M&S withholds payment to Ocado Group, Frasers Group lawyers accuse Morgan Stanley of 'snobbery', SFO launches probe into property fraud

COMMERCIAL LAW

M&S withholds payment to Ocado Group over missed targets

The Times ?

Marks & Spencer is withholding a multimillion-pound payment to Ocado Group after their grocery delivery venture missed key performance targets. The companies joined forces in 2019 to create Ocado Retail, a ￡750m tie-up that gave Ocado customers access to M&S food. Under the terms of the deal, M&S is due to pay Ocado a final instalment of ￡190.7m by August. It is understood that M&S is still in negotiations with Ocado over the payout as performance hurdles have “not been met.” There has been speculation over how much M&S would end up paying Ocado after it cut the “fair value” of the payout by another ￡17m to ￡78m in November. Insiders said there was unlikely to be an update next Thursday, when Ocado publishes its full-year results, as talks are still continuing.

Frasers Group lawyers accuse Morgan Stanley of 'snobbery'

Financial Times / The Daily Telegraph / The Times / Daily Mail??

Lawyers have told a High Court judge that senior executives at Morgan Stanley made an “unrealistic” and “inappropriate” $1bn cash demand on the Frasers Group, partly out of snobbery towards the retailer’s owner Mike Ashley. The court was told that investment bankers wanted the group off its books because Mr Ashley was viewed as an “upstart.” Frasers is suing the US investment bank for about ￡40m over alleged costs and lost trading profits after the bank imposed a “margin call” on the retailer’s 2021 trading position in the fashion group Hugo Boss.

PROPERTY LAW

Discounters' expansion plans triggering legal and planning rows across the country

The Sunday Telegraph ?

The Sunday Telegraph looks at how Aldi and Lidl’s ambitious expansion plans have triggered legal and planning rows across the country. Aldi's new store openings are on average under a mile away from other supermarkets, according to figures compiled for The Telegraph by Barbour ABI. Lidl's openings are just over half a mile away from rivals. Under planning rules, companies or individuals can raise objections to schemes based on possible drainage problems or the materials that are to be used. However, insiders at the German discounters told the Sunday Telegraph the system is being abused by rivals launching bad-faith challenges meant to slow them down. Aldi's competitors led 77 objections to its planning applications between 2020 and late 2022, as well as launching 12 judicial reviews. Hannah Quarterman, head of planning at law firm Hogan Lovells, says there is a "long history of supermarkets using [objections] as one of a number of tools to protect their positions."

SFO launches probe into property fraud

Reuters / City AM / The Guardian??

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating Signature Group, a business that sought investors for the redevelopment of predominantly historic buildings but collapsed into administration in 2022 with losses of up to ￡140m. As part of the probe, the SFO has raided three residences and made four arrests in an operation supported by the National Crime Agency. SFO director Nick Ephgrave said the collapse of Signature saw “people up and down the country left out of pocket, and buildings left derelict at the centre of our cities,” adding that the arrests and searches “will help us reconstruct exactly what happened.”

Council's sale of airfield site to be challenged in court

BBC News ?

Hertfordshire County Council's decision to sell the Radlett Aerodrome site for ￡34m to property investor and developer Segro for use as a strategic rail freight interchange is to be reviewed by the High Court, after a local campaign group sought a judicial review. The group, St Albans: Fight the Freight, has argued the sale should not have been agreed, because the land was bought by the council for a nominal ￡1 fee in 1984 to be kept as "open space." The group also argues the Metropolitan Green Belt Act (1938) and the Open Spaces Act (1906) also apply. The council says it is confident that the sale followed "all due processes."

EMPLOYMENT LAW

Red Bull F1 boss cleared of misconduct allegations in barrister-led probe

Financial Times / The Daily Telegraph / The Times??

Christian Horner, the Red Bull Formula One team principal, has been cleared of misconduct allegations after a barrister-led investigation. The inquiry, which included over 60 hours of interviews, dismissed the grievance made by a female employee. Red Bull Racing's parent company confirmed that the investigation was fair and impartial. Horner had consistently denied the allegations and expressed confidence in his exoneration.

