alongside in-house teams, regulators and legal tech companies.

It will be double the size of the sold-out 2018 Conference and hosted across Kings Place’s 400-person capacity Hall One, Gallery mezzanine space and St Pancras Room. It begins with breakfast provided by award-winning caterers Green & Fortune. A series of TED-style talks about embedding entrepreneurship into legal education will follow, delivered by three inspiring former lawyers turned entrepreneurs. An interactive session on cross-disciplinary skills, featuring innovation thought leaders from Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Norton Rose Fulbright and more, completes the morning.

After lunch — also catered by Green & Fortune — the Conference splits into two streams: the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) session featuring Solicitors Regulation Authority training chief and super-exam architect Julie Brannan and the future of bar training debate. Speakers will deliver a series of short discussion points after which there will be questions and discussion from the audience.

Following a mid-afternoon break, there will be further sessions (new for this year’s Conference) on clinical legal education and mental health, wellbeing and resilience, before the two streams reunite for a keynote address from a leading legal figure.

More information about the Conference — which is supported by lead sponsors BPP University Law School and The University of Law, and further supported by LexisNexis, Nottingham Law School, Cornerstone Barristers and Hardwicke — can be found here.

Reserve your place at the first release rate until midnight on Wednesday 17 April. General release tickets at full price will be available from 18 April. Payment via invoice is available.

Students interested in attending (we do not charge students for attending our events) should contact us about becoming part of Legal Cheek‘s campus ambassador programme.

Highlights from last year’s Future of Legal Education and Training Conference

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No serious harm to reputation from post on 300-member page

A North London solicitor has lost a six-figure libel claim over a post on a tiny Facebook campaign page that didn’t even name her.

Dr Katherine Alexander-Theodotou had put in for £900,000 damages for the supposedly defamatory post, as well as a webinar, accusing her of failing clients in litigation over mis-sold villas in Cyprus. She is a qualified lawyer in Cyprus as well as in the UK, practising here as Highgate Hill Solicitors.

The Facebook post was written by legal consultant Georgios Kounis, the defendant, on a campaign page related to the Cypriot scandal.

It referred to a Mr Davies who had lost everything in the mis-selling scandal and was said to have taken his own life. The post said that “Mr Davies was known to have been hit particularly hard by a London legal firm who took almost £30,000 in fees, before apparently breaching the terms of their retainer and forcing the Davies’ to fund alternative representation”.

At the High Court, the defence conceded that this referred to Alexander-Theodotou and her firm. But they argued that only a “very limited class of people” would have picked up on that.

Mr Justice Warby held that the allegations would definitely have been defamatory at common law. But defamation law now requires claimants to establish “serious harm” to someone’s reputation. The evidence showed that only a small number of people who would have identified Alexander-Theodotou or Highgate Hill from the reference to them in the Facebook group, so “no serious damage is likely to have resulted”.

The Facebook page has fewer than 300 followers today. The judgment points out that “there is no rule of evidence that material posted online is presumed or assumed to have been read by anyone, let alone a substantial number of people”.

The judge also slated Alexander-Theodotou’s witness statement as “not an impressive document”, and as “accusatory, tendentious, and emotional”.

The Highgate Hill Solicitors website says that Alexander-Theodotou has two PhDs and works for three different firms in the UK, Greece and Cyprus. She is also said to be an accomplished painter and author of two books on classical Greek literature.

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Clad in comfy sweats and £77,000 Birkin bag

Following a fiery Insta exchange where she shot back at her critics for pursuing her lawyerly ambitions, first-year law student Kim Kardashian has been pictured rocking up to sit a tort law exam.

The 38-year-old socialite was photographed yesterday hopping out of her Range Rover and into what appears to be a building in Los Angeles where she supposedly took the test.

Dressed in casual grey Yeezy jogger pants, trainers and a hoodie to boot — the reality TV star would not look out of place in your average law student cohort. She clutched a large binder with the word ‘criminal’ scrawled in capital letters and carried a khaki rucksack (doubtless filled with more paperwork and textbooks).

