The Strangeways Riot 25 years on - Manchester Law Society

North West Law

The Monthly Publication of the Manchester Law Society

May 2015NewsAndrew Grantham of King’s Chamberstakes over at the helm of NCCBA

page 6

Trio of hires and director promotions at Hugh Jones page 7

Slater Heelis advise north west highschools on conversion and sponsorship

page 8

Excavation of New Bailey Prisonpage 27

FeaturesTalking Heads pages 10-11"How do you think the outcome of the General Election will affect Access to Justice?"

Legal Apprenticeshipspage 18

RegularsRegulatory Affairs Update page 5

Members Reward CardSee your latest offers page 26Monthly CompetitionWin a Wine tasting experience for 2 people at Veeno

page 32

In association with

An offer pursuant to Part36 of the Civil ProcedureRules (CPR), or the 'carrotand stick encouragementto settle', is a very power-ful tool to a litigant’s dis-posal however, certaintyin this area of law hasbeen lacking.

Indeed, as a self-containedcode, Part 36 has attractedits fair share of criticism inthe past few years leadingto satellite litigation andover technical application.In order to remove some ofthe uncertainty and com-plexity, the new CPR Part 36came into force on 6 April2015 and applies to all of-fers made after this date.

Without a doubt, thechanges can only be de-scribed as a comprehensiveoverhaul and amount to al-most a full redraft of Part 36with a few welcomed addi-tions. The changes go someway towards codifying re-cent case law in this areawhilst re-ordering and tidy-ing up the existing rules.

In brief, the new rules ad-dress the following;

-Counterclaims – new CPR36.2(3) confirms that a Part36 offer may be made in re-spect of a counterclaim orother additional claim. The-oretically, this should allowdefendants with counter-

claims to utilise thefavourable costs conse-quences of the claimant'sPart 36 offers. The Court willreasonably look at the of-feror as the real claimantwhere an offer includes anadvantage to those makingan offer.- Withdrawing / time limitedoffers – new CPR 36.9(4)(b)allows a Part 36 offer to beautomatically withdrawnafter expiry of the relevantperiod in accordance withits terms. The advantage ofthis is that defendants arenot "caught" by an old offerif they are slow to withdraw.- Improved offers - new CPR36.9(5) provides that anamended offer to make

terms more advantageousto the offeree is treated as anew offer rather than awithdrawal of the originaloffer.

-Appeal proceedings – newCPR 36.4 makes specific pro-vision for appeal proceed-ings

- Late acceptance / cost

The new Part 36 – peace in our time?Helen Kanczes of Clyde & Co outlinesthe changes to Part 36 of the CPR

The Strangeways Riot25 years onMany readers will recallthe Strangeways riot,which started on 1st April1990, and was the longestriot in British penal his-tory and was the catalystfor changing the way UKprisons were run.

Yet, 25 years later LordWoolf, (now President of thePrison Reform Trust), wholed the inquiry into theStrangeways riot haswarned that overcrowdingin prisons could lead to a re-peat of the unrest in the1990s and has called on thegovernment to undertake afurther review of the prisonsystem.

Strangeways was built in1868 to replace New BaileyPrison to hold 970 inmatesbut at the time of the riot ithoused more than 1,600,making it one of the most

overcrowded prisons in Eu-rope. It was these condi-tions that led to a group ofprisoners taking control ofthe prison chapel, beforethe riot spread throughoutStrangeways.

One prison officer and oneprisoner died and 147prison officers and 47 pris-oners were injured duringthe 25 day siege. The dam-age to the prison was esti-mated at £55M. Paul Taylor,from Birkenhead, was thefirst to take a stand and wasalso the last man to comedown from the roof.

During the siege televisionimages of prisoners sittingon the roof of the building,some holding banners,were seen by peoplearound the world, provok-ing riots at a further 23 pris-ons in England, Scotland

and Wales.

What had started as aprotest escalated into vio-lence with inmates assault-ing prison officers andgrabbing their keys and un-locking cells, with many ofthe prisoners making theirway to the roof.

The prison authorities re-

sponded by cutting off theelectricity supply, sprayingthe roof with water cannonsand playing loud music.

Mike Mackey of BurtonCopeland was called in bythe police to attempt toconvince his clients to endthe seige. Mike says “It was acompletely surreal scene.

Continued on page 15

Continued on page 15

3Manchester Law Society President’s Column

From the President

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What Criminal Practitionersfeared has happened. De-spite the best efforts of thelegal teams on behalf of TheLaw Society, the CLSA andthe LCCS the Court of Ap-peal has cleared the way forthe Lord Chancellor to pressahead with his tenderprocess for two tier con-tracts for the provision ofcriminal legal aid. The con-troversial decision to con-tinue with the tenderprocess came in the finalhours before “election pur-dah” however Grayling doesnot appear to have any con-cerns about pressing on. It isclear that the contracts willsignificantly affect access toJustice and the generalpublic need to be aware ofhow this could affect thempersonally. What we are see-ing now is that the teacher,the nurse or the store assis-tant is not eligible for legalaid for many areas of thelaw not only for criminalmatters. These are peoplewho do not have huge re-serves to call upon, yet theyare being required to makeeither huge monthly contri-butions to legal aid or arehaving to fund their repre-sentation in full; often hav-ing to call upon other family

members to assist. Thismonth’s topic for “TalkingHeads” reflects upon thisissue and poses the ques-tion “How do you think theoutcome of the GeneralElection will affect Access toJustice?”.

Last month we saw the in-troduction of the increasedcivil court fees. This monthCriminal lawyers were as-tounded to learn of the in-troduction of criminal courtfees. These will be fees inaddition to any ProsecutionCosts, fine or victim sur-charge. These fees havebeen introduced by statu-tory instrument with noconsultation or debate; itgives the courts no discre-tion and therefore no ac-count will be taken of anindividual’s personal cir-cumstance and ability topay. There are already hugeamounts of fines, costs andcompensation unpaid. If thesystem currently can notcollect those sums how dothey propose to collectthese additional court fees?There is concern across theprofession that defendantswill feel under undue pres-sure for financial reasons toplead guilty rather then

challenge the Crown’s case.This may well lead to indi-viduals being convicted ofoffences for which had theyrun the matter to trial maywell have been acquitted. Itrather flies in the face of theconcept that one is inno-cent until proven guilty;now it seems the messagefrom the politicians is pleadguilty come what may, itwill cost you less!

It is important that Accessto Justice is made an elec-tion issue and to this end arally has been organised forthe 23rd April at Westmin-ster and will have takenplace by this time this issueof the Messenger lands onyour desk. My place andtrain ticket has been re-served and so I will reportback on the outcome of thisevent next month. I don’tpossess a “mulberry hand-bag” so don’t worry aboutme being photographed!This months MLS Advan-tage visit took me to Liver-pool to meet with MartynBest and Jayne Smith ofDocument Direct. The com-pany was formed by Martynsome ten years ago and heis supported by the won-derful Jayne who is Opera-

tions Director. I knew that Iwould bond well with Mar-tyn as on his web site under“favourite tipple” he lists“wine of most shades” - aman after my own heart! Asyou know Document Directprovides a 24/7 secretarialservice. It was interesting tolearn that dictation is sentto them throughout the dayand night with only a slightlull around two to three am.Just goes to show thatlawyers do work all hours.Have a look on the web siteand you can access an in-teresting document - 5things to know before out-sourcing.

There are some interestingfacts not just about savingmoney, though on averagethey maintain that 40% canbe saved on secretarialcosts.

Not only are Martyn andJayne involved with Docu-ment Direct but also a rela-tively new venture called“Complete Counsel”. Theyoffer a full back office sup-port vehicle for barristersdelivered by Document Di-rect in areas of transcriptionof opinions, case and diarymanagement as well as

billing and fee collections. An interesting move away fromthe idea of the traditional chambers.

Next month I am off to Viewpoint-AV to learn all about thetechnological solutions for conferences and boardrooms. As you all know the President’s Charity this year is ChildlineSchool Services Northwest and next month I am off to ob-serve for myself one of the presentations to the children bythe volunteers trained and supported by your generous do-nations. It’s some years (no guessing my age) since I was ina primary school though I am sure it will bring back somememories!

Anarchy continues in theStraw household – senior catPoppy was most perturbedthat Mellors, her junior, got hispicture in the Messenger be-fore her and so to ensure thatpeace is restored I present toyou Poppy!

Louise StrawPresident

Louise StrawPresident of Manchester Law Society

4 Manchester Law Society News

Keep up to date with the latest event information at

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News from Bridge StreetMeet our new Council Member

Paul Johnson has joinedthe Council of ManchesterLaw Society. Paul, of WardHadaway is the formerchair of pro Manchester.

Paul started his legal careeras an articled clerk withChaffe Street, becoming anassistant solicitor, associateand partner until 2002when he moved to PinsentMasons. Paul then joinedCobbetts and then LinderMyers, before moving toWard Hadaway in April2014.

Paul is a partner in the Cor-porate department anddeals with a wide range ofcorporate matters includingMergers and Acquisitions

and Private Equity, actingfor management and insti-tutions. Paul regularly actsfor owner-managed busi-nesses and has a particularinterest in family-ownedcompanies.

Paul joined the Council ofManchester Law Societyafter a call for “fresh blood”and thought he fitted thebill! Paul says that Manches-ter Law Society appears tobe very pro-active in pro-moting the interests of itsmembers and is also a high-profile organisation. He alsosees the Society as provid-ing educational and socialopportunities for Manches-ter solicitors.

Paul is married and has twosons aged 12 and 13. He isalso an avid runner and hasgone for a run every singleday since 30th August 2008(that is approximately 2352days running) and on occa-sion runs home to Boltonfrom the office in the citycentre.

Paul also enjoys football,photography and, in partic-ular, history. On 1st January2014 Paul opened a newTwitter account, and eachday tweets a historical snip-pet from the past 100 years.You can follow Paul@WarToEndAllWars

Dates For Your Diary:20th May Noise Induced Hearing Loss2nd June Solicitors Accounts Rules11th June Regulatory Conference16th June Family Law Conference

To book a place on any of the above events, please email [email protected] or [email protected] or visit www.manchesterlawsociety.org.uk

Manchester Professional’s Dinner ClubDATE: Monday, 18th May, 2015 TIME: 6.00 for 6.30pmVENUE: Fumo, One St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M1 5ANCOST: £40.00 + vat @ 20% per ticket – including a welcome drink, Cicchettimeal and a half bottle of wine (total £48.00)

We are delighted to announce that Fumo Manchester is the next venue for the Manches-ter Professionals Dinner Club. Fumo is the latest concept cocktail bar, restaurant and latelounge from the award winning San Carlo Group of independent Italian restaurants. Situ-ated in the landmark 1 St Peter’s Square building, Fumo serves expertly crafted cicchetti(Italian tapas) dishes and an unrivalled cocktail menu. Come and visit the feature bar andenjoy a relaxed yet atmospheric, stylish dining experience in this contemporary but ele-gant, lively but stylish new offering from San Carlo Group.

This is an informal inter professional social networking event and we hope that this willbe an opportunity for:

You to mix and network for both business and social purposesProvide a social platform to build professional networksGet to know other business practitioners facing the same issues in practice and discuss matters relevant to your business with likeminded peopleMeet people from other professions and practices, which may result in cross referral of workEnjoy a superb menu and have a fantastic evening with old and new friends!

Please see the menu below. Included in the price is:-

Arrival drinkGlass of prosecco!

StartersFritto Portofino

Bruschetta PomodoroBruschetta Mushroom

MainsGnocco gorgonzola

LasagnaSea Bass

Fillet TagliataSides

French FriesZucchine Fritte

DessertDolce Cicchetti

DrinksHalf of a bottle of White OR Red Wine per person OR soft drinks

MANCHESTER PROFESSIONALS DINNER CLUBMonday, 18th May, 2015 – Fumo, One St Peter’s Square, Manchester.

Please reserve me .............. place/s at the Manchester Professionals Dinner Club at£40.00 + vat per ticket, (£48.00 in total) and find enclosed my cheque for £ ............,made payable to Manchester Law Society, in respect of this booking. Name(s) Email Address for each person Any Special Dietary Requirements

Please indicate any dietary requirements above

FIRM ..................................................................................................

ADDRESS ..................................................................................................

DX No ..................................................................................................

Please return to Hollie Hirst, Manchester Law Society, 64 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BN. DX 14378 Manchester 1. Tel: 0161 831 7337 or [email protected] booking a place at this event you are agreeing to our terms and conditions, details ofwhich can be found on www.manchesterlawsociety.org.uk/events-training/booking-terms-conditions/

Regulatory Affairs Committee UpdateIn old English, the monthof May was known as the‘month of three milkings’,referring to a time whencows could be milkedthree times a day. Appar-ently it was this great fertil-ity that was one of thethings that made theBritish Isles so desirable toinvaders. With this in mind,I intend to discuss threeregulatory developmentsin store for the summer. Be-fore I get cracking with theround-up I must remindeveryone to set their newsfeeds to check for anti-money laundering up-dates. By the time thismonth’s Messenger hasgone to press, Parliamentwill have voted to formallyadopt the 4th EuropeanMoney Laundering Direc-tive and draft regulationsshould be ready for circula-tion. I expect all hell tobreak loose over the sum-mer as everyone scramblesto make sure that theyhave all the correctprocesses and proceduresin place to ensure compli-ance. I will be reporting onthis in more detail in a lateredition so I shall spare youany further speculation fornow.

Nuisance callers beware!

What does everyone thinkabout the news that aclaims management com-pany based in Bolton hasbeen fined £80k for mak-ing nuisance calls? It isclear that the InformationCommissioner’s Office istaking flagrant breachesseriously (which includedone household beingcalled 470 times!) and thiswill certainly send a mes-sage to unscrupulousCMCs. Any law firm whichdealt with this CMC shouldcarefully consider whethertheir arrangementsamount to a materialbreach which must be re-ported to the SRA. Regard-less this should be areminder to keep existingarrangements under re-view and conduct properdue diligence on allprospective introducers.

Consumer credit, lawfirms and dual regulation

The SRA has been success-

ful in persuading HM treas-ury and the FCA to excludecertain consumer credit ac-tivities, notably debt col-lection, where thoseactivities are undertakenby solicitors (or otherlawyers authorised underthe Legal Services Act2007) in the course of pro-viding advocacy or litiga-tion services. Prior to thisdevelopment, any law firmcarrying out consumercredit activities would –subject to finding an ex-emption – have requiredauthorisation by both theFCA and the SRA. Startingwith the good news, manylaw firms will now not haveto be dual-regulated. Thebad news is that manyfirms have already ob-tained interim permissionfrom the FCA or wasted alot of time on preparingthemselves for whatlooked to be a hugechange!

So what exactly haschanged? Certain con-sumer credit activitieswhich are carried out bylawyers, most notably debtcollection, will not be con-sidered regulated activitiesfor the purposes of the Fi-nancial Services and Mar-kets Act 2000 (asamended). Solicitors havelong been permitted underthe contentious businessexemption to conduct liti-gation in respect of con-sumer credit debts withoutholding a consumer creditlicence, but the exemptiondid not cover any pre-issuework. This meant that firmscarrying out consumercredit debt collection workwould need to be autho-rised by the FCA under thenew regime. However, thedefinition of litigation hasnow been extended to in-clude pre-issue work, giv-ing law firms moreflexibility.

