Just before lunch at the best show in town this week — the trial of Boris Becker — Judge Deborah Taylor told the jury to ignore the grand-slam winner’s celebrity status. Not easy when at least ten police officers are posted at Southwark crown court in London. At least the security staff took the judge’s instructions to heart by giving Becker a thorough frisking and confiscating make-up and perfume from his girlfriend, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro. Becker has denied charges of concealing and removing property required by the receiver in his earlier bankruptcy proceedings.
Fighting for Ukraine . . .
The US law firm Quinn Emanuel announced this week that it will represent Ukraine’s justice ministry in a claim submitted to the European Court of Human Rights that describes the Kremlin’s invasion as “unprovoked, unjustified and unlawful”.
Justin Michaelson, a partner at the London office, was recently revealed to have acted in the past for Konstantin Malofeev, who was sanctioned by Ukraine after being accused of funding pro-Moscow separatists in 2014. Michaelson also acted for Sergei Pugachev, who helped to put President Putin in power. The firm says it is now acting for Ukraine free of charge.
. . . on the home front
The Bar Council of England and Wales is to help barristers and judges to do their bit for Ukraine. Using its relationship with the Ukrainian National Bar Association, it will pair barristers and judges here with Ukrainian lawyers and their families seeking to come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. The chairman of the Bar, Mark Fenhalls QC, announced the plan last night at the Temple Church, in the heart of legal London.
Winner’s dinner date
Read the winning entry to this year’s Times/One Essex Court essay competition here. The winner, Jeffrey Chu, a student at BBP University of Law in Manchester, was able to attend the awards dinner at Guildhall in London on Tuesday after last year’s event was forced online. Chu grew up in Hong Kong and came to the UK as a teenager.
Advertisement
William Kitchen, a student at the University of Oxford, was second and Thomas Beardsworth, a pupil barrister at QEB Hollis Whiteman, came third. The runners-up were James Cox and Frank Lawton, who both attend City, University of London, and Willem de Vries from the London School of Economics.
