Immigration Law, Boat Party Success, In/Fertility in the City Returns & Personal Branding for Lawyers????

Immigration Law is a hot topic and this week on the?Legally Speaking Podcast ???, we were super excited to be chatting with consultant immigration solicitor, legal commentator and on-screen host,?Skylar McKeith?on a number of topics including her recent media coverage and the sort of thing we can expect to see in this area of law over the next few years!

You may recognise the name; yes, Skylar is the daughter of Scottish television personality, author of nine bestselling books and I’m A Celeb contestant, Gillian McKeith and it appears that Gillian isn’t the only one to have her fair share of media coverage on topics they’re passionate about. ??

Skylar is regularly featured on TV, print and radio, including?American in Britain?magazine,?OK! Magazine,?Legal Cheek,?Fox News TV,?GMTV,?BBC,?GB News,?talkRADIO?and many more!??

You may have even seen Skylar chatting with Eamon Holmes and Isabel Webster a few weeks back about the Rwanda Asylum Plan!

She has also been a Speaker at the?San Antonio Bar Association?International Law Section and a Panellist at?City, University of London?Family & Career Planning Event in 2021.?

Skylar graduated from?BPP Law School?and completed her Legal Practice Course, with a distinction, at the?University of Westminster.

Skylar has experience as a Congressional Intern, at the US House of Representatives. She is a board member and spokesperson, liaising with government officials, including US Representatives and Senators.

Skylar trained as a solicitor at?Mackrell.Solicitors, she now specialises in immigration law, with expertise in citizenship applications, as well as business and creative industry matters. Skylar also has experience obtaining visas for those who have previously been denied entry clearance to the UK.

Skylar is currently completing her Masters of Law at?Nottingham Trent University. Alongside her studies, she undertook pro-bono work at the?CAMDEN COMMUNITY LAW CENTRE?and tutored Law to LPC students.

In this episode, we discuss the following:

?? The responsibilities of a Congressional Intern at the US House of Representative

?? Changes in the immigration law for the next few years

??? What are the roles and responsibilities of a Consultant Solicitor

Where can I listen to this episode?

The podcast is available to listen to on the?Legally Speaking Podcast?website and all major platforms?(Spotify,?Apple?etc.)

The summer boat party of the year which our Legally Speaking Podcast sponsored certainly didn’t disappoint!

We had a wonderful evening of networking; the weather was amazing ??, the food great and it was so lovely to meet new people and catch up with lots of friends from within the legal community:?Amber Parslow,?Alexandra Lima,?Elizabeth Russell,?Annabel Taylor,?Chrissie Wolfe,?Caryn Toh 杜淑微,?Lewis Alexander Baxter,?Marta Sánchez Merino,?Thorrun Govind MPharm (Hons) GDL LPC MSc MRPharmS,?Peter Watson,?Nicola Rubbert,?Julian Richard,?Megan Hulme,?Nicola Forest,?Sophie Shaw,?Rachael Bell?and many many more!

Special thanks to the incredible?Oliver Haddock?from the?London Young Lawyers Group?&?London Young Professionals' Network?for kindly including our?Legally Speaking Podcast ???as one of the main supporters of this amazing event. ????

Thank you to over 200 of you that braved the journey despite travel chaos. The highlight had to be seeing Tower Bridge open up specially for our little trip along the Thames! ???? ??

Plenty more events still to come...

One of those being In/Fertility in the City Part 2! Natalie Sutherland, Somaya Ouazzani, Emma Manzies along with many others will be discussing shared experiences of infertility, baby loss and alternative pathways to parenthood.

This will be a discussion on providing meaningful support in the workplace?- an in-person event taking place on?Thursday 7th?July?at 9.00am?at the office of?Stephenson Harwood (1 Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7SH).??

About this event

For many, the journey to building a family is not straightforward. Coping with infertility, invasive procedures, baby loss and terminations while working is traumatic, lonely, stressful and all too commonplace.

They want to destigmatise the conversation around in/fertility in work, so that those facing challenges receive the support and care that they need from their employers and colleagues. It's time to #breakthestigma.

The event is also aimed at helping law firms better understand how to support employees living with fertility challenges. These challenges, include conception, extension of one’s family (whatever form that may take), pregnancy, fertility treatment disappointment and baby loss. Our panellists will share practical ideas to help law firms navigate these issues so that employees feel supported and seen.

They will discuss the creation of roles including ‘Fertility Officer’ and the benefits law firms can offer those undergoing fertility treatment and experiencing fertility challenges. Including, for example, paid leave, financial support, interest free loans and rest and recovery time before, during, and after fertility treatment. Infertility is fickle and unpredictable. We will discuss the importance of policies being as inclusive and flexible as possible.

