Earlier this year Andrew represented a professional person before a regulator. There was no factual dispute about what he had done, but much argument about his motives and whether his activities fell properly within the ambit of the regulator. We also advanced a medical defence in respect of his admitted conduct. The hearing was conducted […]
COVID-19 and doing justice
These are difficult times and Andrew and I do hope that everyone we have and currently work with are keeping healthy and coping with the restrictions. Courts, tribunals and regulators are struggling somewhat to adapt the processes of justice to the new reality. Some hearings on technical points or case management can proceed online without […]
Lawyers for Teachers
Take a look at our new website dedicated to our work with education professionals
Ghosh! I honestly thought I understood dishonesty, but I was wrong…
(by the standards of ordinary Supreme Court judges). As a non-lawyer drawn to the bar I “converted” via a one year cramming course then known as the Common Professional Examination, now the Postgraduate Diploma in Law. You study the six core subjects of a law degree in one year. One of the first topics […]
Every school is meant to be religious
In 2014 the “Trojan Horse” scandal broke in Birmingham. It was said that a group of hard-line conservative Muslim parents and teachers had set out to systematically take over and “islamify” state schools in Birmingham. At the heart of the lurid headlines was the Park View Academy Trust. For years, Park View School had effectively […]
Time to reform teacher regulation
The National College for Teaching and Leadership was born from a rushed decision by a deeply political secretary of state to abolish the General Teaching Council for England in March 2012. Given its recent failures there may be voices calling for the NCTL to be culled in turn. I would resist these calls. The faults […]
Limiting the cost of appealing
Here at the Reflective Practice we rarely advise clients to appeal to the High Court against a decision of the regulator. Of course, one reason for that is that we nearly always get the result we are expecting and there is no need. But in those rare cases where we disagree with what has happened […]