Veteran advocacy 25 Jun 2020 When former head of the British Army General Lord Dannatt describes the deaths of veterans who take their own lives as an “epidemic of our time”, the needs of veterans can no longer be ignored. We must also never forget that the liberties that we enjoy today are due to the sacrifices of others. When veterans’ rights are infringed, we as lawyers must assist veterans in holding the state to account. The new Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) was created in July 2019 and became operational last September. It is tasked with “helping to generate a ‘single view of the veteran’ by making better use of data to understand veterans’ needs and where gaps in provision exist”. It’s a long time since the last comprehensive data was collated by researchers. Led by Professor Nav Kapur, head of research at Manchester University’s Centre for Suicide Prevention, a team studied the deaths of veterans in the community after their discharge from the UK armed forces between 1996 ...

As we enter the second week of lockdown, there is already the possibility that social distancing measures could last until June, perhaps longer.  Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England gave the stark warning to the nation on Sunday that: “we must not then suddenly revert to our normal way of living”. I make no criticism of Dr Harries, who is clearly doing her best under impossible circumstances. But I am concerned that, during the daily briefings, the wider societal and financial consequences of an extended lockdown do not seem to have been considered. This is no fault at all of the doctors and scientists advising the government, as their vocation is to “save lives”, at any cost. But the government decision to follow the doctor’s orders and make us all housebound is not without its own costs. First, there is the increase in authoritarian policing. Although it is not a “crime” to drive miles away from where you live to exercise or walk your dog, you may find ...

“The SRA has made the right call on freelance working and it is up to us small firm practitioners, to grasp the opportunity it presents”, suggests Sophie Khan, solicitor director at Sophie Khan & Co and panel chair at the Small Firms Division summer networking event. On 25 November 2019, the new rules on practising as a solicitor will come into play. Last month, the Legal Services Board (LSB) approved the client protection arrangements in support of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) plans for solicitors to offer legal services through unregulated businesses and to allow self-employed solicitors to work on a freelance basis. The Law Society, working hard on our behalf, has rightly scrutinised the SRA’s plans and raised some compelling and important concerns about the impact of the change, pointing to the risks of eroding vital client protections, lowering standards and diminishing the solicitor brand. Now that the LSB has given the green light however, I, along with many s...

This article by  Sophie Khan , Solicitor Director at Sophie Khan & Co. Solicitors and Higher Court Advocates, considers the position of a compliance officer for diversity, inclusion and equality. It is only recently, that ‘diversity’ in the legal profession has reached such importance that it can no longer be ignored by the senior managers of law firms.  The career development of ethnic minority lawyers or lack of such a development has been brought into sharp focus by the  Solicitors Regulation Authority’s report published on 31 October 2017  - Unlocking the benefits of diversity.  The need for action to address the disparity in the employment and progression of ethnic minority lawyers is now a must, no longer a maybe. But how do we achieve this goal? During my term as a Solicitor Member of the SRA’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee I saw there was no policy on challenging the status quo that existed in law firms towards enhancing the diversity m...