Solicitors Journal

The UK Government has initiated a consultation on new regulations aimed at preventing employers from misusing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to conceal instances of workplace harassment and discrimination. This move responds to growing public concern and advocacy, especially highlighted by research from the Young Women’s Trust, which revealed that one in four young women hesitate to report sexual harassment out of fear of job loss.

Dating isn’t an area I would ordinarily advise on as an immigration lawyer. But if you embark on a holiday romance this summer, before tackling the tricky question of whether you’ve entered relationship territory yet, you may want to ask your date about criminal records. I don’t mean their taste in music.

The water industry has been mired in controversy: sewage in rivers, executive bonuses paid out despite multi-million fines, a regulator accused of capture, and Thames Water at the brink of insolvency.

If one thread runs through this issue, it is not “disruption” in the usual sense. It is the steady normalisation of uncertainty itself. That instability no longer arrives in neat, containable episodes. The renewed conflict in the Middle East, the perennial fragility of chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, these are reminders that the essential infrastructure of global trade, energy and finance remains permanently exposed.

Separation places enormous emotional demands on parents, who are often navigating fear, confusion, and loss while simultaneously trying to protect their children from the fallout. Family practitioners regularly find themselves providing guidance that reaches beyond strict legal advice, trying to balance providing clear legal advice during a vulnerable moment, and encouraging clients to protect children from conflict.

The High Court’s decision in Eiger Funding (PCC) Limited v Ridge and Partners LLP [2026] EWHC 609 (TCC) provides important new guidance on the scope of a monitoring surveyor’s duty and, critically, the limits of recoverable loss in lender claims. Why Eiger Funding v Ridge matters for both lenders and monitoring surveyors Cases involving failed development finance are not new.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has launched a sector-wide initiative to bolster the ethical standards of legal professionals, emphasising the critical role of lawyers in sustaining the rule of law. The LSB believes that legal services regulators must prioritise the establishment of "professional ethical duties" as a fundamental aspect of legal practice.

For a large proportion of UK law firms, the financial year ending in 2021 was one of their most profitable in the last 30 years. A perfect set of circumstances existed: law firms saved substantial expenses from offices lying dormant, funding and support was readily available from the Government. Within firms there was great anxiety around the risks of redundancies.

The affordable housing sector has never had to spin quite so many plates simultaneously. Macroeconomic headwinds, an evolving regulatory landscape, constrained business plans, enhanced building safety obligations, decarbonisation targets and acute housing need all compete for attention and resources.

How has transactional practice shaped your approach to risk and long-term firm strategy? M&A, fundamentally, is about progressing the business environment. When you think about it in those terms, there is a natural alignment with executive leadership. Both involve thinking about growth, development and long-term strategic direction.