Their panellists will share their stories of infertility, surrogacy, pregnancy loss, and fertility treatment. They’ll discuss how this impacted their personal and work life; the constant juggle and collision of the personal and professional.

This event is open to all, but may be of particular interest if:

?? You work in a law firm, whether as a lawyer, line manager or HR;

?? You want to understand the intersectional challenges that those experiencing infertility issues may face;

?? You are experiencing fertility issues, or have colleagues, friends or family experiencing fertility issues;

?? You hold a leadership or management position within a law firm;

?? You are thinking about family planning and/or have employees or colleagues thinking about it;

?? You are a survivor of infertility and/or baby loss.

You can register for FREE via Eventbrite?here

Ahead of this event you can check out our Legally Speaking Speaking Podcast ‘Fertility in the Workplace’ Miniseries, featuring?Natalie, Somaya & Emma, which delves into how fertility in the workplace can be addressed more openly and how law firms can do a better job at acknowledging the challenges faced!

Link to listen to this Fertility in the Workplace miniseries is here

?????How to Support the Legally Speaking Podcast??????

1) Leave us a Rating & Review on ???Spotify,?Apple???

2) Join Our Discord ???HERE

Our Legally Speaking Club became the first $Legal Social Token in the world last week and you can learn more and grab some of our Creator Coin ?? $LEGAL

Season 5 of the Legally Speaking Podcast is powered by?Clio, a legal case management software?that works in partnership with?The Law Society?of England and Wales and is an?approved supplier of the?Law Society?of Scotland.

KC Partners?is delighted to be collaborating?#TheWIZE?this year!

The latest WIZE edition includes some mood-lifting features this month on how to put the fun back into law, how to drive a sports car (and get the Taxman to pay for it!) and how to stay financially shrewd during these uncertain times!

There’s also:

?? A special share schemes feature for corporate lawyers

?? Top construction law tips for property lawyers

?? Final piece of the social media puzzle for lawyers in the LinkedIn lounge

?? Outsourcing hacks

…and a look at the underlying economic and political factors at play in the recent train strikes.?

Subscribe to the #TheWize?HERE

Our writers for the upcoming articles included the wonderful?Kate Gregory?&?Duncan Balcon.

In the last week, SCOTUS laid out three decisions that have garnered global discussion and backlash and left the nation and beyond wondering what may be next.

On Thursday 23th June, the Supreme Court delivered the decision?in New York State Piston & Rifle Association v Bruen?striking down a New York gun law regarding the concealed carrying of weapons without proper cause despite being made over a century ago. Labelled unconstitutional by the nation’s highest court, this ruling now leaves similar laws in California, Maryland, Hawaii and various other states in jeopardy.

The decision marks the most significant decision regarding gun rights in the US since?McDonald v Chicago?in 2007, but continues the trend set by recent decisions relaxing gun control. Many critics, including President Biden have announced their disappointment in the decision, particularly given the recent tragedies caused by mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. The decision has had a polarising effect and is likely to add further fuel to the decades-long debate.

However, hardly a day elapsed before SCOTUS announced another ruling which sent legal shockwaves around the globe. On Friday,?Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation?reversed the 1973 decision in?Roe v Wade?which stated that the right to terminate a pregnancy was protected by the constitution.

The ruling confirmed leaked drafts of the lead opinion last month which also caused similar outcry from women’s rights organisations the world over and support from conservative and pro-life groups. The decision was expected by many conservative states, thirteen of whom had passed trigger laws to outlaw medically unnecessary terminations if the Supreme Court reversed?Roe v Wade. As a result, these laws are in effect in 6 states and will come into effect in a further 5 in 30 days.

This caused global outcry. The French government announced plans to enshrine the right to terminate a pregnancy into law. Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz all took to Twitter to express their disappointment in the decision and their concerns for women’s rights around the world. British PM Boris Johnson also slated the decision as a ‘step backwards’ while protestors in the UK took to the streets to voice their opinion.

Such a decision comes at a particularly crucial moment for those in the UK as the government seeks to reverse the 1998 Human Rights Act, renewing the initiative after receiving more support following the European Court of Human Rights intervening to prevent the enacting of UK immigration policies to deport refugees to Rwanda. The proposed repeal of the Human Rights Act in favour of a UK Bill of Rights has been deeply criticised by a number of human rights organisations as a way for the government to remove or limit certain rights while proponents praise the move to limit European interference. However, recent decisions in the US have left some UK citizens fearful of how such issues may soon become a cause celebre here too. In fact, Labour MP yesterday made a bid to have the right to abortion included in a Bill of Rights.

