Narrowly misses out on quarter-final spot Credit: BBC/Shine TV A Burges Salmon lawyer has cooked up a storm on MasterChef, only narrowly missing out on a spot in the quarter-final. David Arnold, a senior associate in the construction and engineering team at the Bristolian firm, took part in the eight heat of the competition last night. Admitted as a solicitor in 2010, Arnold spoke before the competition about his passion for cooking with seasonal, homegrown food. “I like to cook with seasonal food, often vegetables from my parent’s allotment, and challenge myself to use them in different int ..read more

Weekly round-up of the top legal blogosphere posts A right to protest? [The Critic] Michaela School prayer ban: allowing for religious diversity in education is a tradition in England [The Conversation] Serco ‘self-cleaned’, says ministry [A Lawyer Writes] ‘I felt this was an abuse of power’: the climate activist who took on the law and won [The Guardian] The Safety of Rwanda Act, Slavery and the Common Law [UK Constitutional Law Association] The legal lessons of Barbenheimer [Legal Cheek Journal] Why can’t the police admit these are hate marches? [Spiked] Democratizing Entrepreneurship: New ..read more

High profile legal figures to address delegates at Legal Cheek’s annual in-person conference in just three weeks’ time Clockwise from top left: Jim Moser, Director of Professional Development at The University of Law; Mike Kochkin, CEO of BeSavvy; Matthew Leopold, Head of Brand and Insight at LexisNexis; Samantha Hope, Head of Emerging Talent at Shoosmiths; Lorna Bailey, Head of Learning and Development at Fletchers Solicitors; George McNeilly, Early Careers Partner at DWF; Pedro Leake-Bandeira, Trainee solicitor at Accutrainee; Rachel Boyle, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Legal Neurodiversit ..read more

Focus on entertainment law A Canadian law school is set to launch a Taylor Swift centred entertainment law module this autumn. Queen’s University’s law school is launching the programme after part-time associate dean of academic policy at the law faculty, and full-time ‘Swiftie’, Mohamed Khimji “spontaneously” came up with the idea when talking about the star with a colleague. “I was just chatting with one of my colleagues [who’s] also a fan and we were just going through her recorded albums and debating which one was better, the Taylor’s version or the original version of that”, he said, be ..read more

Other options include libraries, churches and supermarkets Pop-up courts should be set up in a range of unlikely places to restore faith in the criminal justice system and tackle the huge backlog in cases, a former Court of Appeal judge has reportedly suggested. Libraries, pubs, supermarkets, church halls, and schools during the holidays have all been offered by Dame Anne Rafferty as locations for pop-up courts. Whilst the “big sell” would be “lining up community with justice”, a “bonus point” would be a reduction in the sizeable backlog in the crown courts, currently sitting at 67,000 cases ..read more

19% earnings difference within two years The gender pay gap between male and female barristers begins immediately after qualification, new research has shown. The new analysis by the Bar Council suggests that the gap in earnings starts in the first year of practice, and cannot be explained by caring responsibilities, choice of practice area, or amount of legal aid funded work undertaken. The New practitioner earnings differentials at the self-employed Bar report looks specifically at at barristers with zero to three years experience. The data shows that women’s median earnings are 13% lower ..read more

Career changer seeks guidance In the latest instalment in our Career Conundrums series, a civil servant is eager to understand his likelihood of securing a training contract with a “good” City law firm. “I have a 2.1 in law from a top target university. I graduated over 5 years ago and have worked in government across a number of departments including the Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. I now run a team and have management responsibilities — for those familiar with civil service grades, I am a Grade 7.” “Unfortunately, whilst I secured a 2.1, this was a low 2.1 – and I rec ..read more

£7,200 bill A solicitor apprentice who failed in an employment claim after showing “complete and utter disregard” for the tribunal and her former law firm has been handed a £7,200 costs order. Forzana Khanom, who filed the claim against London-based firm Mishcon de Reya, hit headlines earlier this month when her case was dismissed after she disregarded the tribunals orders in a “persistent, long-lasting, and egregious” manner. The final straw appears to have come when Khanom failed to turn up to a case management hearing, only notifying the court 25 minutes beforehand that she couldn’t join ..read more

Avoids jail A solicitor has been handed a suspended prison sentence after siphoning off a client’s £132,000 divorce settlement to pay her tax bill. Analiza Kjaer, 50, was given a two-year sentence suspended for two years and ordered to complete 100 hours unpaid work after spending the money acquired by fraud by abuse of position on tax bills, and giving some to her daughter. A judge sitting at the Old Bailey heard how Kjaer, who was struck off last year, had been abused by her husband, and suffered from mental health problems, CourtNewsUK (£) reports. Having previously set up Able Law in Lon ..read more

Could request super regulator investigation The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has slammed the £250 offered by assessment provider Kaplan to SQE students affected by last week’s major marking blunder, arguing that it doesn’t even “begin to repair the damage that has been caused”. In a statement on LinkedIn, the representative body said, “an error of this magnitude is simply not acceptable,” and that it would be seeking an urgent meeting with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to discuss how it proposes to rectify this “latest issue.” Last week, it emerged that a calculation error had l ..read more