So… panic over? Not nec-essarily. Some firms will nolonger need to be FCA au-thorised but it is essentialthat you carefully considerthe new statutory instru-ment in the context of thepractice areas undertakenat your firm. This is a com-plex area – particularly forlaw firms with little experi-ence of FCA regulation –

and you must still establishwhether you are carryingout any regulated activi-ties. You must then decidewhether you require FCAauthorisation or whetheryou can rely on one of theexclusions or the FSMAPart 20 exemption. Notonly is this a difficult area, itis changing constantly asthe new regime settlesdown – the transitionalarrangements were ex-tended by agreement withthe FCA until 31 October2015 and the SRA is cur-rently consulting on howthings are going to work inpractice.

Version 13 of the SRAHandbook

Yet another version of thehandbook is live on theSRA website (don’t all rushthere at once!). You canfind more details in theSRA press release but thematerial changes are:

• Introduction of the Com-petence Statement whichsets out the required stan-dard for solicitors to meet ifthey want to hold a practis-ing certificate;• Changes to the SRA Com-pensation Fund Rules 2011and the SRA HandbookGlossary 2012 setting outthe eligibility criteria for in-dividuals who are able toapply for a grant out of theSRA's Compensation Fund;• A new outcome which re-quires firms to assess andpurchase an appropriatelevel of professional in-demnity insurance andchanges to the MinimumTerms and Conditions ofcover (Appendix 1 of theSRA Indemnity InsuranceRules 2013) relating to thevariation of multi-year poli-cies, clarification of run-offcover and the introductionof a sanctions exclusion.

And finally …………..

Don’t bungle unbundling

The Law Society has up-dated its practice note onunbundling civil legal serv-ices. The most significantchange is that the notenow extends to cover bestpractice when dealing withcivil law generally and notjust family law. So how do

you know if this practicenote is one for you? Ac-cording to the Law Societydraftsmen, unbundling isthe ‘provision of discreteacts of legal assistanceunder a limited retainer,rather than a traditional fullretainer’. The note goes onto say that in its purestform ‘the case remainsclient-led so the solicitordoes not necessarily ac-cept service of documents,does not send out corre-spondence in the firm'sname or otherwise com-municate with third par-ties, does not incurdisbursements and doesnot go on the court record’.

Whilst this might seem anideal way to ensure clientsof limited means get ac-cess to justice, it is not

without risk to the legal ad-visers involved. As lawyers,we are under a duty to pro-vide legal services with theappropriate degree of skillas well as regulatory obli-gations to meet client carestandards. The case of Pad-den v Bevan Ashford Solic-itors [2011] is a sombrereminder of how easy it isto stumble into a quag-mire. If you want to knowmore then read the casestudy in the practice note.Make sure that none of theabove provide “fertile”ground for the SRA tocome a-knocking on yourdoor! Any queries, get intouch.

Michelle GarlickChair, Manchester Law Society Regulatory Af-fairs CommmitteeWeightmans LLP

6 Movers & Shakers

The deadline for the June edition of The Messenger is 13th May

National law firm Mills &Reeve has launched atechnology team in Man-chester to help capitaliseon the opportunities inthe sector.

The team, which will offer arange of innovative legal so-lutions to help the region’sgrowing technology com-panies, is headed up by PaulKnight who has relocatedfrom the firm’s Cambridgeoffice to lead its move intothe north west market.

Paul said: “This is a very ex-citing time to be involved inthe technology sector inManchester.

The region’s universities area hotbed of entrepreneur-ship and the local businessincubators are supportingsome really ambitiousfledgling companies. We areextremely keen to use ourexpertise to help themgrow.

“Mills & Reeve has one theUK’s leading technologyteams and we can offer awealth of expertise gainedworking for high-growthtechnology businesses else-where in the UK. As part ofour investment in the UKtechnology sector, we offerfree resources through ouronline Technology Hub( h t t p : / / w w w . m i l l s -reeve.com/technology-hub/), which I hope local

companies will find useful.”

Niall Innes, head of theManchester office, said: “Wehave ambitious plans forthe Manchester office andwe have identified the tech-nology sector as one of ourgrowth areas. We are de-lighted to welcome Paulwho brings with him the ex-pertise of working with ourleading technology team inCambridge.”

Mills & Reeve launch technology teamin Manchester to support TechNorth

Paul Knight

Slater Heelis LLP – theManchester-based lawfirm – has strengthenedits Family and PrivateClient teams, with the ap-pointment of two leadingindustry specialists.

Phillip Rhodes joins theFamily department fromPannone, part of Slater &Gordon, where he attainedspecialist accreditation inadvanced financial provi-sion and private childrenlaw. His work focuses on di-vorce and complex financialcases, often with interna-tional elements or those in-volving businesses, trustsand pensions. He also hasextensive experience incases involving children dis-putes.

Phillip acts for clients acrossthe UK and abroad. Locally,his clients are based in Man-chester, Cheshire, the RibbleValley and the Fylde coast.

Phillip is joined by Zoe Peel-ing, who has been ap-pointed as a Solicitor in thePrivate Client team and spe-cialises in wills, trusts and

probate. After qualifyingfrom the University ofSheffield, she worked atManchester city centrefirms, Fruhman Davies Liv-ingstones and, more re-cently, Glaisyers SolicitorsLLP.

Zoe specialises in all areas ofPrivate Client work, includ-ing tax and estate planning,wills, lasting powers of at-torney and probate.

Chris Bishop, ManagingPartner at Slater Heelis, said:“We’re delighted to wel-come both Phillip and Zoeto our team. With our grow-ing client base and expand-ing service offering, it’sessential that we have thebest people in place to workalongside our clients to helpmeet their individual needs.

“Phillip and Zoe have an ex-cellent reputation in themarket and we’re confidentthat the strong reputationthey have built up will un-doubtedly enhance our Pri-vate Client propositionacross the North West.”

Slater Heelis boosts team with newappointments

Phillip Rhodes

Zoe Peeling

Andrew Grantham, a bar-rister at Kings Chambersin Manchester, has beenelected the Chair of theNorthern Circuit Commer-cial Bar Association.

Andrew, who was called tothe Bar in 1991, specializesin all aspects of commercialdispute resolution with aparticular emphasis on con-tractual and corporate dis-putes. His clients includebanks and major publiccompanies as well as a num-ber of smaller manufactur-ing and other companiesand professional firms. Healso has expertise in draft-ing complex agreementsand sitting as an arbitrator.

Hailing from Liverpool, An-drew came to the Bar after a

Andrew Grantham of King’s Chamberstakes over at the helm of NCCBA

short career as an academic,teaching at both WadhamCollege, Oxford and King’sCollege, London.

The Northern Circuit Com-mercial Bar Association(NCCBA) was established in1996 with the aim of pro-moting the work of com-mercial barristers on theNorthern Circuit.

In 2009, the NCCBAlaunched a programme ofseminars for barristers andsolicitors, as well as the NewPractitioner Course aimedprimarily at barristers ofunder 3 years call and juniorsolicitors.

Andrew has been an activemember of the NCCBA sinceits inception and has been

the Secretary to the Associ-ation for the past 10 years.Andrew says “My role is tolead and represent theNCCBA for the next coupleof years, through chairingevents and seminars and li-aising with the Bar Counciland representatives of localcommercial solicitors. Weare also act as a conduit be-tween practitioners and theMercantile Court andJudges. Essentially theNCCBA exists to representthe views and interests ofour more than 100-strongmembership, and providethem with educational re-sources as well as the op-portunity to discuss issueswith like-minded practition-ers.”

BARRY FRIESLANDER MCIArbCertified Mediator Complex business & matrimonial disputes resolved

Barry holds Certified Elite Mediator status, compliant with the UK Ministry of Justice, EU &UK Civil Mediation Council Mediator Database and is accredited by the ADR Group.

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Manchester law firm HughJones Solicitors has takenon three recruits andmade its first promotionsto director level as it un-veils plans to double itsoffice space to accommo-date its growing team.

Fiona Ludkin has joined thePrivate Client and Court ofProtection teams as a solici-tor. Fiona has relocated toManchester from PremierSolicitors in Bedford whereshe held the same position. Tom Young has also joinedthe private client and courtof protection teams as a so-licitor. Tom was previously asolicitor at Sefton Metropol-itan Borough Council wherehe worked in the social careteam.

The third new recruit is liti-gation executive Sam Firth.Sam is joining from FentonsSolicitors, part of Slater &Gordon, and has more than20 years’ experience ofcounty court and HighCourt personal injury litiga-tion.

The firm has also promotedsenior associates Elizabeth

Hughes and Carol McBrideto Director. The appoint-ments are the first new Di-rector appointments atHugh Jones Solicitors whichthis month is celebratingthe 2nd anniversary since itopened for business.

Elizabeth is the Head of theCourt of Protection teamand a specialist solicitorwith a great deal of experi-ence in Court of Protectionand mental capacity work.

Carol is the Head of the Pri-vate Client team. She hasspecialised in private clientlaw, mental capacity andCourt of Protection law andpractice since qualificationas a solicitor in 2002.

The latest appointmentscome as Hugh Jones Solici-tors announces plans todouble its existing officespace in a move to accom-modate is rapidly growing30-strong team.The firm is currently lookingat a number of options andhope to finalise plans in thenear future.

Managing Director Hugh

Jones said: “We are de-lighted to promote Caroland Elizabeth to Director.They both joined me fromPannone and have played apivotal role in helping growand develop the firm. Thepromotions reflect theirhard work and commit-ment.

“We are also pleased to wel-come Fiona, Tom and Samto our team. Fiona and Tomadd further strength to ourbusy court of protectionand private client teamswhich continue to receivemany new instructions,while Sam’s expertise will bea welcome addition to ourlitigation support practice.

“Their appointments comeat a time of rapid expansionfor the firm which is re-flected by our hunt forlarger premises. We are de-lighted to be fulfilling ourambitious growth aspira-tions as we further cementour reputation as the lead-ing independent providerof cost-effective legal serv-ices to vulnerable people,their families and advisers.”

Trio of hires and director promotions atHugh Jones as the firm looks to double itsoffice space

Hugh Jones

Hilary Meredith SolicitorsLimited, with offices inWilmslow and London, hasexpanded its Clinical Neg-ligence team with the ap-pointment of solicitor NeilCrossley.

As a specialist Clinical Negli-gence solicitor, Neil brings awealth of knowledge andexperience across a widespectrum of injury typesand joins the firm to meetthe increasing demand forits Clinical Negligence com-pensation claims service na-tionwide.

Neil joins the firm fromFletchers Solicitors where hehandled a number of highvalue clinical negligencecases including, but not lim-ited to, orthopaedic , gynae-cological, urological,opthalmic, dental and misdi-agnosis cases. He has aproven track record of suc-cessful cases against Defen-dant Hospital Trusts,

Surgeons, GPs, Physiothera-pists, Dentists and Pharma-cies.

Based at Hilary Meredith So-licitors’ Wilmslow office Neilwill deal with an expandingcaseload of both militaryand civilian Clinical Negli-gence claims.

Commenting on his ap-pointment, Neil said, “HilaryMeredith Solicitors hasearned a reputation for suc-cess in handling complexand difficult Clinical Negli-gence cases and I look for-ward to joining the team tohelp build on this successand contribute to the firms’ongoing growth. Havingbeen a Registered Nurse for6 years, I believe the medicalknowledge and expertisegained during this timegives me added insight intoClinical Negligence cases”.

Clare Stevens, Director at Hi-lary Meredith Solicitors said,

“We are delighted to wel-come Neil to the team. Hisreputation and experiencewill further strengthen ourcommitment to helpingthose individuals and fami-lies who are sadly affectedby the increasing number ofincidents of Clinical Negli-gence. Neil's inside knowl-edge and understanding ofboth medical and legal is-sues from his previous expe-riences will be key to thedevelopment of our ClinicalNegligence Team.”

Hilary Meredith Solicitors adds new ClinicalNegligence Solicitor to its team

Neil Crossley

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8 Movers & Shakers

The Lord Chancellor andSecretary of State for Jus-tice Christopher Graylingtogether with local MPGraham Evans paid a visitto Frodsham law firmRowlinsons Solicitors lastmonth on a whistle-stoptour of the area.

Andrew Graves, ManagingDirector at Rowlinsons, said“It isn’t every day that youhave the Lord Chancellorstroll into the office and

share a pot of tea with threeof the directors of the prac-tice. Mr Grayling was keento discover our views onwhat issues were of concernto the legal sector. A con-structive discussion tookplace exchanging views ona number of topics whichwere of concern not just tosolicitors but more impor-tantly issues affecting mem-bers of the public. Althoughwe didn’t agree on all the is-sues, the Lord Chancellor

seemed receptive to someof the views put forward atthe meeting and promisedto give some furtherthought to some of ouropinions.”

“It goes without saying thatif ever the Lord Chancellorneeds the services of a solic-itor, our award winningpractice would happilyoblige.”

Lord Chancellor calls in for tea at award winninglaw firm Rowlinsons Solicitors Hale based law firm,

Blackstone Solicitors con-tinue their roll of accredi-tations as they qualify formembership of the Con-veyancing QualityScheme CQS, accepted asa standard award for resi-dential conveyancingpractices.

Set up by Emma Nawaz in2010 to specialise in DisputeResolution, the firm ex-panded their services in2014 to encompass a Prop-erty section.

The last 12 months haveseen them achieve a num-ber of accolades includingwinning Team of the YearLitigation at the ManchesterLaw Society Awards 2014,Shortlisted for the Law Soci-ety Excellence Awards andachieving Excellence in In-vestors in People.

This latest recognition ofCQS adds to their portfolio.This recent recognition

compliments a string of suc-cesses achieved by the firmalready this year including anew National client, The Fra-grance Shop. Established in1995, the Fragrance Shopnow has high street loca-tions throughout the UK.Blackstone is now their ded-icated commercial solicitorand will deal with all aspectsof property matters on theirbehalf.

The expansion of the serv-ices on offer by Blackstonemeans that the team hasnow grown to 12. Earlierthis year the firm’s firsttrainee Charlotte Turnerqualified, as a Lawyer andthis month Sarah Townsendbecame an Associate Solici-tor specialising in Commer-cial and Property Litigation.Sarah added, “I am de-lighted to have been ap-pointed as an Associate. Thedrive and passion of the en-tire team at Blackstone en-sures that we understandour clients and always de-

liver exceptional results”

Managing Director, EmmaNawaz added, ‘We are par-ticularly pleased with thefirst quarter of 2015, theclients that we have at-tracted, the cases that wehave won, this latest CQSrecognition and ‘Our team.’We all work incredibly hardto not only deliver but tosurpass our client’s expecta-tions.”

Hale firm achieve industry recognition

Sarah Townsend

Manchester-based lawfirm, Slater Heelis LLP, hasadvised Chorlton HighSchool on its recent con-version to a Multi-Acad-emy Trust and formalsponsorship of NewallGreen High School.

