By Gabriel Princewill-
The Law Society has today slammed attempts to criticize lawyers over the UK’s business links with Russia in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion.
President .I. Boyce insisted that law firms had responded appropriately to the U turn in UK policy by quickly breaking to ties with Moscow.
Boyce’s comments was in response to a letter to The Times, in relation to a column declaring the moral obligation of law firms to investigate solicitors ‘enriching themselves and their firms by defending the powerful against scrutiny’.
Powerful individuals in the Uk have always in principle been bound by the same rules of open scrutiny by the law or the media as the ordinary member of society, but oligarchs have the financial might to hire the best legal practitioners to intimidate journalists probing their lifestyle.
Under the current climate and the Law Society today said it was looking forward to submitting its contribution to consultations in relation to the UK government’s plan in cracking down on privacy SLAPP actions.
Last week, the UK Government set out plans to crack down on wealthy people and businesses that had engaged in intimidating journalists by using defamation and privacy SLAPP actions( Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) to evade proper scrutiny of their dealings.
The proposals include strengthening the public interest defense in the Defamation Act 2013, capping the costs that claimants can recover to stop the high cost of litigation being “weaponised” against free speech, and the introduction of a requirement for claimants to prove “actual malice” in libel cases.
Under news laws in the foreseeable future, courts will be empowered to throw out SLAPP cases earlier in proceedings, and use civil restraint orders to stop people from bringing repeated cases.
‘While it is right the horrors in Ukraine prompt fundamental questions about relations between the UK and Russia, it is dangerous to seek scapegoats and single out British lawyers,’ Boyce said.
She adds: ‘Thirty years of national policy have been reversed in a matter of weeks, and rightly so. Our law firms have responded quickly to the invasion. All Russian offices of the largest British law firms have closed or been separated from the parent firm.’
Boyce also warned that these issues should not be conflated with strategic lawsuits against public participation, where many lawyers agree there is a ‘good argument’ for reform.
Representatives of the Law Society told The Eye Of the Media.Com that law firms play the important role of advising individuals and/or organizations about their compliance with sanctions, but would not support the idea of solicitors aiding powerful individuals to evade scrutiny by bullying journalist in any form or shape.
They added that they were looking forward to consultation in relation to slap laws in which rich Russian oligarchs have attempted to chill free speech.
The Law Society today said it was looking forward to submitting its contribution to consultations in relation to the UK government’s plan in cracking down on privacy SLAPP actions which had attempted to chill free speech.