In a rather telltale sign to the icon’s wealth and celeb status, Kardashian also toted a cream crocodile Hermès Birkin handbag, that is estimated to cost around $100,000 (£77,000).

The social media superstar took to her Instagram on Tuesday, where she boasts an impressive 134 million followers, to share a glimpse into her exam prep. Posting a pic (below) of her (very neat) tort law revision notes, the beauty business icon could be seen studying definitions of negligence: ‘standard of care’ and ‘breach of duty’, combined with flashcards and handwritten key terms scribed on them. What struck Legal Cheek most was her distinct lack of highlighters!

Kim Kardashian has the exact handwriting of every student who spends all their time writing notes but no time actually reading them pic.twitter.com/ueqeLSPRHm

— beanutputter (@ahmxdhassan) April 16, 2019

Following the exam, which is one of three Kim K must complete in order to pass her first year, the reality TV queen of Keeping up with the Kardashians fame tweeted she had “Aced my test btw ”, meaning the star, whose own father, Robert Kardashian, was an attorney and famously worked on OJ Simpson’s murder trial, could be one step closer to her lawyer dream.

Aced my test btw

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) April 17, 2019

The mother-of-three (soon to be four) sent shockwaves around the legal world when she revealed she is studying to become a lawyer in May’s issue of fashion bible Vogue. She confirmed she had begun a four-year legal apprenticeship with an unnamed law firm in San Francisco last summer, with a view to sitting the California bar exam in 2022.

Despite not possessing a university degree, Kardashian’s path into law is possible because California is one of a number of US states that allow aspiring lawyers to sit their final bar exams without a law degree.

Earlier this week Kimmie hit back at her haters in a lengthy Insta post. “I’ve seen some comments from people who are saying it’s my privilege or my money that got me here, but that’s not the case,” wrote Kardashian, who also detailed her gruelling study schedule which includes disconnecting from friends and sacrificing time with her children to spend 18-hours per week on her studies.

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Competition and Market Authority stops short of banning accountancy giants from legal sector altogether

The Big Four accountancy giants should be made to split their fast-growing legal practices from their audit work, an influential government regulator recommends today.

Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC need to put strict Chinese walls between their professional services people and their auditors in order to improve the quality of their auditing, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The regulator has been looking into the structure of the audit market amid concerns that the Big Four firms are too dominant despite not doing a very good job.

One of the CMA’s four recommendations is an “operational split” between audit and professional services within each firm. None of the Big Four are solely focused on accountancy any more, with things like management consultancy and — increasingly — legal services making up a larger share of the business than old-fashioned bean counting.

The CMA wants the audit business to have its own chief executive and board of management, with no profit sharing between the two sides of the business. That way, it reckons, management of the audit business will be able to focus on doing their clients’ accounts properly, rather than being distracted by shiny professional services activities.

One non-audit insider at Deloitte told Legal Cheek: “Generally I think it’s a good idea. The Big Four have become too powerful”.

The regulator decided not to recommend that the non-audit businesses be spun out completely. It thinks that an internal operational split, falling short of separation into two new firms, will be enough. The CMA also declined the radical step of banning the Big Four from the legal and professional services market altogether.

All this could happen within 12-18 months, if the government were to back it. The CMA points out that “the audit firms have all the expertise needed to implement this remedy quickly and effectively”.

All four accountancy giants now have a bridgehead in the UK legal market, with Deloitte the last to pick up its alternative business structure licence last year. In November 2018, KPMG announced plans to double its global complement of lawyers to 3,000 — which would make it one of the biggest law firms on the planet.

In a way, this would only be a reversion to type for the Big Four’s lawyers. PwC Legal was a separate entity as recently as 2016, as a committee of MPs pointed out in a separate report published earlier this month.

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Allegations remain unknown

A partner at Freshfields has been placed on “indefinite leave”, ahead of his appearance before a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) next week.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is still to publish the allegations against Ryan Beckwith, a restructuring and insolvency partner in the magic circle outfit’s London office, but confirmed it would do so in the coming weeks.