Following the conversion,the two schools will be sep-arate Academies within thesame Trust. Previously,Chorlton High School heldSingle Academy Trust statusand Newall Green HighSchool was a FoundationSchool. Chorlton HighSchool was advised by asso-ciate solicitors Richard Rileyand Hannah Al-Shaghana,part of Slater Heelis’ educa-tion team, with One Educa-tion providing additionalHR support and advice.

Becoming a Multi-AcademyTrust enables Academies toformally sponsor otherschools, giving them theopportunity to share staff,resources and educationalexperience.

As part of the transaction,Chorlton High School for-mally agreed to sponsorNewall Green High School,with a view to helping raisestandards and work towardsimproving the quality of theregion’s educational offer-ing.

Andy Park, Chorlton HighSchool head teacher, com-mented: “Since convertingto an Academy in January2013, we have reaped thebenefits that come as a re-sult of the status.

“Thanks to Slater Heelisguiding us through theprocess of converting to aMulti-Academy Trust, we areable to further strengthenour existing relationshipwith Newall Green HighSchool and share some ofthe advantages of our Acad-emy status.”

Alison Wright, Newall GreenHigh School head teacher,said: “We’re extremely ex-cited to be working withChorlton High School as oursponsor.

“With this support, we cancontinue our work on im-proving the quality of provi-sion for our students andgenerally improving the ed-ucational experience avail-able to them.”

To date, Slater Heelis hashelped nine educational es-tablishments to make thetransition to Academy Sta-tus or, as in this case, chang-ing from a Single toMulti-Academy Trust.

Richard Riley said: “By be-coming a Multi-AcademyTrust and sponsoringNewall Green High School,Chorlton High School willbenefit from more freedomin terms of teaching, budg-ets, staffing and property.

“In addition to this, thesponsorship will create ad-ditional opportunities forNewall Green High Schoolto further develop its edu-cational provision and, inturn, improve the educa-tional outcomes for stu-dents in the area.”

Slater Heelis advise north west highschools on conversion and sponsorship

Richard Riley

Brabners has sponsoredthe TEAM Member of theyear award at the TEAMNational Networking Con-ference for the secondyear running.

TEAM is the largest networkof independent recruiters inthe UK with currently over500 locations. Brabners hasa well-established relation-ship with TEAM; in additionto being the network’s Prin-cipal Legal Advisor, the firmis regional advisor to theMidlands, North West,North East and South WestEngland.

Each year the members of

TEAM cast a vote for TEAMMember of the year. Thisyear the award went to spe-cialist manufacturing re-cruiter bbe Recruitment.Established in 1999, bbe Re-cruitment is run by Director,Marc Anderson-Boyd andoperates both nationallyand internationally recruit-ing for the plastics, packag-ing, engineering, technical,financial and commercialsectors. Liz Longman, Man-aging Director of TEAM said:“Some of the reasons givenfor bbe Recruitment win-ning were: ‘the strong TEAMethic comes through fromthe business at all times’,‘they rarely miss a meeting’,

‘they share business regu-larly’; ‘they are always readyto help’, ‘the staff are reallysuper, they have such astrong TEAM ethic and arealways receptive and pro-fessional’.”

Paul Chamberlain, Employ-ment Partner at Brabnerspresented the award toMark Guest of bbe Recruit-ment at the national net-working event. He said: “Wewere pleased to sponsorTEAM’s member of the yearaward again and would liketo congratulate bbe Recruit-ment on its well-deservedwin.”

Brabners sponsors TEAM Memberof the year award

Paul Chamberlain, Mark Guest and Liz Longman

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Talking HeadsThis month we asked practitioners "How do you think the outcomeof the General Election will affect Access to Justice?"

Michael HardacreSlater & GordonVice President, Manchester Law Society

Lawyers of whatever politi-cal hue will agree that thisgovernment has been re-lentless in its drive for costssavings across most govern-ment departments and theMinistry of Justice has faredvery poorly in this respect.In truth, it is seen as an easytarget.

The term “access to justice”is a fine one in theory but itis very difficult to explain toa non lawyer Lord Chancel-lor how that translates intopractice. The reality is how-ever that repeated cuts infunding for legal aid and thecourt service have been feltvery keenly indeed on thefront line and we are em-phatically in a worse posi-tion with regards to accessto justice than we were fiveyears ago.

That may be justified if cutsare shared equally and fairlybut they plainly are not. Theproblem we have in thelegal arena comes back toone of political expediency.Cuts at the Ministry of Jus-tice are unlikely to gain agreat deal of mainstreammedia attention in the firstplace and that remains thecase after the election.While the Labour Party haveintermittently and inconsis-tently opposed various cuts,they have made no prom-ises at all to remedy the sit-uation after the election.They say they cannot makepromises they cannot keep

but there is no doubt in mymind that the same politicalmindset is at play here.

That is that if the LabourParty are in governmentafter the election they willsave their political pointscoring for more mediafriendly departments thanthe Ministry of Justice. So inshort, whatever the com-plexion of the governmentafter the election I do notexpect any great improve-ment in the short term.

Kashif AliBarristerSt Johns Buildings Chambers

A reversal or re-think of thedirection of governmentpolicy towards the legalprofession is not on thehorizon whichever party orcombination of parties winthe election in May 2015 –in fact expect the onslaughtof reform to continue.

And the reason for this isnot just because of the stateof public finances. And notjust because there are nomaterial differences in theapproach of the main par-ties towards the legal pro-fession. But because of themore fundamental problemof a serious distrust, evendislike, felt by the generalpublic towards the legalprofession.

Irrespective of the correct-ness of this public percep-tion, lawyers need torecognise this reality andgrapple with it. Ordinarypeople think lawyers earnway too much and charge

Ryan BrownTrainee Solicitorgunnercooke

Legal aid available in the UKhas been greatly reducedsince 2013. As a result, therehas been a significant cut inthe number of practitionersspecialising in legal aid ad-vice. Ultimately, this hasmade it harder for thosethat are most in need. Evenfor the people that success-fully obtain legal aid, the re-duced governmentinvestment means that thesupport is not as far-reach-ing as before. A good exam-ple of this was the recenthigh-profile media cover-age on the victims of do-mestic violence. In somecases, victims are likely toface cross-examination bytheir attackers, simply be-cause legal aid cuts make itdifficult to qualify for court-room representation.

Neither of the main political

Louise StrawBurton CopelandPreident of ManchesterLaw Society

We have seen unprece-dented restrictions placedon Access to Justice by thecurrent Government withcuts to all forms of legal aid,the introduction of higherfees to bring proceedings inthe civil courts and now theintroduction of court feesfor defendants brought be-fore the Magistrates andCrown Courts. If we see a re-turn of this government,with Grayling still holdingthe post of Lord Chancellor,I foresee further cuts, notjust with the two tier dutycontracts which he seemsdetermined to forcethrough despite the loom-ing election, but also a fur-ther reduction in actualfees. Whilst the Labour gov-ernment has indicated that

Kate Oldfield Managing Partner Davis Blank Furniss.

It’s a difficult question as atthe time of writing there’sno clear favourite on whowill be stepping over thethreshold of 10 DowningStreet on the morning ofMay 8th. Over the past fewmonths, Andy Slaughter, ashadow justice minister, hastried to reassure claimantlawyers that Labour is ontheir side and that he sym-pathises with the ‘system-atic attack’ that bothclaimants - and those work-ing for them - have enduredover the past four years.Their pledge to abolish theemployment tribunal feessystem if the party comes topower is most certainly wel-come but the real questionis whether they’d stick to it.The Conservatives are, ofcourse, firmly committed tothe road of further austerityand their drive to reshapethe legal landscape seems

Susan Grocott QC, Deans Court Chambers

Odd isn’t it that the NHSand Legal Aid werebrought in on the sameday so that everyoneshould receive primaryhealth care and Access toJustice. The twin pillars of acivilised society. As theGeneral Election looms allwe hear is one of the twinsshould be preserved at allcosts despite its growthway beyond what was en-visaged, yet the other,which also grew to meetchanging needs and has, aswe know, suffered death bya thousand cuts by succes-sive governments is barelymentioned at all. Sadlythere are no votes in Ac-cess to Justice and al-though dual contractingmay be spared the sub-textdoes not suggest that thedrive for reduction in sup-pliers and future cuts willchange. I would invite any-one who wanted my voteto look at the Pro Bono re-quests our family team re-ceive and tell me what’scivilised or humane aboutthese litigants facing courthearings alone.

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way too much.They think lawyers are elit-ist, untrustworthy andsnobby. That lawyers areruthlessly driven by profit.That litigation of itself is alargely social evil whichbrings little benefit exceptto lawyers. That essentiallythere are far too manylawyers involved in far toomuch litigation.

Worryingly lawyers tend totalk largely to other lawyersabout the state of the legalprofession, and they do notalways have this difficulty atthe forefront of their minds.The real task facing lawyers,in my opinion, is winningback the public by changingperceptions of the profes-sion.

they will abandon the ten-der process commenced byGrayling and have hintedthat they will not bring inthe second wave of financialcuts, they or any other partywill be inheriting a countrywith a huge deficit. TheGeneral Public, until theissue of representation ac-tually affects them, does notconsider this an electionissue. Lawyers are holding arally on the 23rd Septemberto try and bring the issue tothe electorate however Ifear that how ever the elec-tion is resolved the ordinaryman or woman in the streetis going to discover that Ac-cess to Justice will be fur-ther restricted.

parties has presented astance on legal aid as theylaunch their campaigns, andit certainly wasn’t an area offocus for George Osbourne’s2015 Budget. So is Access toJustice likely to see reform?Chances are this is unlikelyto be a high priority on ei-ther party’s agenda. How-ever, any futureconsideration of Legal Aidwill likely consider alteringthe amount of availablefunding. Even if the fundinglevels were increased, it isvery unlikely that theywould return to those seenprior to 2013.

to be unwavering. I am intheory in favour of a merit-based legal aid system but itneeds to be fair as access tojustice is - and alwaysshould be - a core pillar ofour society. Ensuring thathappens is the responsibil-ity of the government so Ihope whoever wins takesbold and decisive steps toredress the balance. Mostimportantly it needs to lis-ten to and engage with thewider legal profession.

Mike PembertonPartnerStephensons

Access to justice has beenseverely compromised withthe changes brought aboutby Legal Aid, Sentencingand Punishment of Offend-ers Act 2012.

Hardly any area of legalpractice has been unaf-fected, including criminallegal aid for prisoners, thewithdrawal of funding forthe majority of family casesand slashing of social wel-fare advice, which can nolonger be obtained.

Whilst labour has promisedto review the proposals forcriminal legal aid duty con-tracts, the outcome of this isby no means certain andthe further 8.75 per centpay cut is still likely to occur.I personally doubt that thescythe through legal aid ex-penditure will be reversed.

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11Manchester Law Society Talking Heads

After all, many offering ad-vice in the worst affectedareas have already had toconsider alternative careersthrough redundancy or re-deployment.

I have not seen much cam-paigning on the issue of ac-cess to justice and get theimpression that us, lawyers,may be courted privatelywith good intention. Whatenforceable mandate mate-rialises will of course remainto be seen.

Amy CassellTrainee SolicitorExpress Solicitors

There is no question that ac-cess to justice has been sig-nificantly hindered by thecurrent government intro-ducing The Legal Aid, Sen-tencing and Punishment ofOffenders Act 2012, TheJackson Reforms, cuttingfunding to advice servicesand increasing Court fees.

If the predictions are accu-rate and the outcome of thegeneral election is a Labourminority government de-pendent on SNP support,then we can surely antici-pate a positive effect on ac-cess to justice, and no doubtthat is the hope of the legalcommunity.

If nothing else, it should atleast call a halt to the cur-rent government’s plans tointroduce further cuts tolegal aid and implementnew systems and reformswhich will only serve to di-minish access to justice fur-ther.

Whether there will any re-versal of the damage thathas already been done how-ever, will remain to be seen.Any new government willstill be restricted by spend-ing limits and thereforespeedy changes seem un-likely. However the Labourparty have said they areaware the current legal mar-ket is in need of reform andhave vowed to work closelywith legal professionals.We must continue to pressfor this consultation as amatter of urgency/priority,and raise the issues with ourprospective candidates.”

Shefali TalukdarManaging PartnerClough & Willis

Access to justice has proba-bly been the most contro-versial topic relating to thelegal profession over thisParliament with the Conser-vatives doggedly pursuing apolicy of reducing its associ-ated costs to the taxpayer.

Whichever party wins – andwhatever ‘pledges’ they aremaking now - access to jus-tice needs to be carefullylooked as the most vulnera-ble members of society willcontinue to suffer morethan anyone else. As a firm,we know first-hand that theintroduction of employ-ment tribunal fees has re-sulted in a clear reduction inthe number of legitimateclaims. Also, the changes toboth criminal aid and civillegal aid contracts meanthat more individuals nowhave to deal with the courtsdirectly which, of course,

negatively impacts thosewith genuine issues. Finally,I believe that the recent in-crease in civil claim fees willmirror what happened withemployment tribunal feesand we will see more andmore financially disadvan-taged members of societyunable to even consider is-suing claims. None of this isfair so whoever wins theelection needs to be braveand really consider who isbeing hurt the most.

Steve KuncewiczHead of IP & MediaBermansLaw Society Council Member

Much as it’s tempting to saythat at least matters can’tget any worse, what’s truerand of even greater concernis the fact that it also seemsthat matters aren’t going toget any better either.

The Tories, under whoseGovernment we’ve seen the

most egregious and funda-mentally-flawed attack onour Criminal Justice systemin its history (one unsup-ported by the overwhelm-ing majority of actualevidence, much of it com-missioned by the Ministry ofJustice) have only pledgedto “continue to review legalaid systems”, and Labourhaven’t shown any real willto reverse the downwardspiral. Add in the similarlyill-conceived increase inCourt Fees and the futurelooks pretty bleakwhichever Government ofConvenience occupies 10Downing St. Unless theGreens were elected, thatis…

We’re at least lucky as an in-dustry (NOT “Profession”) tohave a representative bodychaired by Andrew Caplen,who has rightly and pas-sionately made his owncommitment to Access toJustice the key theme of hisPresidency of the Law Soci-ety. He’s not the only dedi-cated campaigner workinghard to lobby for policychange, or to support ourcolleagues working in LegalAid. The best thing we cando is lend him and them oursupport and continue tomake Access to Justice anessential part of modernBritish society, not just anoptional extra.

12 Feature

What is the Disclosure and Barring Service?

The DBS can affect all of us working within the law as we allwork with clients who are employers, those who are em-ployed and working with “vulnerable groups” such as theelderly or children or clients who belong to a “vulnerablegroup”.

Lawyers themselves can be subject to Disclosure and Bar-ring Service (“DBS”) checks when applying for jobs.

Many of you will not be aware of the DBS and this articleaims to provide an explanation for lawyers practising in Eng-land, Wales and Northern Ireland.

As of 1 December 2012, the DBS replaced the CriminalRecords Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Author-ity, combining these two organisations.

Its aim is to assist potential employers to make safer deci-sions when deciding to recruit to their organisation and toprevent “unsuitable people” from working with vulnerablegroups.