Unions and workers' rights groups urge government to reconsider employment tribunal fees

The Guardian??

A coalition of 48 organisations, including the TUC, Citizens Advice, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Fawcett Society and Maternity Action have urged the government to reconsider plans to reintroduce fees for employment tribunals amid fears it will encourage exploitation. The unions and workers' rights groups said bringing back fees, which were ditched in 2017, meant that "bad employers are being given the go-ahead to undercut good ones." The government was forced to scrap a previous fee regime, under which charges ranged from ￡390 to ￡1,200 depending on the case, after the supreme court ruled it was preventing access to justice, breaching both UK and EU law. In a joint statement, the workers' rights groups said the new fees, which start from ￡55 to bring a claim, risked pricing many people out of workplace justice. "We believe [reintroducing fees] will deter many from lodging worthy claims and gives a green light to bad employers," they said.

British workers at risk of being paid less than foreign counterparts, warn lawyers

The Daily Telegraph??

British workers are at risk of being paid less than their foreign counterparts when visa salary requirements are increased in April, lawyers have warned. The increase in the salary threshold to ￡38,700 is likely to create a situation where companies struggling to overcome labour shortages end up paying their foreign employees more than British ones. Rose Carey, a partner at the City law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, said: "We've realised clients might be in this position, which is completely at odds with what the government wanted." Employers may find "they are having to pay somebody from abroad more than somebody from the UK because they cannot recruit," Carey said.

GENERAL LAW

Terms set out for legislation to clear Post Office victims

BBC News / Financial Times ?

Kevin Hollinrake, postal affairs minister, has outlined the terms of unprecedented legislation to quash all convictions in the Post Office Horizon scandal to be delivered before the end of July. Mr Hollinrake added he recognised the "constitutional sensitivity" of the planned legislation, but added it did not set a precedent for the future relationship between the government, Parliament and the judiciary. "The scale and circumstances of this prosecutorial misconduct demands an exceptional response," he said. The government said the possible exoneration of some genuinely guilty of crimes was "a price worth paying." The government said it would work with the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to ensure their schemes to quash convictions were "compatible with the UK compensation scheme." Labour MP Kevan Jones said he welcomed news of the legislation but added it was vital that the government set aside enough time for the new law to be passed "as quickly as possible."

Government supports bill to crack down on SLAPPs

City AM / Daily Mail??

The government is supporting a bill aimed at cracking down on Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) that are used by wealthy or corrupt individuals to silence journalists. The bill, put forward by Labour MP Wayne David, seeks to protect free speech by allowing independent judges to dismiss baseless claims before they go to trial and shield defendants from excessive costs. The bill builds on the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and will extend the measures to cover all types of litigation, including sexual harassment. A costs protection scheme will be established to safeguard defendants, such as journalists, from claimants who deliberately incur high legal costs. The Law Society has expressed concerns about the bill's workability and potential unintended consequences, recommending modifications to ensure effective implementation.

Law Society commends HMCTS decision to extend reform programme

Law Gazette ?

The Law Society has praised the decision made by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to extend the reform programme and cut previously planned parts. HMCTS chief executive Nick Goodwin stated that adjustments to the plans were necessary due to organisational capacity, operational pressures, and feedback from staff and partners. Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: "HMCTS is making sensible decisions about prioritising work given the dual challenges of delivering the court reform programme and tackling the huge court backlogs. Clearly, proper investment in our justice system rather than decades of cuts would have meant the court service didn't find itself in this difficult situation."

Partner suspended for forging colleague's signature

Law Gazette ?

A partner has been suspended from practice for 28 days after forging a colleague's electronic signature on statements of truth in road traffic claims. The partner, Paul Fraser Langley, self-reported his actions to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Langley signed six statements of truth using his colleague's signature without their knowledge. Langley apologised for his conduct and applied to the court to file and serve amended defences for each of the six matters. The court granted all six applications. The tribunal found Langley's culpability to be high, as he had direct control of the circumstances and was an experienced solicitor with supervisory and management responsibilities. Langley was also ordered to pay ￡3,500 in costs.

