I still remember the sense of horror in 2015 as I followed the news reports of three young, and very vulnerable looking, schoolgirls heading to Syria to join ISIS. I wasn’t the only one who hoped and prayed that something would happen to stop them. It was only ever going to end very badly. Five years on; one is certainly dead, one is missing presumed dead and one has become the most hated person in…

I am currently reading The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment by Amelia Gentleman. You don’t need me to tell you that this was one of the greatest scandals of the last 50 years. Ordinary working people who had been in the UK for 40 – 50 years suddenly and inexplicably found themselves in the middle of a nightmare. They were caretakers, ambulance drivers, cleaners, teachers, care workers, nurses. They were parents, grandparents and friends…

The words law and justice are normally inseparable. The aim of a legal system is to promote justice. The most familiar image that is associated with our legal system is one of scales of justice. This is, or rather should be, a statement of the obvious. It seems however that costs savings now trump justice in some cases. This is the disturbing outcome of the recent judgment in A v B which was recently reported…

One thing that will never be the same after the current lockdown, is my appreciation of nature and the outdoors. I have had an interest in wildlife and nature for a while, especially as my photography skills have grown. But, a bit like work, it has been something that I ‘go to’. So, we travelled across the Atlantic to see sloths in Costa Rica or to the Red Sea to experience Picasso fish. What lockdown…

I have to confess to being a collector of useless information. I once spent a long flight home from Los Angeles memorising all of the state capitals of the USA. I think the obsession goes back the days of memorising lists of cases when I was a law student. I am also a fan of the TV show Pointless which probably says something.  All of which brings me to the Great North West Virtual Legal…

The question that many are asking is whether lawyers will ever return to working the way they did before the lockdown. According to a report in Legal Cheek there is a significant majority who want to continue to work at home – https://www.legalcheek.com/2020/05/over-60-of-legal-staff-want-to-work-from-home-post-lockdown/ Legal work has been moving in this direction for some time. I am old enough to remember the days of a local High Street office where the main source of work was…