A case management hearing is scheduled for Friday 26 April, according to a listing published on the SDT’s website.

A spokesperson for Freshfields said:

“We are aware of the publication regarding a hearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal involving a partner at the firm, who is on indefinite leave. The matter is subject to proceedings and we are unable to comment further.”

Beckwith, who was elevated to partner in 2012, studied law at Anglia Polytechnic University (now Anglia Ruskin University), before going on to study civil law at the University of Oxford.

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Anita Nicholson confirmed dead, alongside her two children, while husband, a partner at Kennedys, survives

A British corporate lawyer and her two children were among hundreds killed in the Sri Lanka attacks over the weekend.

Anita Nicholson, managing counsel at Anglo American, a multinational mining company, and her two children, Alex, 14, and Annabel, 11, were fatally wounded in the bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Anita’s husband, Ben Nicholson, a partner in the Singapore office of international law firm Kennedys, survived the blast.

Anita, 42, studied law at the University of Leeds and spent two years at DLA Piper, before joining the Treasury as senior legal advisor. The Singapore-based lawyer joined Anglo American in February, according to her LinkedIn.

Ben, 43, confirmed his wife, daughter and son had been killed as they sat at a table for breakfast on Sunday.

In an emotional statement, Ben paid tribute to his “wonderful” wife and children. He said:

“Mercifully, all three of them died instantly and with no pain or suffering. I am deeply distressed at the loss of my wife and children. Anita was a wonderful, perfect wife and a brilliant, loving and inspirational mother to our two wonderful children.”

The statement continued: “Alex and Annabel were the most amazing, intelligent, talented and thoughtful children… They shared with their mother the priceless ability to light up any room they entered and bring joy to the lives of all they came into contact with.”

The death toll from the wave of bombings targeting churches and hotels has hit 310, including eight Britons, local police have said.

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Placement roles in global outfit’s London office up for grabs as part of four-year law degree

The University of Exeter has teamed up with US giant Reed Smith to launch a new LLB with an innovation-focused placement year in the firm’s London office.

The four-year ‘legal placement’ degree is available to Exeter’s existing first year law students, who will be the first to participate in the “immersive” City placement, expected to take place in the 2020/2021 academic year.

The new degree aims to prepare students for increasing “growth in legal innovation and technology”. In particular, the course will address how tech-led change is altering the role of judges and lawyers; in addition to how tech can be used to widen access to justice, such as through online courts.

Students will then have the chance to put this knowledge to practice while working in Reed Smith’s London office — which is the largest of all 28 offices across the globe. During their time students will be sat within two of the firm’s practice areas and, with the support of their innovation hub and tech teams, will focus on designing new and improved ways of delivering legal services.

For now, up to five students from Exeter Uni will be chosen for the placement, which also comes with a guaranteed invite to Reed Smith’s training contract assessment day. If successful, candidates will have bagged one of the 25 training contracts currently offered by the firm each year. It remains unclear how much participants will be paid during their 12 months at the firm.

Professor Sue Prince, from the University of Exeter Law School and director of the programme, said:

“The aim of this programme is to deliver law training in a different and more innovative way, which meets the requirements of students and the legal industry. This is more than just a placement, it gives students a real opportunity to experience the world of law firms.”

This is the second time that Reed Smith has partnered with a Russell Group university to design a bespoke law degree. As reported by Legal Cheek, the US-headquartered firm teamed-up with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in 2015 to create a four-year sandwich degree — known as the ‘Law in Practice LLB’ — that also included a placement year in Reed Smith and a guaranteed training contract interview.

Lucy Dillon, chief knowledge officer at Reed Smith, commented:

“Innovation is one of Reed Smith’s core values, and exciting initiatives such as these bespoke LLB courses with Exeter and Queen Mary form a key part of developing our next-generation of lawyers, with a well-rounded view of legal practice, innovation, available technologies and improved service delivery, all focused on a deep understanding of clients’ needs.”

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