Legal brief: A week's a long time in law

Bingham was widely regarded as the country’s leading judge who held the most senior judicial posts in the country and whose judgments have undoubtedly featured in almost every law students’ work.

In 1992, Bingham was appointed as Master of the Rolls, going on to take up a four-year term as Lord Chief Justice in 1996. In 2000, Bingham became the first appointed senior law lord. Retirement in 2008 prevented Bingham from becoming the first president of the Supreme Court, but he was a keen supporter of the decision to set up the court to replace the House of Lords (read more).

Tuesday, meanwhile, was not a good day for inhouse lawyers thanks to the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Azko Nobel ruling. The ECJ ruled that inhouse counsel have no right to professional legal privilege in cartel investigations carried out by the European Commission (see article).

Wednesday marked the second anniversary of magic circle firm Linklaters’ appointment as UK administrators of former US investment banking giant Lehman Brothers. Much has happened in the past 24 months including of course one of the worst recessions in living memory resulting in swathes of law firm redundancies, trainee deferrals and the collapse of top 100 law firm Halliwells.

Also on Wednesday, back at the judiciary Mr Justice Eady, the country’s most senior libel judge was replaced as head of the Queen’s Bench jury and non-jury lists by Mr Justice Tugendhat. Eady J has been the source of much controversy in the national press in recent years. In particular he came in for criticism from the Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre who accused the judge of introducing privacy laws “by the back door” (read more).

Thursday was the start of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s partner conference in Paris.

And Friday saw the return of Legal Brief.

husnara.begum@lawyer2b.com