The DBS:• processes requests from registered employers for criminalrecord checks (now known as DBS checks);• decides whether a person ought to be placed or removedfrom a “barred list” (the children’s barred list or the adults’barred list) following a referral; and• places people on or removes people from the barred lists

It carries out requests from registered employers by search-ing police records and information contained on the barredlist and issues a DBS certificate to the applicant.

What happens if an organisation refers someone to theDBS?

If an employer, or often a regulatory body such as the SRAfor example, is concerned that a person has either causedharm or is a potential risk to a person within a vulnerablegroup, a referral may be made to the DBS.

Employers must refer the person to the DBS if such concernsexist whilst regulatory bodies are not obligated to do so.If you or one of your clients has been referred to the DBS,he/she must have been (or might be in the future) engagedin “regulated activity” with children or vulnerable adults.

Information is provided to the DBS:

• Following an application for an enhanced disclosure/rele-vant information from the update service• Through a discretionary process where any member of thepublic, employers, regulatory bodies and other organisa-tions refer the person to the DBS when the person has beendismissed from his/her position, following harm to a childor vulnerable adult where there was or is a risk of harm;• Through the autobar process where a person has either re-ceived a caution or been convicted of a “relevant offence” orbeen issued with a Risk of Sexual Harm Order and the DBShas been provided with information by the Home Office.

Once the DBS has decided that a case has been appropri-ately referred to them under the Safeguarding VulnerableGroups Act 2006, it gathers information from the referringorganisation.

The DBS has no powers to conduct its own investigationsand therefore must rely upon investigations done by the re-ferring organisation. It does, however, have the power to

ask for specific information from organisations and if suchinformation is requested, organisations are obliged to pro-vide it.If a person has convictions, police cautions or a findingagainst them by a regulatory body, the DBS must regardthese as facts but it can also make additional findings of itsown.

Once all the information is obtained and assessed by theDBS, the allegations are reviewed and the DBS decideswhether or not “relevant conduct” is proven on the balanceof probabilities or whether the “risk of harm” has been madeout.

At this point, the case will either be referred to the Struc-tured Judgment Process or closed with no further action.

The Structured Judgment Process is an evaluation of the riskof harm where “relevant conduct” is looked at in terms of thepresence of or absence of long-term risk factors for harmfulbehaviour in the future.

This internal risk assessment tool aims to help the DBS to de-cide on the risk of harm the person presents.

This tool can only be considered once relevant conduct hasbeen made out as having occurred on the balance of prob-abilities or one of the Risk of Harm categories have been sat-isfied.

If the person in question provides representations to theDBS at this stage, the case must be reassessed. At this point,a new Structured Judgment Process can be completed totake the person’s representations into account.

If, after all of this information is received, the DBS feels thata risk of harm to a vulnerable group has been identified andbarring the person is an appropriate action to take, it mayinclude them in a barred list. Alternatively, the case can beclosed at this stage with no further action.

If the DBS decides to include the person in a “barred list”, theperson is informed in writing of this decision and then haseight weeks in which to make representations to the DBS.Solicitors can assist the person concerned in drafting writ-ten representations. Oral representations can also be madeif the DBS considers this necessary to protect Human Rights.

If representations have not been made in time or an exten-sion has not been granted by the DBS, the person will be in-cluded in the barred list.

If representations are made, the case is reassessed and afinal decision is made. The decision to bar a person shouldnot be a punishment; it is based on the requirement to en-sure that vulnerable adults and children are safeguarded.

The person is notified of the final decision and of their rightto appeal in writing.

The decision making process for autobar cases, with or with-out representations, is slightly different to that explainedabove which relates to the procedure in a discretionary case.More information on this can be found at www.gov.uk /dbs

Reviews

If a person is barred, he/she has the right to request a reviewafter a minimum time period has elapsed, depending on theage of the person when they were barred.

The DBS will agree to a review if the person’s circumstances

have changed so that a bar is no longer appropriate but theperson will not be removed from the list unless the risk hasdiminished and the DBS is satisfied as such.

On 10 September 2012, the DBS were granted new powersto review a bar at any time and it can remove a person fromthe barred lists upon review if appropriate.

People can also be removed from the barred list if they havenot previously engaged in regulated activity with the groupthey are barred from working with and there is no sugges-tion that they will do so in the future.

Appeals

If the DBS has included a person in a barred list (other thanan autobar without representations) or if the DBS has not re-moved a person from the barred list following a review, thatperson can appeal on grounds of either an “error of fact” oran “error of law”. Such appeals are held by the Administra-tive Appeals Chamber of the Upper Tribunal or the Care Tri-bunal in Northern Ireland.

Summary

As should be clear from this article, the DBS can potentiallyaffect all of us as solicitors, whether it is our clients who areat risk of being included in the barred list for vulnerableadults or children or whether we, as solicitors are at risk ofbeing included in the barred list ourselves.

This article has aimed to aid understanding of the DBSby providing an overview of this organisation. However,this is only an overview and should you require any fur-ther information on this subject or how to assist yourclients (or yourself) in avoiding an inclusion in a barredlist, we would be happy to assist you further. Please donot hesitate to contact Ms Charlotte Ellis on 0161 8279500 or at [email protected] shouldyou require any further assistance.

The Disclosure and Barring Service –An OverviewCharlotte Ellis of Burton Copeland outlines the work of theDisclosure and Barring Service, how applications can bemade, the review and appeals process...

Charlotte Ellis

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14 Charity & CSR

Eversheds Associate An-drew Walker, is preparingto undertake the biggestchallenge of his life as hebids to break the worldrecord for the northen-most game of rugby everas part of the Arctic RugbyChallenge later thismonth.

The Challenge, organisedby Wooden Spoon, the chil-dren’s charity of rugby, willsee Andrew join a team ofchallengers including for-mer England internationalrugby stars Tim Stimpson,Ollie Phillips and Lee Mearsin a 100 mile trek to theNorth Pole. Once they reachthe Pole the squad will mark

out a full size pitch, lace upthier boots and de-ice theirgum shields before at-tempting to break the ex-treme world record.

Challenge is expected totake the team three weeksand will see them experi-ence icy conditions rangingfrom -5 to -30 degrees andface the very real threats offrostbite and polar bear at-tacks.

If a trek to the North Polewasn’t tough enough, eachchallenger has been set anindividual fundraising tar-get of £25,000. The Chal-lenge is the single biggestfundraiser Wooden Spoon

have ever undertaken andthe squad as a whole aim toraise over £300,000 to helpdisabled and disadvan-taged children across theUK.

Balancing busy work andlife commitments with ahectic training and fundrais-ing schedule hasn’t beeneasy but it is something thatAndrew is revelling in.

Andrew commented “Myfamily, friends and col-leagues have been a greatsupport so far, as have Ever-sheds. I wouldn’t be in a po-sition to take part in theChallenge without them.” “The Challenge is without

Eversheds Associate in world record attempt at the North Pole

doubt something really spe-cial. Not only are we raisinga huge amount of moneyfor a fantastic charity, it hasbrought so many other op-portunities that I neverimagined possible when Ifirst applied to be part of itall.

I have been lucky enough tomeet Princess Anne, speakat various events up anddown the country, includ-ing at a Rugby Business Net-work event alongside StuartLancaster, and have been

introduced to so manyother great people alongthe way. In terms of my pro-fessional development, thebenefits are endless.”

“The Challenge also pro-vides a great opportunityfor Eversheds to strengthencurrent client relationshipsas well as generate newones. The level of teamworkthat will be required for usto succeed in breaking theworld record is huge and tobe able to share this withclients really adds to the

whole experience.”

Wooden Spoon is activethroughout the UK, with allmoney raised in each regionspent locally on projectswhich help young people.In 2014, Wooden Spoon do-nated £40,000 to the RoyalManchester Children’s Hos-pital to help fund a newphysiotherapy unit.

Show your support for An-drew by donating atwww.justgiving.com/An-drew-Walker87

Andrew Walker and Princess Anne

On Friday 30th January,employees at Express So-licitors took part in a dressdown day to raise fundsfor Blood Bikes. The char-ity was nominated by for-mer employee, JimmyCretney, who has taken re-tirement from the firmand now volunteers forBlood Bikes.

Blood Bikes transport any-thing from blood to donorbreast milk for the NHS outof hours, as long as the pre-vious arrangement fortransportation cost the trustmoney. Its overall aim is tosave NHS funds so that theycan be used elsewhere inthe trusts that need it themost.

Express Solicitors raises £342.70 for Blood BikesOverall £171.35 was raisedby Express employees fromthe dress down day, thisamount was then kindlydoubled by the firm’s Part-ners making the overall do-nation amount £340.70.

Clough & Willis’s 18th Annual QuizRaises £350 for CharityBury based law firm Clough & Willis staged its annual quiz on Thursday 19th March andraised £350 for Forever Manchester - the community foundation for Greater Manchesterwhich provides wide ranging support to small community groups across the region.

The event took placed at Elton Vale Sports Club with 32 local business teams taking part.

This year’s winners were Moscrop Robinson & Chadwick who scored 62 points followedby runners up Corniche Financial Services who scooped 59 points.

Lee Marston – partner at Clough & Willis – said: “This year’s quiz was fantastic. We had wellover 100 people in the room so there was a real buzz. Its popularity builds year on yearand raising money for such a worthy cause was the icing on the cake.”

15Manchester Law Society News

! !

Private Client Solicitor

The successful candidate will be able to manage a busy and varied caseload relating to Trusts, Wills and Probate, Court of Protection and

Elderly Client advice.

STEP accreditation is preferred but not essential (we would expect thesuccessful candidate to obtain STEP qualifications if they do not already

have them), however a proven track record in the above work areas is essential.

Salary based on experience.

Duties will include• Managing a busy and varied caseload relating to Trusts, Wills

and Probate, Court of Protection and Elderly Client advice; • Advising our clients in related matters. • Producing correspondence by researching and analysing laws;

drafting opinions.• Resolving legal issues by responding to regulatory and other

enquiries, complaints, and disputes; negotiating conclusions.• Maintaining professional and technical knowledge by

attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; and participating in professional societies.

• Playing an active role in the development and growth of the department and company on a regional level.

Property Solicitor

The successful candidate will be able to manage a busy and varied caseload relating to Commercial & Residential Conveyancing, and will

preferably have experience of small business sales and leases. The candidate will ideally also take an active role in the development and

growth of the department and company on a regional level.

Salary based on experience.

Duties will include• Drafting contracts, transfers, leases and mortgage deeds. • Advising clients in respect of co-ownership including where

appropriate drafting declarations of trust.• Supporting business units by researching and analysing

contractual matters; identifying potential issues.• Producing correspondence, researching and analysing laws;

drafting opinions.• Resolving legal issues by responding to regulatory and other

enquiries, complaints, and disputes; negotiating conclusions.• Maintaining professional and technical knowledge by

attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; and participatingin professional societies.

• Playing an active role in the development and growth of the department and company on a regional level.

Considering a Change of Scenery? Want to escape the city and relocate to the beautiful fells and lakes

of the Lake District?

Please email [email protected] for an application form

Brockbanks Solicitors are the Lake District’s largest law firm and have an excellent opportunity for an experienced Private Client Solicitor and a

Property Solicitor to join the team

Most of the prison was inaccessible and a lot of the prisonofficers had taken refuge in the bar. I had to be escortedthrough the courtyard by a prison officer who was a ‘lookout’ as the rioters were throwing roof slates, chimney potsand cans of paint into our path.

Mike managed to persuade four of his clients to give them-selves up, who were then taken into custody by the police,and Mike was then prevented from seeing his clients whichhe told the BBC’s Newsnight programme during an inter-view. However Newsnight edited the clip, omitting Mike’scomments. After the siege Mike was involved in several ofthe 51 trials which followed. The trials started in 1992 andincluded charges of murder, riot, conspiracy to riot, GBH andviolent disorder.

Franklin Sinclair of Tuckers also recalls the siege, he says “Thefirst I really knew about the prisoners taking over Strange-ways was when I received a call from a client, a sex offender,who feared for his life. There were genuine concerns at thetime that the other prisoners had broken into E Wing andwere beating, castrating and killing sex offenders and theauthorities and the media expected the death toll to bemuch higher. One man who was on remand for sex offenceswas beaten by the other prisoners and died from his injuriesa number of days later.

Franklin also represented one of the ringleaders Barry Mor-ton, who along with a number of other prisoners escapedfrom the cells at Manchester Crown Court as they awaitedtrial. Morton was eventually apprehended and sentenced toa further eight years in prison.

Paul Taylor, the last man to come down from the roof, hadalmost completed a two-and-a-half year sentence forchequebook fraud. He was sentenced to a further 10 yearsin prison for his part in the riot and was convicted under thenew offence of prison mutiny.

The inquiry led by Lord Woolf blamed the riot on severeovercrowding and described conditions in the months lead-ing up to the disturbances as "intolerable".

Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, has warned

budgets - new 36.14(5) states the court must make the usualorder of making the delaying party pay costs, but specifiesit should not do so if it would be "unjust". This effectivelynarrows the level of discretion the court may exercise whenmaking costs orders.

-Split trials - new CPR 36.16 addresses this and permits thetrial judge to be told of the existence of any offer but not theterms, unless the offer refers to issues that have alreadybeen decided at the preliminary hearing, in which casethese can be disclosed. In theory, this should encourage par-ties to break down their settlement offers where possible,to make their offer with sole reference to preliminary issuesso they can maximise early cost recovery.

Complex and disorderly drafting can often fill litigators withdread and we are all generally happier when there is at leastsome degree of certainty, even in what is, inevitably, still atactical showground. Maximising efficiency, reducing uncer-tainty and conducting our claims in the most cost effectivemanner is something we are all ever striving towards. There-fore, the changes should, in theory, improve the function ofPart 36 and ensure the offer process in litigation runs moresmoothly.

Of course, this is not the first time Part 36 has had a facelift,having undergone reforms in 2007 and more recently, in2013. I, for one, will be watching this space.

Helen KanczesClyde & Co

Next month our Talking Heads topicwill be featuring the Magna Carta,

please [email protected]

if you wish to participate

that there has been a deterioration in prison safety . Shecommented “This has set back painstaking progress madeby the prison service since Lord’s Woolf report to improvetreatment and conditions. An incoming administration inMay 2015 must not accept this decline in prison standardsas the new normal. Restoring prison to its proper functionas an important place of last resort in a balanced justice sys-tem is the basis on which to create a just, fair and effectivepenal system.”

Julia Baskerville

Strangeways continued... Part 36 continued...

It is reported that mobilenow accounts for over athird of total traffic. Ofcourse, the figure differs de-pending on your audienceand their browsing habits –for some of our clients,more than half of trafficcomes from mobile devices.And because Google is al-ways looking to provideusers with the best experi-ence possible, it's no sur-prise they are catering forthis device shift.

Since late 2014, grey labelshave been showing next tomobile search results de-claring the website to be'mobile friendly', which isvery likely to impact clickthrough rates.

But it doesn't stop there. OnApril 21st 2015, Googlebegan rolling out its latestalgorithm update, whichuses mobile friendliness as aranking signal. As they putit, "users will find it easier toget relevant, high qualitysearch results that are opti-

mised for their device". Un-fortunately if your site does-n't make the grade, it's likelyyour search visibility – andtherefore your traffic – willdecline as a result of this.

What does mobile friendlymean?