Finally, on Monday, the US Supreme Court reversed another historic case in?Kennedy v Bremerton School District. The case concerned prayer in schools and was bought by a former coach claiming religious discrimination after losing his job due to his practice of ostentatious prayer demonstrations during matches. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court were persuaded by this case, which had lost at the district and circle levels to reverse the decision?Abington v Schemp?which outlawed such practices in 1963. Critics have argued that this decision marks a significant deterioration in the separation of church and state, a key tenet of the US constitution, while others suggest that the ruling is simply a fundamentalist reading of the First Amendment right to free speech.

While the last week of decisions may seem shocking to many, the trend of reversing liberal decisions and upholding conservative values is likely to continue. Trump’s three appointees gave conservative judges the supermajority thus it is no coincidence that each of last week’s decisions 6-3 verdicts demonstrate a sharp right turn for the court. In fact, there is likely to be a trend of cases funded by political groups, aiming to erode as many liberal decisions as possible while the court is conservative. Alternatively, this may lead to such rights being more fiercely protected against the growing far right as seen through recent attempts in response to last week’s cases.

Written by?Kate Gregory

Until recently, this might have seemed quite an odd question to ask. However, in recent times, there has been quite a large global shift towards looking for alternative "meats" and, despite the fact many of these come from plant-based protein sources, there are more lab-grown alternatives also trying to break through into the mainstream.

One producer of these lab-grown alternatives is the imaginatively named US start-up, East Just, who made headlines around 18 months ago when they released the first commercially available lad-grown meat alternative product - a chicken nugget.

They had been hoping to capitalise recently on a chicken export ban in Malaysia, where chicken is a very lucrative product. They have struggled, however, to get their product to market in any great volumes. This begs the question, which will happen first - will lab-grown meat producers be able to scale? Or will plant-based producers make a product that truly tastes like meat. You would have to feel that with a global marketplace primed for a true alternative, whichever can jump their own hurdle quickest, will be primed to capitalise.

Eat Just have also got another product, a minced beef alternative, in the works. It is foreseeable that this should be an easier product to mass-produce, as aesthetics aren't quite so important with a minced product. Maybe combining this with a minced pork alternative would be a good way to get a foothold in this alt-meat market? After all, between China's use of Pork (approx. 50% of the world's annual usage) and the use of minced beef in the Americas, this would be a way of accessing a large potential profit, with only two products.

Written by?Duncan Balcon

We have seen many barriers to EVs taking over the roads - there have been issues with raw materials for batteries, problems with the recycling of batteries and, often most concerningly, the lack of infrastructure for a charging network.

Toyota have however experienced a whole new world of pain when it comes to releasing an EV, and have had to recall an entire product line (the bZ4X SUV) in the last week because...wait for it...the wheels may fall off!

Toyota are saying this "only" affects 2,700 units - which may seem small enough, but realistically these are family cars, so we are looking at a potential 13.5k passengers and drivers that could have potentially been affected. The most shocking thing about this story is that this issue isn't even caused by a new part that is being used to allow the transition to Electric Vehicles - the issue lies with the bolts that hold the wheels on! A part, you would imagine, has been used on vehicles for decades. There has been no explanation yet as to how this substandard component has occurred.

Tokai Tokyo Research Institute analyst Seiji Sugiura, when contacted for comment, said “Toyota might want to show that they are extremely careful of the first launch of their EVs” - which seems an odd statement. You would imagine he has probably been recommending these vehicles, or owns one himself, and wants to save face somewhat.

This does mark an important opportunity for other manufacturers, particularly in areas where Toyota is a strong brand name. As for Toyota, a fast recall, rebranding of the car, and relaunch may be the only way of escaping this relatively untouched.

Written by?Duncan Balcon

Join myself and Daisy Doardo as we host a Personal Branding for Lawyers webinar together! Get your FREE ticket here

Shout out to our friends at Let's Chat Law as they turn 2 next week!?

Join the Let's Chat Law community in London to celebrate their 2nd birthday.

What's happening?

There will be networking (of course!), a raffle with great prizes for aspiring lawyers, an opportunity to get some professional headshots & caterpillar cake taste testing!

More info & to RSVP, click here

To see?our latest vacancies?please click?HERE

For more information or if you cannot see a vacancy suitable for you, but are interested to hear about more jobs at KC Partners, please send your CV to?[email protected]?to be considered.

For now folks...

OTTO & OUT :)