Thank you to everyone who entered the Manchester Legal Awards this year! We had a fabulous response, and the judges had a tough time marking all the entries!
Congratulations to all those who made it to the shortlist and the best of luck for Judging Day on Friday 13th May. Keep your eyes peeled for an email from Fran with details of the Judging Day timetable!
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce HQ is based at Elliot House, Deansgate, right in the heart of Manchester City Centre. Over the course of the pandemic, the Chamber doubled the size of the Members’ Lounge and added a hot-desking facility, so why not pop in, grab a free coffee and network? As members of Manchester Law Society, you’re welcome to use the facilities there, just notify a member of staff on arrival.
The Chamber also has a suite of 16 meetings rooms at Elliot House from conference facilities, boardrooms through to gallery rooms – and members of the Chamber get 20% off. To find out more, follow this link: https://www.chamberspace.co.uk/
If you’re interest in Membership, the Members’ Lounge or Chamber Space, then feel free to get in touch with the team on benefits@gmchamber.co.uk
The Family Court at Manchester starts using the HMCTS Reform Programme Schedule & Listing Service from 16th May 2022.
The Scheduling and Listing Project will deliver a flexible system of digital tools and supporting processes to better support the judicial functions of scheduling and listing. The new tool, ‘ListAssist’ is a single online solution for listing hearings across the Crime, Civil, Family and Tribunal jurisdictions in England and Wales/Cymru which will address many of the failings and frailty of our existing systems.?
The new tool will capture better data in a more structured way and improved data and analytical capability across HMCTS, will assist us in better contextualising management information and facilitate regular evidence-based discussions between the judiciary and HMCTS on how listing practice and policy can be improved and refined to better match demand and capacity; improving our ability to recovery from COVID and respond to backlogs, delays and last-minute changes.
The schedule & listing service (ListAssist) is already being used in several civil and family courts and employment tribunals and HMCTS is working to introduce it in all jurisdictions during the Reform Programme.
We are writing to advise you that this service will start being used in the Manchester Family Court from Monday 16th May 2022 by operational staff and Judges.
Its introduction is being carefully planned and overseen by local judiciary and senior operational staff.
Why are we introducing this service now?
As an integral part of the Reform Programme, this service offers a number of benefits;
ListAssist is configurable and supports the individual needs of every jurisdiction and flexible ensuring that listing policies can be executed in accordance with local needs.
Improved management information will give a better picture of capacity across the court estate, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Improved consistency and standard of service for all court users with greater certainty in hearing dates.
Once fully integrated, ListAssist will simplify and streamline elements of the work currently completed by staff when managing schedules and listing hearings, allowing them to focus on more skilled work.
ListAssist will help the judiciary to administer justice. For many it will be the first time they will have direct access to a ‘live’ hearing schedule.
In the meantime, you can find out more about the new service on GOV.UK
Carolann Edwards is the former Global Director of Learning & Organisational Development at Norton Rose Fulbright. She is currently working on a PHD at Birkbeck, University of London.
She is researching lawyers feeling envied at work. If you have felt envied at work please clickhere
The survey is completely confidential. You will not be asked your name or where you work. The data will be anonymised and used for her thesis. You will be asked to give your informed consent before answering the questions.
Please share this message with lawyers anywhere in the world who may be interested. If you have any questions, please contact Carolann. Her email address is cedwar13@student.bbk.ac.uk
The May edition of The Messenger will be dropping next week. Let us know what you think of the new look!
Don’t forget to send us your articles for the June edition and in the meantime you can read the April edition here.
The deadlines for the remaining editions for 2022 are:
June edition - 20th May
July edition - 24th June
August edition - 22nd July
September edition - 19th August
October edition - 23rd September
November edition - 21st October
December edition - 18th November
January 2023 edition - 16th December
In light of the ICO’s recent finding of negligent security practices and £98,000 fine of Tuckers Solicitors, here is a short reminder of the absolute basic legal obligations under UK GDPR for the security of personal data.
They include the following:
1. The firm must undertake a proper assessment/analysis of the security risks involved in the holding and use of any personal data. It must cover many elements – the security of your technology, the way it is accessed, where data is held and how it moves around the business, the people using it, the security policies in place, and much more. Doing this will include technical scanning. And because of 4 below, your risk assessment should be documented.
2. After you have done this (and only after you have done this), you must put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to properly protect the personal data and the security of its use/processing and the systems themselves. This must include securing the technical vulnerabilities identified, training your staff, and putting in place suitable policies and governance.
3.You must have a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of the measures you put in place. Which is why compliance with the law is not a one off test. The ICO specifically refers to vulnerability scanning to “stress test” technology.
4. Businesses must be able to demonstrate compliance with all of the above legal obligations, which is why firms need a way of documenting what they have done.
The SRA expects firms to comply with these legal obligations, as well as adhering to their separate regulatory responsibilities, for example to run the practice in accordance with good governance, to safeguard client money and documents, maintain confidentiality, properly identify and manage risk, etc. So does the ICO. In the Tuckers case, the ICO regarded the failure to meet the SRA Code as an aggravating factor.
For more advice on increasing your security and business resilience, or for an independent, no strings consultation contact Mitigo on 0161 883 3083, email mls@mitigogroup.com or visit www.mitigogroup.com
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