We've all been there. You'retrying to quickly find infor-mation on your smart-phone, but the site isloading at a snail's pace, orfails to load entirely. Youfind the right page, but youneed to zoom and pan ex-cessively to make any senseof it, and trying to tap on alink or button is almost im-possible.

In a nutshell, a mobilefriendly site is quick to loadand easy to use, whicheverdevice you're using.

One of the best ways ofachieving this is ResponsiveDesign, which is when thecontent of your website au-tomatically resizes depend-

ing on the device beingused. Although dynamicserving or building a sepa-rate mobile site are also vi-able and 'Google approved'options, Responsive meansyou keep one URL and usethe same HTML – whichmeans it's easier to manage.A developer will be able toadvise you on your best op-tion.

However, even if your site isresponsive, you can askyour developer to furtherimprove the mobile experi-ence by avoiding softwareor plugins which don't workon many mobile devices,avoiding large image files,and minifying (compress-ing) your code.

It may seem like a lot ofwork, but it will pay off inthe long run – mobile is notgoing anywhere.

To find out if your site is mo-bile friendly, visit http://theeword.co.uk/mo-bile-pagespeed-test/

Is your site mobile friendly?

16 NSPCC

With spring finally here and summer fast approaching, the NSPCC is asking all you runnersout there, to do something amazing for children this year, by tying up your trainers and tak-ing part in a challenge event to raise vital funds for children across the country. There arelots of events to choose from, with many of them taking place right here in the North West!Take a look at some of these great events coming up over the summer and sign up todayto support the NSPCC!

The Manchester Color RunThe NSPCC is the official charity partner for The Color Run 2015,with one event right here at Manchester’s Ethiad Stadium on Sun-day 5 July. Known as the happiest 5k on the planet, the NSPCC arecalling on runners, from beginners to Olympians, and from youngto old, to take on this unique challenge where you will be dousedin coloured powder every km along the way!

Great Manchester RunNow in its 12th year, the Great Manchester Run is the largest andmost popular 10k run in the UK, with over 40,000 people takingpart. With the date set for 2015 on Sunday 10 May, the atmos-phere is set to be electric with the route taking runners throughthe heart of Manchester, passing by iconic tourist sites such as theimperial war museum and Manchester United’s home ground,Old Trafford. If you’ve already secured your own place in the runthen you can still support the NSPCC. Why not run and raise spon-sorship for the charity and be part of the NSPCC team?

Manchester to Liverpool Bike Ride40 miles or 55 miles on two cycle-tastic routes, is the choice for riders taking on the Man-chester to Liverpool Bike Ride on Sunday 24 May. Starting in Salford and following the Man-chester to Liverpool Canal path, riders can enjoy a picturesque challenge which guaranteesto be fun for all the family.

Cholmondeley Castle TriathlonThis Triathlon, set in the grounds of Cholmondeley Castle inChester on June 28, provides an epic back drop for participantsand promises to be an inspirational and memorable race experi-ence. There are a range of distances to choose from and differentstyles including individual, relay, sprint and distance races, so signup today and make your place count in our fight for every child-hood.

Take part in any of these events as an individual, or get a group of colleagues or family andfriends to take on a challenge with you, and help us make a real difference to the lives ofchildren and young people across the UK. Money raised for the NSPCC could help to fundNSPCC services across the region including the charity’s Greater Manchester ChildLineSchools Service Appeal, which aims to reach every primary school in the UK and ensure thatchildren recognise abuse, understand how to protect themselves, and where to go for helpif they need it.

To find out more or to enter a participation event to raise money for the NSPCC, please visit;http://www.nspcc.org.uk/events or contact the NSPCC North West fundraising team on0161 393 4474.

Plus, save the date for the glamorous North West ChildLine Ball 2016 and help cele-brate 30 years of ChildLine.

Following on from the resounding success of the North WestChildLine Ball last month that raised an unbelievable £221,000for the ChildLine Schools Service in the North West, the date hasbeen announced for next the 2016 ball. Save the date and joinus on Saturday 5 March 2016 for another spectacular event tohelp celebrate ChildLine’s 30th anniversary.

Guests will enjoy a wonderful evening, including a drinks reception, fine dining, plus livemusic and entertainment. There will be some magnificent prizes up for grabs in the ever-popular Chocolate Box tombola, as well as the chance to bid on some amazing auctionitems in a live and silent auction.

Sponsorship opportunities are also available to promote your company at the event andthrough acknowledged donations in the souvenir programme.

Register your interest in the 2016 ChildLine Ball now by [email protected] or telephone the NSPCC fundraising team on 0161 3934474

Your support will raise money for ChildLine, to enable them to transform the lives of chil-dren across the region, ensuring children can access help and support 24 hours day, on-line or by phone.

Challenge yourself in 2015 and do something amazing for children

17Manchester Law Society Trainees

With Spring now officiallyupon us, my thoughts andfocus now turn, as is thecase with many traineesup and down the country,to the uncertain world ofqualification.

As NQ season looms anddecisions must be made asto location; firm; specialism;in-house or private practice;regional; national or inter-national; team fit and so onand so forth, I look back andreflect on my time as atrainee and my first tenta-tive steps into the legal pro-fession.

The last 18 months hasbeen a whirlwind to say theleast. It’s been exciting, highpressured – at times, stress-ful and nerve-wracking -and has, for want of a moreclichéd American phrase ,“made me step out of mycomfort zone” more timesthan I can say “I must closedown my time”.

But, above all this, it’s beenincredibly diverse. Havingspent only one seat in my“home office” at EvershedsManchester, my training ex-perience has been a littledifferent to most. It hasseen me working in-houseat major household brands;

from a major food distribu-tor to a premier league foot-ball club; in differentcountries – I am currentlyon secondment to Ever-sheds’ Paris office - and hasmade me learn more than Iever thought possible insuch a short space of time.

I feel the development,both professional and per-sonal, which comes as partand parcel of a good train-ing contract, is often under-sold in the graduatemarketing materials dishedout to prospective traineeswith the free pens andboiled sweets at law fairs upand down the country.

Whilst it’s true that in ex-tolling the virtues of “per-sonal development”, yourun the risk of sounding likean outdated self- help man-ual, its importance should-n’t be overlooked. Asidefrom the technical expertiseyou gain, the “soft” skills ab-sorbed during a good train-ing contract help to form asolid foundation on whichone can hopefully build asuccessful legal career.

For me, such developmentis almost impossible with-out taking risks and sowhen I was offered the op-

portunity to second for myfirst seat as a trainee, Ijumped at the chance. Nosooner was I through thedoor, than I was out onclient site and into the “lion’sden” with the extraordinarypressures that brought withit - the firm relying on you torepresent them well; theclient looking to you as rep-resentative of the firmthey’ve had a long standingrelationship with; and moreimportantly, to you, for yourhelp during some of theirbusier and more stressfultimes.

Being on the front-linewithin the client’s businessbrought with it the oppor-tunity to learn. Be thatabout different cultures andbusiness models; how toforge strong relationshipswith colleagues and clientsalike, a new area of law and,in the case of my most re-cent secondment (and atover €50 per French lesson),hopefully a new language.

Being able to work, rest andplay in a different environ-ment for 6 months is justlong enough to get to knowyour way around and havethe place feel like home, butshort enough to enable youto seize every opportunity

that might be thrown atyou. You are able to influ-ence key business decisionsas they are being made andif, like me, you’re lucky to bethere long enough, see theresults of those decisionscome to fruition.

I am often asked what Ilearned from my time onsecondment and for me, thetwo most valuable lessonswere: 1. Answer the question theclient actually wants you toanswer; and2. If you can’t summarisethat answer into one shortparagraph, you haven’tworked out the answer yet.

Secondments allow you toappreciate things from a dif-ferent perspective and whatactually matters to yourclient on a commerciallevel– sadly, this was not thelong and convolutedmemos of advice, as beauti-fully drafted as they may be.They want clarity; and moreoften than not, a solution toa commercial problem.

I am unsure as to what thenext step will be for me, butif the next few years con-tinue in the same vein asthe last, I can’t wait.

Professional development: Are secondments the secret to success?Lucie Alker, a Trainee at Eversheds and winner ofthe Trainee Solicitor Award at MLA 2015 looks atthe benefits of secondments...

Lucie Alker

In 2014 Scarisbrick Hall School was nominated for a National Award for Ex-cellence, achieved 100% Excellent in their inspection and also achieved94% A* - C pass rate at GCSE level. In 2015 the school is now pressing on-wards to become one of the best independent schools in the country, witha reputation for not only academic excellence but also developing thewhole person.

Easter 2015 will see the opening of a stunning new Science Faculty build-ing. The school has developed the original mansion building (designed byPugin) to incorporate cutting-edge science facilities that will develop theleading scientists of the future.

Headmaster Mr Shaw stated that “As well as inspirational teaching spaceswe have developed an exceptional teaching team that deliver the highestquality teaching and learning. Excellent class teaching is supported by lec-tures from leading academics around the world”.

The lectures are called the “Great Hall Lecture Series” and have seen expertssuch as Professor Phillip Manning (Palaeontology) and Doctor Leonid

Ponamerenko (Physics) deliver sessions to enhance the learning of the stu-dents. There is no doubt that putting students in contact with leading ac-ademics enhances their aspirations and drive for learning.

As well as the Great Hall Lecture Series, Scarisbrick Hall School has devel-oped relationships with leading universities that has led to the develop-ment of a Sixth Form. The Sixth Form will open in September 2015 and willbe delivering a true ‘pre-university’ feel to their post sixteen provision.

The Sixth Form will be based in a new ‘Sixth Form Suite’ that resembles thelearning environment of Oxbridge and ‘Red Brick’ universities. Set in astunning grade 1 listed mansion, the students will have exclusive accessto inspiring learning environments, libraries and seminar rooms. The newfacilities will also include their own café area and personal learning spaces.

With plans to introduce boarding and to build a new Early Years Centre ofExcellence, Scarisbrick Hall School is set to emerge as one of the leadingschools in the UK.

A World Class EducationPrivate Education

18 Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are a keytalking point ahead of theupcoming General Elec-tion, with both Labourand the Conservativespublishing plans for de-veloping and increasingalternative pathways intoall careers, away from tra-ditional University routes.

The Conservative Party areaiming for 3 million new ap-prenticeship starts duringthe next Parliament, whileLabour has a target of asmany Higher Level Appren-ticeship starts as Universitystarts by 2025 (the currentratio is 90:1). Huge levels ofinvestment have beenpromised to ensure theseambitious targets arereached.

This agenda for increasingthe numbers of schoolleavers going into appren-ticeships is happening asthe legal services market isundergoing our version ofthe industrial revolution.There are changes causedby new technology, new en-trants into the market, hugedisruption caused by Gov-ernment policies about fees,changes by the SRA to theTraining Regulations and in-creased powers to regula-tors such as CILEx and theCouncil of Licensed Con-veyancers.

The debate continues aboutthe oversupply of LPC grad-uates compared to thenumber of jobs available.

Legal Services Appren-ticeships

Amidst the wider agendaabout increasing the num-ber of apprentices and thechanges in the legal serv-ices profession, the first co-hort of legal servicesapprentices studying atManchester MetropolitanUniversity are coming to theend of their two-year ap-prenticeship programme.

The apprentices, who aremainly aged 18 to 19, arefull time employees in afirm. They earn while theylearn and develop skills thatare directly relevant to em-ployers, who have an op-portunity to instil their ownbusiness culture and work-ing style from an earlystage.

They are assessed in theworkplace for competencyin legal knowledge andskills in areas such as legalresearch and communicat-ing with clients, then under-take exams in a law subjectsincluding contract and apractice subject, such ascivil litigation. This meansthey are able to contextu-alise their studies with real-life experiences, and to puttheory into practice for thebenefit of their employerand clients.

What are the benefits toan employer?

The apprentices are a valu-able resource to the busi-ness, carrying out key rolesin the workplace while de-veloping skills and relevantlegal knowledge. Under su-pervision they do work suchas advising and progressingstraightforward con-veyances of domestic free-hold land or taking willinstructions. They can beshaped to fit in a firm’s busi-ness model and culture.

Caroline Calverley, PracticeManager Chafes SolicitorsLLP, said: “Following the re-cession Chafes identifiedthe difficulty in recruitinggood conveyancers, our so-lution was to train our own.The Legal Services Appren-ticeship Programme al-lowed us to do this.

“Having the apprenticeslearning at MMU meant thatwe had confidence our ap-prentice could attend theirlectures and the tuitionwould be of a high stan-dard”.

What are the benefits forthe Apprentice?

The apprentices are em-ployed on a full time basis,usually on a two-year con-tact.

They are working and devel-oping key skills, applyingthe legal knowledge andskills in their day-to-day jobwhile completing nationallyrecognised exams to add totheir CV.

Emily Hemlin, a second-yearApprentice for Slater andGordon, said: “Being able towork and study is very ap-pealing and I am able to get

hands-on experience atwork and study the requiredaspects of Law at University.I spend a fair amount of mytime in court, so I'm out ofthe office on a regular basis.The rest of my time is spentdrafting court documents,calling clients and puttingtogether evidence state-ments. I have a lot of re-sponsibility, which hasincreased as I've got toknow more about the work."

Apprentices also get theirfoot in the door to a careerin law which, for thosewanting to practice, giventhe scarcity of training con-tracts, is a key benefit of theapprenticeship model.

James Boyd, Chief Executiveof conveyancing at BirchallBlackburn Law, said: “Thescheme will be appealing toschool leavers and thosewho have completed A-lev-els. It is a viable alternativeto going to University tostudy law as students re-ceive paid employment andrelevant training and educa-tion without incurring thedebt of paying for universityfees and the associatedcosts of going to university.”

The added value of theMMU Programme is thatyoung people can still havethe University experiencewhilst earn and learn. Ourapprentices have engagedwith the Student Law Soci-ety, attending the guestspeaker events and net-working at the annual LawBall.

What at the end of the ap-prenticeship?

At the end of the appren-ticeship, the next step de-pends on what the businessand employer need andwhat the apprentice wouldchose to do.

Some apprentices will re-main in their job, as a para-legal, or there is the optionof further development in apractice area if there is abusiness need and theywant to take that step withCILEX or Council of LicensedConveyancer qualifications.The pathway to qualifica-tion as a CILEX lawyer orSRA solicitors remains anoption. Others want to stepoff the ladder of further de-

velopment for the timebeing and can remain in thebusiness as a paralegal.

Further change and op-portunities on the horizon

The apprenticeship scheme,although relatively new, willdevelop and expand.

At present a Higher LevelApprenticeship is the high-est programme available.This is equivalent to the firstyear of an undergraduatedegree. However, appren-ticeships will soon be avail-able at level 6 (a CILExapprenticeship pro-gramme) and at level 7 (aSRA solicitors apprentice-ship programme). TheCouncil of Licensed Con-veyancers are developingapprenticeship pro-grammes for Licensed Tech-nicians and LicensedConveyancers. This providesopportunities for firms to re-cruit and grow their owntalent to meet their busi-ness needs, and to havestrategic recruitment of em-ployees who are trained inthe relevant area of law forthe business, without thegraduate debt and expecta-tion of a graduate salary.

