1EC Barristers Newsletter April 2025

Welcome to the 1EC Barristers Newsletter April 2025 Edition.

The Millionaire Cat

“Meet Whiskers, a fluffy Persian cat who has just become the sole beneficiary of a six-figure trust fund following the death of his owner.”

That is the fascinating opening to the article about a case that landed on the desk of Nina Roberts recently.

If you are thinking of leaving your inheritance to a loved pet, you’ll want to read the article here.

ADR

We continue to build and expand our Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) offering, recognising that some disputes can be challenging to litigate cost-effectively, and in many cases, legal costs can quickly exceed the value of the original claim.

Headed up by Joseph Giret KC and Huw Davies, our ADR Team is able to offer accredited barristers who can act as arbitrators and/or mediators, as well as represent clients within arbitrations, mediations or any other form of alternative dispute resolution e.g. adjudication, dispute boards, expert determination etc.

For mediations, we also offer a fixed fee structure, which you can download here.

Seminar

Jonathan Miller, Emma Kiver, and Meg Cochrane  presented to Lovetts last week on the options available to creditors and debtors alike when faced with insolvency proceedings. They covered how to prepare for and navigate the proceedings in the most efficient and cost-effective way and avoid common pitfalls.

Thank you to the Lovetts team for being such wonderful hosts!

LinkedIn

Are you following us on LinkedIn?

We’re going to be more active on there going forward so it would be great to connect with you.

Appearances

Reading FC Litigation

Jonathan Miller and Meg Cochrane have been instructed by Kitson Boyce LLP to act for Mr Rob Couhig in his ongoing litigation against the current owners of Reading FC.

Having successfully represented Mr Couhig at a hearing before the Commercial Court on 21st March 2025, it emerged in the course of the hearing that the EFL has given Reading FC’s current beneficial owner, Mr Dai Yongge, until 4th April 2025 to sell the club. With both this deadline and the play-offs coming up shortly, the fate of Reading FC will continue to be of significant public interest.

This case continues to be covered by various major news outlets and newspapers, including BBC News, Sky Sports Online and The Times.

Prof Choudhury v The Information Commissioner

Meanwhile, Jacob Meagher FRSA TEP successfully acted for Professor Choudhury (a Professor of Journalism) in the Information Tribunal against the Information Commissioner and the Judicial Appointments Commission – represented by the GLD.

The JAC has been ordered to disclose “All situational and other questions, specimen answers and the scoring framework utilised in the following exercises:
‘The Deputy High Court selection exercises for 2021, 2022 and 2023’ and ‘The Specialist Circuit Judge selection exercises held in 2021, 2022 and 2023.’

Additionally, the JAC must disclose communications leading to the early retirement of Dr Jarvis, its former chief executive.

The JAC remains under intense scrutiny as the Chair of the JAC has lost the confidence of the Lord Chancellor in the wake of the CCRC fiasco.

You can read the judgment here.

And finally…

We didn’t know this ourselves, but Diego F Soto-Miranda has confirmed that he was the first Latin American Barrister at the English and Welsh Bar.

A great feat that you can read more about here.

Until the next time…

1EC Barristers