Britain's only transgender judge resigns

The Daily Telegraph / The Times ?

Britain's only transgender judge, Victoria McCloud, has resigned from the High Court after claiming that she cannot remain on the bench "in a dignified way" and that she risks making the judiciary political. McCloud, who has presided over cases involving prominent figures, including Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, transitioned in the 1990s and became the UK's first practising transgender barrister. In her resignation letter, McCloud expressed that it is no longer possible to be both transgender and a prominent judge in the UK. She also highlighted the rise of the "gender critical" movement and the impact it has had on her personal and professional life. She argues that as a result, "it has been open season on me and others." The judge, who will formally stand down in April, added that she feels that "the dignity of the court as well as personal dignity is at stake."

FIRMS

City law firm offers ￡2m bonuses to junior lawyers

The Times / Daily Mail??

Partners at City law firm Pogust Goodhead have launched a scheme to pay junior lawyers up to ￡2m each over three years. Pogust Goodhead has created a ￡200m bonus pool as part of a recent $550m investment deal with Gramercy. Tom Goodhead, the firm's chief executive, said that Pogust Goodhead aimed to match pay for its best lawyers with "their contemporaries at other hedge funds or investment banks." He said that staff at the firm were "doing more socially valuable work than lawyers at other law firms . . . and so I see no issue in ensuring they are paid on a par with people that invest in us. This is something deliberate that we're doing. The potential of doing this type of work means that the incentives will be much higher than they can be in the magic circle law firms and it is something we are doing to shake up the market." Goodhead added that he envisaged partners earning between ￡10m and ￡20m from the bonus pool, while newly qualified solicitors could earn between ￡1m and ￡2m each over the same period.

School-leaver apprentices at law firms can earn salaries of up to ￡55,000

The Times ?

School-leaver apprentices at top City law firms are earning salaries of up to ￡55,000, more than 50% higher than the average national salary, according to research. Norton Rose Fulbright pays its apprentices ￡28,000 in their first year, rising to ￡53,000 by the end of the six-year scheme. CMS offers the highest final-year salaries of ￡55,000. Pay for newly qualified solicitors in the City has risen dramatically, with Gibson Dunn offering a salary of ￡180,000. The top 24 highest-paying City law firms for newly qualified lawyers are all headquartered in America. Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Freshfields, and Linklaters all pay graduates a starting salary of ￡125,000. Apprenticeships in the legal profession have been boosted by a two-part exam designed to expand diversity in the profession.

CASES

Duke of Sussex loses court challenge over security downgrade

Daily Mail / The Daily Telegraph / The Guardian / The Independent / The Times??

The Duke of Sussex has lost a high court challenge against the government over a decision to downgrade the level of his personal security when visiting the UK. Prince Harry's lawyers argued that his treatment was "unlawful and unfair" and warned of "the impact on the UK's reputation of a successful attack" against the duke. However, the court ruled in favour of the Home Office, stating that the decision to accord him a lesser degree of publicly funded security was not irrational nor procedurally unfair. The duke's lawyers have announced their intention to appeal the ruling.

Universities face legal battle as students demand refunds

London Evening Standard / The Times??

Universities in the UK are facing a legal battle as thousands of students demand refunds for the quality of education during the pandemic. Over 150,000 students have joined a mass litigation case against British universities, accusing them of breaching their duty to provide in-person teaching and facilities. The claims, if successful, could cost the UK's university sector around ￡765m. Negotiations between University College London (UCL) and the students' lawyers have broken down, leading to the case proceeding to trial. Lawyers estimate that up to 4m UK students could be eligible for refunds, with demands of around ￡5,000 each. Data obtained by The Times shows that more than 99% of students have received no compensation for the quality of teaching during the pandemic. Of the 109 universities that responded to its freedom of information requests, 64 said they had given no refunds or compensation over teaching quality during Covid-19.