So far the programme hasbeen a success

Talking about apprenticeswho have worked for them,Janine Turner HR Managerat Stephensons Solicitors,said: “They are the best pos-sible advert for apprentices,their work ethic is fantasticwe couldn't be more de-lighted with them or thescheme.”

For further information, seehttp://www.law.mmu.ac.uk/our-courses/legal-services-apprenticeships/

Jackie PanterAssociate Head of Law,Manchester MetropolitanUniversityLLM, LLB, PGDip. LegalPractice, PGCE (HE), HEAFellow, Solicitor (non-practising)

Legal Services ApprenticeshipsJackie Panter, Associate Head of Law, Manchester Metropolitan University explains the benefits of apprenticeships to employers and apprentices...

Caroline Calverley

Jackie Panter

Emily Hemlin

Leading law firm Brabnershas launched Legal Prop-erty Solutions, a servicewhich offers legal resolu-tions for property dis-putes.

The creation of the resolu-tion service follows the con-troversial rise in court feeswhich came into forcesooner than had been previ-ously expected on Monday9 March 2015. There is a realfear that the increase in feeswill deny many smaller busi-nesses and private individu-als access to justice.

Through the introduction ofLegal Property Solutions,Brabners offers an alterna-tive for all potential litiga-tors by enabling the partiesinvolved to choose theirown preferred method ofresolving or determining adispute. The dispute canthen be resolved quickly,confidentially and cost ef-fectively. The services onoffer include Mediations, In-dications on Paper, Hearings

Brabners launches Legal Property Solutions – an alternative to the court system

on Paper, Settlement Hear-ings and Live Hearings – allgenuine alternatives tocourt.

To access this service, busi-nesses and private individu-als involved in a dispute caneither contact Legal Prop-erty Solutions directly orthrough their own solicitorswho will be able to assistand guide them throughthe process involved.

The idea for Legal PropertySolutions was conceived byBrabners Partner RachelWatkin and Karen Beddow,Senior Associate, on theevening that the proposedincrease in Court fees wasannounced. Rachel Watkincomments: “When I read thenews, my first reaction wasthat it could be disastrous,not just for lawyers butmany small businesses andprivate individuals who maynow have difficulties inbringing claims. We believethat there is always a solu-tion and the inception of

Legal Property Solutionswas the obvious way ofsafeguarding access to jus-tice.”

Legal Property Solutionshas the benefit of a numberof highly qualified lawyerswith specialist experience inresolving property disputes.Led by Rachel Watkin, whosits as a Deputy DistrictJudge, the team includesJeff Lewis, also a DeputyDistrict Judge and Mediator,Ian Alderson, Mediator,Helen Marriott, Arbitrator,Stuart Irons and Karen Bed-dow, both property law ex-perts.

Commenting on the launchof the service, Rachel Watkinsaid: “Although a number ofprofessionals are now offer-ing mediation or arbitrationin light of the court fees in-creases, we are not aware ofanyone who is offering a“one stop shop” for all typesof property dispute resolu-tion services and, certainly,not in a way that is truly ac-

cessible to all. Many busi-nesses and individuals in-volved in a dispute have noidea of what arbitration andadjudication are. We havecut the formalities rightdown. There won’t be aneed for formal pleadings,interim headings or de-tailed directions with thisservice. This will keep costsand time to a minimum en-abling a matter to be fullyresolved within a few weeksor days rather than monthsor years.”

Mark Brandwood, Manag-ing Partner at Brabners,said: "This type of pro-activethinking and innovative ini-tiative is exactly why Brabn-ers excels in its field. Wehave some remarkably tal-ented lawyers who will en-sure dedicated handling ofproperty dispute resolutionmatters to the benefit of allparties who chose to usethe service.”

Rachel Watkin

19Manchester Law Society News

20 News

A legal practice should be regarded as a business which provides legal services

The original business model for a legal practice consisted of a trainee solicitor progressingto qualify as a solicitor, then an associate, followed by a salaried partnership. After manyyears of gaining substantial legal experience and knowledge, demonstrating the ability towork well with clients, generating new business and fee income, an equity partnershipmight be offered. The new equity partner would sign a partnership deed and inject capi-tal. After many years of receiving substantial financial rewards they would retire and theircapital would be repaid with accrued interest.

As a result of the fluctuating financial economy, the collapse and instability of many lawfirms, the above formula has become redundant. Increasingly lawyers understand that bysigning the partnership deed they become jointly and severally responsible for the bankborrowings, secondary lending, and property commitments. In addition they might poten-tially become responsible for redundancy payments, run-off insurance and top-up insur-ance.

Young lawyers of today do not necessarily desire equity partnership. They appreciate thatthe correct way to view a legal practice is that it is a business that happens to practise law.Often there is no incentive to invest their career, or their money in the business.

Threats to the future financial stability of a legal practiceThe SRA Code of Conduct 2011 reiterates that a law firm is a business by providing as fol-lows:

Principle 8 - you must run your business with sound financial and risk management prin-ciplesO (7.4) – you must maintain systems and controls for monitoring the financial stability ofyour firm IB (7.2) – controlling budgets, expenditure and cash flowIB (7.3) – identifying and monitoring financial, operational and business continuity risksIB (10.2) – actively monitoring your financial stability and viability in order to identify andmitigate any risks to the public

A COLP must be satisfied that the firm is making plans for the future, anticipating threatsand, positioning itself to exploit opportunities to ensure continued viability and financialstability into the future.

Hence if a law firm fails to ensure strict cash flow management it will not only potentiallybe in breach of the SRA Code of Conduct, but it will also prejudice the continuing financialsupport of its bankers.

In addition, if there is no business plan for the future, the bank may be reluctant to give con-tinuing financial support and fee earners might decide to leave, which may result in an im-mediate drop in income for the firm. When making an ABS application the SRA require adetailed 3-year business plan before they will consider the application. There is no reasonwhy a legal practice should depart from that procedure when considering their own finan-cial future.

The following are contributing factors to how a legal practice can fail:

• The failure to collect bills expeditiously• WIP not being billed expeditiously• WIP being incorrectly valued to gain continuing financial support• A failure to operate a policy of obtaining monies on account• The rapid exit of fee earners reducing fee income• Fixed fees being demanded by clients• Pressures being placed on billing rates• Changes in legislation resulting in the reduction of profitable legal work e.g.

employment • The recent increase in court fees affecting cash flow and fee income• Secondary lending becoming unavailable for Tax or VAT• Overreliance on retaining client account interest• Supermarket chains taking away business that traditionally generates cash

flow e.g. Conveyancing and Wills, together with substantial Probate fees• Accountant ABS structures conducting legal work• The unavailability of rated insurance for smaller law firms

Lawyers thought that they could protect their personal financial position by converting toa Limited Company, or an LLP.

Having regard to many law firms proceeding into Administration, the Banks and Insurancecompanies may in the future request personal guarantees.

Overnight the business relationship between equity partners would change, and potential-ity damage the stability of a law firm.

What is the effect of no business plan?A law firm is a very vulnerable business model and it requires the continuing support ofboth its bankers and its lawyers to be successful.

If there is no business plan then it suggests that the firm monitors its ability to survive basedupon the daily introduction of new work and the payment of outstanding bills.

A well thought out business plan will consider:• The predicted financial future of the legal practice for the next 3 years, and be

constantly reviewed

• The changes in market trends for legal work• Whether support services should be outsourced• Investment in the latest IT• Provisions to prevent money laundering and preserve client confidentiality• Succession plans• Tight control of cash flow• Whether office premises should be downsized so that hot desking can operate• Whether fee earner income should be rewarded based on merit and billing, in

stead of position and length of service• Planning to protect the firm against future changes in government legislation e.g.

the increase in court fees, and the proposed FCA legislation relating to credit being given in respect of unpaid bills

• The introduction of electronic files to reduce archiving costs • Introduction of software that reduces the risk of negligence

Threats to the future morale stability of a legal practiceIf a business is an unhappy ship it will sink.

Poor morale can be generated by:

• Lawyers observing that there are no succession or business plans in place• The continuous failure of merger talks• Fee earners generating more income than partners• The constant pressure to bill, collect monies, introduce new clients and value WIP• The rapid exit of fee earners suggesting pressure being exerted by the firm’s ban

kers, or lack of work• A fee earner feeling that they have no value save for billing fees

What is the new legal business model for the future?

Law firms need to view themselves as a business. When visiting retailers such as John Lewisand Apple you can feel that the staff are content, and that the business is successful. This isbecause those businesses are run efficiently, with a detailed business plan, a future mappedout for their staff and reliable products supplied to their clients backed up by a customersupport team.

A law firm should reduce its fixed expenses by outsourcing many services to professionals.The partners and lawyers can then concentrate on practising law and generating newclients.

A financial future should be mapped out so that the lawyers can decide how they want toachieve their work/client balance.

With the Lawyers Inc. business model, the Professional Indemnity Insurance, accounting fa-cilities, software and dictation services are all provided. This will result in the income of anindividual lawyer being as much as 80% of their billing.

It is the future model for the legal profession.

Martyn CaplanTake a look at the Lawyers Inc. business model at www.lawyersinc.org

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22 Management

Management MattersThis column is now into its fifth year and feedback is still good. We would still like to receive observations and ideas for futureissues. Please mail Bill Kirby at [email protected] or the publisher Julia Baskerville [email protected]

Chalk and Cheese

A well known consultant wanted some legal advice wheregeographical knowledge was important. He faced to face arelevant department head in one firm who advised that hecould go onto the firm’s web-site and finds an individualwho should be able to help. Naturally he didn’t bother as theHOD came across that way – so he goes onto the web anddid some research and on Good Friday posted an enquiry toan alternative firm within 15 minutes he had received an e-mail from a partner from the firm expressing knowledge in-terest in the work and starting the dialogue.

I wonder who is most likely to win the business.

Having the processes and culture in place to handle new en-quiries is absolutely vital to the success of your business andit has to start at the top with the leaders in the firm.

If you need reminding in March I demonstrated that evenfor an average firm and improved conversion rate was worth£600k per annum.

Whilst I am on about historical pieces I have had some greatfeedback from the following pieces

• November 2014 – Management Check List• January 2015 – New Year Resolutions• April 2015 – Business Dynamics

If you have not seen them or wish a PDF version then do getin contact with Fran or me and we will sort it.

One for the Diary

Put 6th October in the diary. It may seem a long way off butit is the date for the MLS Management Conference for 2015.Already leading speakers and a strong chairman are inplace.

As usual the sessions will have twin speakers – one with theconsultancy skill and the other law firms that have suc-ceeded in the topic.

Main headings• Business Management and Leadership

o Objectives, measurement and Engagement• Working Capital and Cash

o Generating it and recovering from problems• Leveraging IT as a profit generation centre

o Thousands of pounds being generated by the innovative

• Business Developmento It’s not just new business

• The impact of the client and prospect experienceo Ensuring the right return from good legal practice and engagement

Lexis Nexis Strategy Impact

Many of us have our lives affected by Lexis Nexis, one of theleading publishers in the World, in 20 countries withturnover of £1.4billion and offering legal information, tax in-formation and more recently Enterprise Software.

Over the last 10 years they acquired my old business Axxia(UK & Aus PMS/CMS) adding it to Visual Files (UK & Aus CMS)and InterAction (global CRM). It is the big firms in the UKthat are utilising InterAction but many of the rest of us in theUK work with Axxia in accounts and desktop and Visual Filesfor case management.

On 18th March I was invited with a number of leading con-sultants to the sector for a briefing on their strategy.

As reported previously for a period, as far as users were con-cerned there was limited development and consequentlya few clients drifted away because they could not wait forthe productivity within their practices. The same of coursehappened with the consolidation with Iris/Advanced Legal.

LN has developed a new accounting package Lexis One(based upon Microsofts AX accounting/ERP product) andalong with Inter Action are interestingly attacking initiallythe top 200 UK firms and going global. I personally thinkthey would be much better off targeting the top 500 in theUK with Lexis 1

Visual Files is providing the desktop productivity in this sec-tor but also firms of all sizes even as tradition will have it onthe SOS Connect PMS system. I liked the new VF develop-ment work and I think many firms will be able to see an ROIwith their newly bundled starter kits.

If anyone would like to discuss this further I would be happyto accommodate

People Motivation and EngagementIT as a Profit Centre/Generator

Richard Hodkinson is the CIO of Manchester headquarteredDWF – now an international business. He recently chaireda debate over dinner with 26 managing partners, IT and fi-nance directors from innovative firms in the North West.

This is the new Innovation Forum sponsored by MLS Advan-tage Member and sponsor, hosted IT provider – ConvergeTS

The discussion was geared around how technology, by pro-viding flexibility, can assist firms in the management of theirkey staff in terms of attractive good people, enabling reten-tion and supporting an increasing demand for work:life bal-ance. Another advantage of effectively a large proportion ofmobile workforce is that 100% of staff does not require of-fice space and desks. The latter saves a great deal of prem-ises costs and the former enables imaginative use of skilledpeople and more time dedicated to generating revenuerather than travelling and other diversions.

Richard Hodkinson reminded people that “across the field,probably 50% of IT investment is not utilised and conse-quently the ROI is not received. IT Director roles are no

longer just technical but involved the encouragement ofculture change, psychology and persuasion”

ROI is a massive opportunity with IT and proponents and re-sistant partners need to work together to make sure thatthis is understood. No longer is IT a cost. Nigel Wright – MDof ConvergeTS pointed out that much of the technology dis-cussed was available now on a per user per month basismaking it available to firms of all sizes, not just the big ones.Richard pointed out “that the right IT in these circumstancesis an insurance policy, a commercial rather than a technicalconsideration but when approaching specialist vendorsmake sure that you are buying a service level not designedinfrastructure – the benefits, not the features and to ensurethat there are penalties for any failure to deliver”.

Since the conference I have considered this further

• Automatically capturing one more billable unit per day for a 50 fee earner set up worth £230k perannum – billing, GP and net profit

• Saving half a day travelling time per month for 20people - £144k extra billing per annum

• One firm implementing case management in onedepartment showed £600k more billing could bedone with the same staff costs per annum or £250k could be saved with staff costs if more work not captured – system cost £50k - £1,600 per month over three years.

• Using case management to complete just 50 more conveyancing cases per month without incremental cost £300k per annum and happier clients and referrers

Bill Kirby is a director of Professional Choice Consul-tancy offering advice to firms on business issues fromstrategy, planning, business development, the effectiveuse of IT applications and IT hosting for compliance,business continuity and DR. He can be contacted at [email protected]

Commemorating the Magna Carta

Monday 15 June marks the 800th anniversaryof the sealing of Magna Carta, which was thedocument that laid the foundations for therights and representation that we enjoytoday.

To commemorate, Liberteas are asking thenation to take a moment to celebrate, debateand reflect on those rights which we veryoften take for granted but which peoplethroughout history have campaigned tomake happen or fought to preserve.

For further information onhttps://liberteas.co.uk/

twelve months.Turning to other recent events, our final NQ/Careers talk, de-livered by Hays Legal, took place at La Tasca on Thursday16th April. Members were given tips on drafting their CVand preparing for interview, and representatives from CareyOlsen also spoke about working for an offshore law firm.

