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06 September 2024 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8084 / Categories: Opinion , Profession , Litigation funding , In Court
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The insider: 6 September 2024

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Judges on the up, parties under pressure, and a robust approach to judicial conduct investigations. All this and more from Dominic Regan

Dame Amanda Yip is in the ascendancy. She was appointed to the High Court Bench in 2017 at the tender age of 48. At the beginning of next month she takes on the office of Deputy Senior Presiding Judge. I well recall her judgment in Young v Downey [2019] EWHC 3508 (QB), [2019] All ER (D) 95 (Dec). The daughter of a soldier killed by an IRA car bomb detonated in Hyde Park in the summer of 1982 sued the defendant for damages. He declined to participate in the action. The judge dealt superbly with both limitation and liability. She decided that fingerprint evidence found on car-parking tickets incriminated the defendant. Her analysis of relevant expert evidence was exquisite.

Yip J is certain to follow her father, Sir John Kay, up into the Court of Appeal. I see another Dame Sue Carr in the making; there is no higher

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Bellevue Law—Lianne Craig

Bellevue Law—Lianne Craig

Workplace law firm expands commercial disputes team with senior consultant hire

EIP—Rob Barker

EIP—Rob Barker

IP firm promotes patent attorney to partner

Muckle LLP—Ryan Butler

Muckle LLP—Ryan Butler

Banking and restructuring team bolstered by insolvency specialist

NEWS
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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