A year of milestones

It seems an appropriate time to look back at some of the interesting developments of 2015 and think about what these may mean for 2016. All opinions being my own, the following are some of my highlights.  

Women in law

There have been some brilliant events in London this past year. At Herbert Smith Freehills women lawyers network anniversary event, the keynote speaker, Mariella Frostrup, challenged the profession to think more about the promotion of women; ?Network for Knowledge hosted Dame Fiona Woolf of CMS Cameron McKenna, who spoke of her year as Lord Mayor of London; and the First 100 Years launched a history project charting the journey of women in law since 1919. 

Sponsored by the Law ?Society and the Bar Council, ?the First 100 Years has already begun its preparations for marking the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. There is a sense that there is no better time than now to be a woman working in the City; it will be interesting to see whether this optimism plays ?out in the City’s promotion announcements in the coming months.     

Attitudes towards work

Although law firms tend to act more slowly than the rest of the City, 2015 saw ‘agile working’ (or as one law graduate recently corrected me, ‘wait, that means working from home, right?’) adopted by a number of firms. 

Cynics may see agile working as a cost-saving measure or the first step towards all lawyers becoming cyborgs or individual contracts. I welcome it as a move away from a culture of presenteeism and an effort to retain lawyers who may not be as interested in partnership. What will be interesting to look out for in 2016 is the development of other legal roles within firms, offering an alternative career path to partnership.       

Top legal developments

Lastly, 2015 was marked ?by several important legal developments. Among ?my top five most interesting cases are: 

• The Supreme Court rewriting the English law rule on penalties and in a separate decision clarifying the test ?for implying terms into a contract; 

• The Hong Kong Court ?of Appeal rejecting the narrow interpretation of ‘client’ and adopting a broader test for legal advice privilege; 

• The numerous privilege and disclosure decisions in the Property Alliance Group v Royal Bank of Scotland litigation, which indicate that 2016 may hold some key developments in the law of privilege; 

• The two key French ?Supreme Court decisions ?on jurisdiction, one refusing to apply and the other upholding unilateral jurisdictions clauses; and 

• The Viridor v Veolia decision, which indicates that the pendulum is swinging ?back on the relief from sanctions case law. 

This selection highlights the increasingly international ?role of a (junior) commercial litigator, which is a final and exciting trend I believe will continue in 2016, hurried ?on by technology and the globalisation of businesses.

Celina McGregor is a senior associate and solicitor advocate at Herbert Smith Freehills and president of the Junior London Solicitors Litigation Association www.lsla.co.uk/junior

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