Several of our members also attended the University of Lawfor a networking lunch with students titled ‘How to turn aVacation Scheme into a Training Contract’. The event was asuccess with both students and attendees engaging witheach other, and we are grateful to the University of Law fortheir kind invitation.Looking ahead to the next couple of months, members ofthe MTSG will be taking part in the Manchester 10k Run andwe will also be holding a MTSG bowling night. Finally, ourBall Secretaries are in the process of arranging the eagerlyanticipated Summer Ball and so please keep an eye out fora ‘Save the Date’ email which will be coming out soon.

As always, please continue to check our website and Face-

The Law Society

MTSG NewsOn April Fool’s Day, members of the MTSG descended onthe Frog & Bucket Comedy Club for our annual charity so-cial in aid of Wood Street Mission. It was a fantasticevening, with over £750 raised as a result of ticket sales,a raffle and a text donate option. Our thanks go to HaysLegal and Kings Chambers who sponsored the evening,and a special mention must be made to those from KingsChambers who unwittingly became part of the com-père’s act on the night!

On Thursday 9th April Sacco Mann kindly hosted anevening at Epernay, where a limited number of spon-sored CityCards were available for MTSG members. Ourthanks go to Sacco Mann for this opportunity, and I amsure those lucky enough to have secured a card will enjoythe benefits and exclusive deals on offer over the next

24 Local Groups

| 01704 841151

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ganiser of the event said ‘The work that‘Forever Manchester’ do is fantastic, thecharity has a great passion for Manches-ter and supporting people. As an ambas-sador of this charity I see first hand thedifference they make to our communi-ties and neighbourhoods in GreaterManchester’. The MYSG teamed up withsome of our local beauty providers, in-cluding Karas Blow Dry Bar, Benito BrowBar for eyebrow threading and the Brazil-ian Waxing Company who offered Shel-lac gel nails. Stella and Dot Jewellery alsosold some exquisite jewellery pieces andHey Little Cupcake baked delicious cup-cakes. We thank them for their generos-ity and assistance. The event was a greatsuccess and an absolute sell out. It willcertainly be a fixture in our annual calen-dar of events going forward. With ticketsat the bargain price of £10 and all money going to charity, itwas a successful evening all around. Special thanks for thisevent also goes to our sponsors, St Johns Buildings BarristersChambers in Manchester (www.stjohnsbuildings.co.uk) andAnakin Seal, offering legal recruitment across the country(www.anakinseal.co.uk). Thank you for your continuing sup-port to the MYSG, without which we would not be able tooffer these successful events throughout the year!

The next big event in the diary, that you cannot miss, is our an-nual ‘Spring Soiree’. This will be held at the impressive GreatJohn Street Hotel and details are currently being finalised. Theevent is set to be a special night for the MYSG at this excep-

MYSG NewsAs Solicitors we work incredibly hard for our clients whilstin the office. However, outside of the office It is becomingincreasingly important for Solicitors to enjoy a social life,whilst networking to meet other professionals and like-minded people and develop business relationships. TheMYSG offers the perfect opportunities to integrate withother Solicitors in and around the city. We also organiseinter-professional social events with other professionalsacross the North West, including Accountants, Bankers, andSurveyors.

The last few months the MYSG committee have been busyarranging numerous events. In February, we held one ofthe most successful, fun socials to date at RevolutionDeansgate Locks where over 500 professionals came to-gether for a stunning evening, with great music, cocktailsand food. Over 100 people from MYSG attended, togetherwith members from MTSG, MCASS, North West Young Plan-ners, RICS Matrics, and Manchester’s Young Professionals.The event was sponsored by Brooks Macdonald, Cobalt Re-cruitment and St Johns Buildings.

Most recently the MYSG committee held a Charity Beautyand Style Event on 15th April, hosted by St Johns BuildingsChambers. We offered an evening of relaxation and beautytips to over 50 MYSG members. This glamorous event washeld in aid of the charity ‘Forever Manchester’. CharlotteBrinsley, joint charities representative for the MYSG and or-

book page for regular updates,and follow us on Twitter(@mcrtsg) if you aren’t doingso already. If you have anyquestions, please do not hesi-tate to contact the MTSG viaany of the above methods.

Kieran DuignanMTSG Chair 2014-2015Slater and Gordon

The Manchester Trainee Solic-itors Group provides social,educational, sporting and networking opportunities forjunior legal professionals in and around Manchester. Ifyou would like to join us as a paralegal, prospectivetrainee, trainee or newly qualified solicitor, please visitthe ‘Join Us’ section of our website: www.mtsg.org.uk

tional venue, with food anddrink vouchers supplied tomembers. We will be postingdetails on our website, as wellas emailing you with full detailsover the next couple of weeks!On top of this there will beother smaller events includinganother beer tasting event, acupcaking making evening tokeep a watch on the websitefor mote details.

The MYSG has over 1000 members and we invite qualifiedSolicitors up to 10 years PQE (excluding partners) from inand around Manchester to join our group. We offer Man-chester’s Young Solicitors the opportunity to attend Solic-itor and inter-professional social events, as well aseducational and sporting events throughout the year.Please continue to check our website, www.mysg.org.uk,as well as your emails, for all of the upcoming events. Ifyou would like to be added to the MYSG mailing list, or ifyou have any ideas for future events you would be inter-ested in attending and would like us to organise, simplyemail us at [email protected] . Membership is completelyfree and the cost of the events is met by Sponsors. If youare a company who is interested in sponsoring theseevents, then please email [email protected]”

Jemma Goldstone of JMW Solicitors LLP and MYSGCommittee Sponsorship Officer

Congratulations also go to Zoe Moore (Squire Patton Boggs)and Gill Hill (Trowers & Hamlins) who also made the final threethis year.

The Chartered Institute of Legal ExecutivesManifesto for Justice launched

CILEx, along with the Bar Council,Legal Action Group, Law CentresNetwork and Advice UK havelaunched a joint Manifesto forJustice ahead of the general elec-tion in May.

Marking the launch, CILEx presi-dent Frances Edwards said:“In-creasing court fees, reduced legaladvice availability, and restrictedaccess to judicial review mean ac-cess to justice and the rule of laware potentially in jeopardy. We

look forward to working constructively with whatever govern-ment is formed after May 7. Allowing the public access to jus-tice in a timely, affordable and meaningful way is surely aprinciple on which all parties can agree.”

The manifesto says: “The justice system underpins the princi-ples of liberty and democracy, the rule of law, and our humanrights and fundamental freedoms.”

“Justice is precious. The price we pay for it should reflect thevalue we place on living in a just and ordered society.”

Changes introduced by this parliament mean:•An extra 400,000 people a year are being denied access tolegal aid

CILEX News

CILEx Greater Manchester Branch As always the branch welcomes new members so if you areinterested in joining please contact the branch at: [email protected]

The branch will be running a full calendar of events during2015 and so far the following CPD events are planned:

16th April 2015 -CPR and Litigation update (with 9 St. JohnsStreet Chambers) (Please note the revised date)29th April 2015 -Training on Credit Hire (with Park SquareBarristers)

All events take place at 6pm and are open to both membersand non-members. Please contact the branch via email ifyou would like further details.

The Branch would like to publically congratulation its veryown Rachel Stevens (Weightmans) who won the ‘CharteredLegal Executive of the Year’ award at this year’s ManchesterLegal Awards ceremony. This is the second year in succes-sion that Rachel has reached the final three of the competi-tion so very well done Rachel!

• A 30% increase in people representing themselves in court• Challenging unlawful government decisions is restrictedto the wealthy, and• Our rights and freedoms are threatened by surveillancelaws.

Legal Services ApprenticeshipsCILEx launched its Government funded legal apprenticeshipqualifications just over two years ago and the first cohort oflegal apprentices are now approaching the end of theirqualification.

The North of England (and Greater Manchester in particu-lar) is a veritable hotbed of legal apprenticeships with overhalf of all apprentices in England being employed in the re-gion.

If you are interesting knowing more about Legal ServicesApprenticeships please contact either Chris Hoskin (detailsbelow) or one of the following local CILEx accredited train-ing providers:

• Manchester Law School (Manchester Metropolitan University)• Damar Training (based in Stockport)• The Skills Company (based in central Manchester)• CILEx Law School (which provides a distance learning op-tion)

CILEx Regional ContactIf you would like any further information about theabove, or about CILEx generally, please contact ChrisHoskin, CILEx’ Development Officer for The North ofEngland:Phone: 07881 286267Email: [email protected]

A winning formula.

find out more: www.scarisbrickhallschool.co.uk | 01704 841151

Over the past few years, Scarisbrick Hall School has established itself as one of the leading independent schools not only in the North West, but in the UK.

We are one of only a handful of schools rated as “Excellent” in every category by the Independent Schools Authority and have since won a National Award from ISA.

With a multi-million pound investment scheme under way, as well as consistently high academic achievement, Scarisbrick Hall School is the school of choice in the region.

Early Yearsfrom birth

First Schoolto Year 4

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Sixth FormYear 12 to Year 13

• Traditional family values and a warm friendly atmosphere

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• Opportunities for leadership activities and outdoor pursuits in our historic 50 acre grounds and lake

• Innovative curriculum to challenge students to grow personally

• Excellent GCSE results year on year

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• Sixth Form launch September 2015

And there’s much more to come…

Scarisbrick Hall School. Excellence in Everything.

• 94% pass rate in our latest GCSE results• New Science facilities open 2015• New Sixth Form opening September 2015• Rated Excellent in all areas by ISA

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Excavation of New Bailey Prison reveals life on theinside for 18th century convictsFor several years a teamfrom the Archaeology De-partment at the Univer-sity of Salford have beenexcavating the site in Sal-ford, and their digginghas revealed what life wslike for its unfortunate oc-cupants.

New Bailey was constructedbetween 1787 and 1790and was the first prison inEngland to be built entirelyin accordance with the re-formist principles of JohnHoward, as set out in hislandmark work The State ofPrisons, published in 1777.The prison acted as both aholding cell before trial andas a place of incarcerationafterwards, should the de-fendant be unlucky enoughto be found guilty of a mis-demeanour or felony andcould house up to 1,000 in-mates. The prison was ex-tended in 1816 and closedin 1860.

In its first phase the prisoncomprised a rectangular en-closure surrounded byboundary wall, withinwhich were the prison gar-dens, a radial-plan gaolersBuilding and a gatekeeper’slodge. It was expanded inthe 1810s with the clear-ance of Bolton and FaulknerStreet to the west, makingway for the western exten-sion of the New BaileyPrison. Within this extensionfour structures were erectedhousing the Male FelonWorkshops and Yards (exca-vated in 2013), Male FelonWards, a Cook House and aHospital. A third phase ofexpansion up to the 1840sincluded the addition in thewestern half of the complexof a Turn Keys’ Office, Clerks’Office and a new Chapel. Inthe eastern part of the sitethe original prison buildingwas partially demolished to

make way for the construc-tion of a Tread Wheel (exca-vated in 2014), stables andmill House, a block of malemisdemeanant workshopsand yards, a block of femalefelon workshops, a hospitaland cookhouse.

Inmates would carry on pro-ductive labour in the work-shops which includedweaving, winding bobbins,

wool picking and rope mak-ing and were allowed tokeep one sixth of their earn-ings which was given tothem on release.

Each prisoner would receivea quart of gruel daily forbreakfast, 5oz of boiledbeef, a pound of potatoesand 7oz of brown bread. OnSaturdays they were serveda stew with onions and onthe rest of the week a quartof pease soup.

The prison was used forminor offences, rather thancapital crimes: several mem-bers of the crowd from thePeterloo Massacre werebriefly held here in 1819.However, the ManchesterMartyrs, three members ofthe Irish Republican Broth-erhood, were hung here in1867.

According to RachaelReader, the site supervisofrom the University of Sal-ford, life on the inside wouldhave been tough, withprison routine refined tosleep and relentless hardwork, all managed onmeasly meals.

Rachael said: “These areaswere the cells and work-shops, and the cells were so

small the men would haveto sleep across the cell inorder to actually fit in it.They’d basically sleep here,and then wake up andmove into the workshopsfor the day, so it was a prettygruelling routine.”

Rachael added: “Hardlabour was originally usedto grind out dye here, butafter the mechanisms forthat were removed, it wasjust used as a form of labori-ous punishment with no re-sult.”

Work tools which were usedto build the prison werefound during the excava-tion and have have beendonated to the FreemasonsLodge in Dukinfield.

Julia Baskerville

Crime and PunishmentThe first public hanging was James Burrows in 1866. He was just 18 years old he was con-victed of the murder of John Brennan in what became known as the Hopwood Murder.

The last public hangings were on April 4th 1868. Timothy Faherty was convicted of the mur-der of a young woman (Mary Hamner) in Droylsden, whilst Miles Weatherill was convictedof multiple murders in one of the most horrific crimes of the century “feloniously wilfullyand with malice aforethought murdered one June Smith on 2nd March 1868, drew a fizelfeloniously attempting to discharge a loaded pistol at the Rev Anthony John Plow with in-tent to murder him, did with a hatchet wound the said Rev Anthony Plow and furthercharged with shooting at one Harriet Plow with intent to murder her”.

The most controversial and last multiple hanging was that of the Manchester Martyrs in1867. The men, William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O' Brien were found guiltyof killing Sergeant Charles Brett, the first Manchester policeman to be killed in the line ofduty.

Two irish leaders had been arrested in Manchester, and a number of raiders attacked a po-lice van as it moved the prisoners from Gorton Jail. During the rescue Sergeant Brett waskilled. Scores of Irishmen were arrested and twenty six went on trial. Despite a lack of evi-dence, Allen, Larkin and O’Brien were sentenced to death.

Defending the Irishmen was solicitor William Prowting Roberts, who lived in Pendleton andan active Chartist. He was also the legal adviser for the Northumberland and Durham Min-ers' Union. According to newspaper reports Roberts and another solicitor Ernest Jones wereheckled from the court gallery, which was filled with Manchester’s well-to-do who had cometo watch the trial. The intimidation even continued outside the court when one evening amob turned up outside W.P. Roberts’ hotel and he had to escape by the back entrance. TheTimes devoted an editorial to attacking him. Residing over the trial were HHJ Blackburn andMr Justice Mellor.

On 23rd November 1867, a crowd estimated at 8,000–10,000 gathered outside the walls ofNew Bailey to witness the public execution of the three convicted men. To prevent any res-cue attempts, the authorities deployed over 2,500 regular and special police in and aroundthe prison, as well as calling in a detachment of the 72nd Highlanders and a squadron ofthe Eighth Hussars. All traffic in and out of the city was stopped. The Salford newspaperreported that “the spectators were well supplied by the gin palaces of Deansgate and theportable beer and coffee stalls".

The hangman was the infamous William Calcraft, whowas considered to be inept, as many of his victimsslowly strangled to death because the lengths of ropewere incorrect. It took O'Brien took 45 minutes to diewith a priest holding his hand, praying for him. Themen were left to hang outside for an hour beforebeing quickly taken into the New Bailey Prison andburied in quicklime.

There is a monument for Sergeant Brett in St AnnsChurch and monuments in honour of Allen, Larkin,and O'Brien stand in Limerick, Clonmel, Birr, Ennis,Glasnevin Cemetery and in St Joseph's Cemetery,Moston, Manchester.

27Manchester Law Society Archaeology

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Manchester Law Society’s Innovation Forum, sponsored by MLS Advantage member and leading supplierof hosted IT to Law Firms – ConvergeTS held an interesting dinner in the Board Room of The Hilton in Manchester’s Deansgate on 26th March

The forum designed to bring together IT with those driving the direction of their business attracted 26 managing partners, IT and Finance directors from innovative firms in the North West.

The debate over dinner was lead by Richard Hodkinson, CIO of leading national and now international firm DWFThe discussion was geared around how technology by providing flexibility can assist firms in the management of their key staff in termsof attractive good people, enabling retention and supporting an increasing demand for work:life balance. Another advantage of effectively a large proportion of mobile workforce is that 100% of staff do not require office space and desks. The latter saves a greatdeal of premises costs and the former enables imaginative use of skilled people and more time dedicated to generating revenue ratherthan travelling and other diversions.

Richard confirmed that extensive use of technology to support this policy and of the 2,500 staff currently at DWF – 400 can be classed asagile and 1,000 as mobile

Managing Director of ConvergeTS – Nigel Wright made the strong point of this being a great example of IT being a profit centre ratherthan a cost centre with firms benefitting from space cost savings, good staff retention, out of hours working and more time on the joband dealing with clients.

Serious aids to this are hosted IT, high definition video conferencing, inbound mail scanning and OCR and messaging. All added valueitems for a business enabling anytime anywhere working and the right customer interface in a secure way.

Comments from the audience included

• The principles are understood and have been reviewed but older partners are not interested• Culture changes take time• Can we trust people to work diligently when remote. Comments were no not everyone but over time the shift can be made by

adding the ability to candidate profile needs• Video conferencing needs network strength• Agile working has enabled to improve out handling of customer complaints• We can’t get agile yet as partners are trying to drive down the cost of technology

Nigel Wright pointed out that much of the technology discussed was available now on a per user per month basis making it available tofirms of all sizes, not just the big ones

Richard Hodkinson also reminded people that across the field, probably 50% of IT investment is not utilised and consequently the ROI isnot received. IT Director roles are no longer just technical but involved the encouragement of culture change, psychology and persuasion.

After the main course and before the sweet discussions got a little more technical about key IT issues that in many cases will affect firmdevelopment but also survival

• Disaster recovery with data stored in multiple data centres in a relatively live manner as apart from compliance a firm needs to be able to keep on working and providing support to clients. Many forms these days are still unaware on how quickly they can restore from back up – if at all. Apart from lost revenue there is complete loss of confidence from commercial clients

• Increasingly businesses and referrers of businesses are asking for proof of business continuity – to the extent of visiting to inspect and also ensuring that penetration test are carried out to make sure any data being held is secure from cyber attacks

Hosted IT from the right provider to the sector goes a long way to ensuring these requirements.

Richard pointed out that the right IT in these circumstances is an insurance policy, a commercial rather than a technical considerationbut when approaching specialist vendors make sure that you are buying a service level not designed infrastructure – the benefits, notthe features and to ensure that there are penalties for any failure to deliver

The dinner ended on a positive note with many attendees staying to network and discuss experiences with new found friends and colleagues.

To discuss any requirements you may have please contact:

Aaron NaisbittBusiness Development ManagerConverge TST: 0345 872 4400M: 07551 159 080E: [email protected] W: www.convergets.co.uk

Businesses both large and small need to be proactive in order to protect against growing cyber threats. As larger companies take steps to secure their systems, smaller, less secure businesses are becoming increasingly attractive targets for cyber criminals.

As technology becomes increasingly important for successful business operations, the value of a strong Cyber Liability Insurance policy will only continue to grow. The continued rise in the amount of information stored and transferred electronically has resulted in a remarkable increase in the potential exposures facing businesses.

Regulations, such as the Data Protection Act must also be considered, because a loss of sensitive

sanctions from the Information Commissioner. In an age where a stolen laptop or hacked account can instantly compromise the personal data of thousands of customers, or an ill-advised post on a social media site can be read by hundreds in a matter of minutes, protecting yourself from cyber liabilities is just as important as some of the more traditional exposures

insurance policies.

A traditional commercial insurance policy is extremely unlikely to protect against most cyber exposures. Standard commercial policies are written to insure against injury or physical loss and will do little, if anything, to shield you from electronic damages and the associated costs they may incur. Exposures are vast, ranging from the content you put on your website to stored customer data. Awareness of the potential cyber exposures your company faces is essential to managing risk through proper cover.

Possible exposures covered by a typical cyber policy may include:

Data breaches – Increased online consumer spending has placed more responsibility on companies to protect clients’ personal information.

– If your primary business operations require the use of computer systems, a disaster that cripples your ability to transmit data could cause you, or a third party that depends on your services, to lose potential revenue. From a server failure to a data breach, such an incident

resources that normally would have gone elsewhere will need to be directed towards the problem which could result in further losses. This is especially important as denial of service attacks by hackers have been on the rise. Such attacks block access to certain

overloading an organisations server.

– Your company’s

online presence, whether it be through a corporate website, blogs or social media, opens you up to some of the same exposures faced by publishers.

This can include libel, copyright or trademark infringement and defamation, among other things.

– If an e-mail sent from your server has a virus that crashes the system of a customer, or the software your company distributes fails, resulting in a loss for a third party, you could be held liable for the damages.

– A natural disaster, malicious

could result in data or code loss.

– Hackers can hijack websites, networks and stored data, denying access to you or your customers. They often demand money to restore your systems to working order.

This can cause a temporary loss of revenue plus generate costs associated with paying the hacker’s demands or rebuilding if damage is done.

To summarise such risks could have the following

• Civil liability to your clients/others for breach of professional duty, invasion of privacy, infringement of intellectual property rights, breach of

• Contractual or vicarious liability to your clients/ others for the negligence or fraud of third parties

•

•

outages; theft of assets, information and money; legal costs and expenses

• Reputational harm

to address the risks that come with using modern technology.

Traditional business insurance programmes may not cover some, or even all, of the above risks and their

this gap with Cyber Insurance.

The level of cover your business needs is based on your individual operations and can vary depending on your range of exposure. It is extremely important to work with a broker that can identify your areas of risk

As reliance on technology continues to increase, new exposures continue to emerge.

As your business grows, make sure your cyber liability cover grows with it. MFL Professional is here to help you analyse your needs and make the right cover decisions to protect your operations from unnecessary risk.

In addition and as a further commitment to the legal sector, MFL is delighted to have secured the services of Richard, who will be joining the company this month. He will add tremendous expertise to the MFL Solicitor division.

Commenting, Kevin McParland, Managing Director of MFL, said: “I have known Richard for many years and very much admire his work ethic and professional capabilities.

“He will be a great asset to the company and also to

FACT FILE

• After starting his insurance career as a teenager in

market in 1998.

• 1998 to Alec Finch Insurance Brokers

• 2001 to 2011 Towergate as a consequence of the sale of the Alec Finch Professional Indemnity team to Towergate

• 2012 - 2015 - Zurich Insurance

Risk UpdateWelcome to the May edition of Risk Update.

Contact us for free, no obligation advice

T: 0161 236 2532 E: [email protected]

This article does not present a complete or comprehensive statement of the law, nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight issues that may be of interest to MLS members and solicitors. Specialist advice should always be sought in any particular case.

© MFL Professional 2015

Contact our solicitor team for more information:

Kevin McParland,

Managing Director T: 0161 236 2532

E: [email protected]

John Jones,

Development

Executive

T: 0161 237 7739


MFL Professional is a division of McParland Finn Ltd. McParland Finn Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Risk Update

Risk Update

Risk Update

Risk Update

Here at MFL we are always looking to

associated with Cyber Risk and the very

Businesses both large and small need to be proactive in order to protect against growing cyber threats. As larger companies take steps to secure their systems, smaller, less secure businesses are becoming

Here at MFL we are always looking to

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smaller, less secure businesses are becoming increasingly attractive targets for cyber criminals.

As technology becomes increasingly important for successful business operations, the value of a strong Cyber Liability Insurance policy will only continue to grow. The continued rise in the amount of information stored and transferred electronically has resulted in a remarkable increase in the potential exposures facing



networks and stored data, denying access to you or your customers. They often demand money to restore your systems to working order.




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A traditional commercial insurance policy is extremely unlikely to protect against most cyber exposures. Standard commercial policies are written to insure against injury or physical loss and will do little, if anything, to shield you from electronic damages and the associated costs they may incur. Exposures are

content from the vast, ranging to stored customer data. Awareness of the potential cyber exposures your company faces is essential to managing risk through proper cover.

A traditional commercial insurance policy is extremely unlikely to protect against most cyber exposures. Standard commercial policies are written to insure against injury or physical loss and will do little, if anything, to shield you from electronic damages and the associated costs they may incur. Exposures are

website your on put you content to stored customer data. Awareness of the potential cyber exposures your company faces is essential to managing risk through proper cover.

•

•

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After starting his insurance career as a teenager in

Possible exposures covered by a typical cyber policy may include:

Data breaches – Increased online consumer spending has placed more responsibility on companies to protect clients’ personal information.

business operations require the use of computer systems, a disaster that cripples your ability to transmit data could cause you, or a third party that depends on your services, to lose potential revenue.

Possible exposures covered by a typical cyber policy

– Increased online consumer spending has placed more responsibility on companies to protect clients’ personal information.

– If your primary business operations require the use of computer systems, a disaster that cripples your ability to transmit data could cause you, or a third party that depends on your services, to lose potential revenue.

technology.




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market in 1998.

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Your digestive system is a critical factor in looking better, feeling great, and performing toyour full potential whether at work or at play.

But for many, from top to bottom, it can be a digestive disaster zone, at least leading to sub-optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients, and production of key substances in thebody, and at worst causing long term misery, with disorders such Irritable Bowel Syndromeand Ulcerative Colitis ruining lives.

Assessing digestive system health is a key part of every personal training programme wedesign, and for good reason. Here are some factors to condsider:

1/ You are not what you eat. You are what you absorb! We’ve seen many clients over theyears change their diet but be let down by poor absorption of those nutrients. While get-ting your diet spot on is important, digestive health needs to be optimal in order to reapthe benefits.

2/ Intestinal inflammation is key. Caused by poor food choices, food intolerances, lackof water and fibre, plus a poor balance of good bacteria and fungus against a predominanceof pathogenic bacteria, fungus and parasites, intestinal inflammation can cause bloating,gas, and a host of other digestive system issues.

3/ Hormones & appetite regulation. Did you know that some of your most important ap-petite regulating hormones are produced in your intestines? For instance ghrelin, leptin,and CCK are all gut derived hormones! Most of your serotonin (your happy hormone!) is alsoproduced in your intestinal system.

4/ Immune system health. Your balance of good bacteria versus the funky guys such asbad bacteria, pathogenic yeast and parasites directly influences your overall immune sys-tem health – optimise your intestinal system health for a better immune system!

5/ Lose fat. Your microbiome (the sum total of everything living in your intestinal system)is responsible for a huge range of fat loss related activity, not least carbohydrate metabo-lism. A recent study observed that patients who had faecal transplant from an obese indi-vidual showed significant fat gain themselves. Food for thought!

In our practice we have the option to use a range of tests to pinpoint the causative factorof digestive system issues and remediate them. As a general protocol to follow without test-ing, it’s not a bad idea to fix your nutrition, take a really good quality probiotic (we use Cul-turelle), and consider a pre-biotic, and digestive enzymes.

To your new lean and healthy body,

Matt

three sixtyº Personal Training is a health clinic and personal training gym based on BridgeSt. For more information visit www.threesixtypersonaltraining.co.uktwitter: @threesixtyfit facebook: /threesixtyfit

Manchester Law Society Members receive a 10% discount on personal training upon pro-duction of their Benefits of Membership Card

5 Reasons to Optimise Your Digestive System…

The W according to Fran

rld 32 Lifestyle

Monthly Competition

To win a Wine tasting experience for 2 people answer the followingquestion:

Q: Question: Where is Veenos family vineyard located?

and send to [email protected] no later than 14th May 2015

The winner of the Rosso competition was Philip Farrelly of Bermans

Jack showed me this the other day and told me that if I could “Solve This Logic TestFor Teens You’re Possibly A Genius”

Warning: This might melt your brain.

This is a logic test that was part of the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad– a competition for teenagers.

But it’s so hard that it’s gone viral aftera Singaporean TV presenter shared iton Facebook – because loads of adultshave been trying, and failing, to workout what the answer is.

Not everybody can agree on what the answer is.IT’S SO CONFUSING So what is the answer – and how the hell do you work it out? Here’stheir explanation – if you want to try working it out for yourself, don’t look any fur-ther. OK, here goes…

Here’s what we know: Albert is told only the month. Bernard is told only the day. When he’s told what the month is, Albert immediately works out that Bernard doesn’tknow the correct answer.

What does that mean? It means thatthe answer can’t be a number thatonly occurs once in the 10 options. Ifthe date was 18 or 19, Bernard wouldknow the correct answer straightaway, because there’s only one of each(May 19 and June 18).

So how can Albert, who only knowsthe month, be so sure Bernard cannot

possibly know this? Because he knows the month isn’t May or June. So we can crossall of May and June off the list of possibilities.

Now, Bernard speaks up. He confirmshe didn’t know what the answerwas…but says that, after Albert’s an-swer, he now does know.

How is that possible? It’s because he’sfollowed Albert’s logic, and hasworked out that the answer isn’t Mayor June.

What can we work out from the factthat Bernard now knows for sure whatthe answer is? One thing: It means thatit can’t be a 14, because that day’s re-peated across both months.

For Bernard to know the answer, it hasto be one of the unique days – whichmeans it must be July 16, August 15, orAugust 17. So let’s scratch July 14 andAugust 14 off the list.

But hang on: Once Bernard says he does know, now Albert suddenly knows the answertoo!

Remember, he only knew the month – but he’s also followed Bernard’s logic, so he (likeus) knows it’s one of three possible days.

So what can we work out from this? Well, if the month was August, Albert still could-n’t know what the answer was, because there are two possible days in that month left.So the fact that Albert does know means one obvious thing CHERYL’S BIRTHDAY ISON JULY 6!

Well done, Albert and Bernard! And infairness, the creators of the test saidthat “being Q24 out of 25 questions,this is a difficult question meant to siftout the better students”. So don’t feeltoo bad if you didn’t get it right.

Jack said that wanted to kill Cheryl andher stupid friends, Albert and Bernard.Who cares when it is. If she doesn’t tell

you you don’t need to buy her a present.

And Cheryl, next time maybe don’t be such a d*ck about telling people when yourbirthday is. Just say it normally.

Anyway off to start a new diet. Went to the holiday home (aka caravan onN.Yorkshire/Lancashire border but holiday home sounds like villa in Mallorca or Southof France) for a couple of weeks at Easter. Went for lots of long walks, had lots of lunchesin country pubs along with lots of vino and ate too many easter eggs. Am very fat andvery pale but very relaxed and chilled – silver lining and all of that…………….!

Fran Eccles-BechChief Executive

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The Strangeways Riot 25 years on - Manchester Law Society

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