Eduardo Reyes

Rival lobbies clash on SEND rights Months of conciliatory meetings and more reports on special educational needs and disabilities have done little to reassure affected families that children's rights will not be significantly diluted.

A summer of 'outreach' on SEND reform did little to quell concerns that existing legal rights are threatened. I look at the rival lobbying and the outcome of two reports in today's @lawsocgazette

www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/riv...

The guest book of a rented holiday cottage You have likely driven in a ‘family car’ for somewhere between two and ten hours. Or perhaps you have taken a train from a major terminus – London Liverpool Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh Wa...

It's no secret that a rented self catering holiday cottage is my favourite break. That is not least because of the comments we get to read in the 'guest book', left by previous visitors - revealed here... Welcome back everyone - I know what you wrote.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/guest-...

Land, peace, security… and children, surely? Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, at least 19,546 Ukrainian children have been taken. There is talk of a land deal, but no children deal is on the table.

Land but no children - observing the diplomacy around Ukraine, it feels like we've landed in 'Vulgaria'. Except world leaders would be content to take a flight home without children being freed.
Thoughts for today's Gazette.

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Thank you for saying - that's very much appreciated.

SEND reform and legal rights The 'parents of disabled children' club was one I didn't want to join, and yet was shattered to leave with the death of my daughter in February. Re-engaging with these issues at this time, I find extr...

100-plus public figures, academics and campaign groups warn 'every sign from the government suggests the right to an EHCP is to be removed from children attending mainstream schools.' I unpick the battle over legal rights & @lawsocgazette's dealings w DfE
www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/sen...

When clients cry in conference A client in tears is a test of the balance between head and heart. How, in practice, can this delicate balance be struck?

How to respond when clients cry - a nicely considered article for @lawsocgazette by barrister and clinical negligence specialist Daniel Sokol.

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Existential dilemma Existential dilemma

The impossible position of law firms that gave in to Trump's executive orders - damage to global partnerships, on the hook for permanent government interference in their business, and pro bono work no-one wants to do... my thoughts in leader of today's Gazette: edition.pagesuite.com/infinity/art...

This could be the European Century Europe can seem to move slowly, but it is showing it can adapt in finance and defence. Our social welfare safety nets are under stress, but they exist.

Viewed through a 'rule of law' lens, China, and now the US, have huge, self-imposed disadvantages in law, business and society.

In Europe, if we do things right, this could be another 'European Century'.

My thoughts for today's Law Society Gazette.

www.lawgazette.co.uk/commentary-a...

'Safety' v autonomy The Commons committee stage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has concluded. Now extensively amended, is the legislation fit for purpose? Eduardo Reyes reports.

I take a look at the amended assisted dying legislation ahead of a Commons vote on 16 May. It's far from the beast opponents claim, but its safeguards and processes are an exhausting threat to autonomy.
www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/saf...

This is Stanley Ley moving into the lucrative leisure wear sector.

If anyone thinks my US friends and relatives won't pay extra for European cheese, then they haven't tasted US cheese.
#tariffs

Amy Reyes obituary Other lives: Music-loving teenager who was a consummate communicator, despite the restrictions imposed on her by Rett syndrome

Our daughter Amy's obituary in the Guardian's Other Lives section - just published online. She was a complex, clever, severely disabled music loving girl who didn't suffer fools, and who changed our lives. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

JD Vance providing a moving reminder in the Oval Office today that Trump is not the only thin skinned crazy in the White House.

Law Society Gazette Law Society Gazette - 14/02/2025

"It was awful if I'm honest." Irwin Mitchell's prizewinning Alison Eddie talks progress with me - from harassment and getting male colleagues' page 3 pinups taken down, to leading a 450-strong London office with a majority female partnership.
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I don't know why Trump seems bothered by the International Criminal Court. It could only come after him for a future war crime if US courts weren't able to keep him accountable.

Oh hang on...

Deposits R Us? Deposits R Us?

Critics say the SRA's consultation on an end to solicitors holding client money is a distraction from its regulatory failures; the SRA counters it's part of a much bigger piece of consumer protection and rights work. My article for today's Gazette.

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As we look at the Trump tariffs and trade threats, does strike me that if the USA had spent the post-1970 period making better cars and nicer cheese, to take two examples, more people would buy American anyway.

Just a thought.

'Protecting every bat and every newt': busting myths about nature conservation and planning Chancellor Rachel Reeves says we have gone too far in 'protecting every bat and every newt' and should 'crack on and get the development built'.

Freeths partner Penny Simpson takes a bat's eye view of Rachel Reeves assertion that nature's newts are getting in the way of growth for today's Law Society Gazette.
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I'm not sure Agincourt is a very good name for a British warship anyway - you know, given the French won the Hundred Years War.

Harriet’s desert songs Harriet’s desert songs

Feminist campaigning lawyer Harriet Wistrich was excellent on Desert Island Discs - reflected in the Gazette's Obiter column today. Episode being repeated on Radio 4 right now.

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Starmer blasts 'Nimbys and zealots gumming up the legal system' 'Current rules don't work', prime minister writes ahead of annnouncement on judicial review reform.

Odd, isn't it, the way it doesn't matter which party is in power - once they are in power, they go off judicial review, and decide it must be what's keeping them just short of brilliance in public office.

www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/starmer...

I think we're at the start of another four year period of no pet dog in the White House.

Sitting out a corporate 'war on woke' Mark Zuckerberg wants 'masculine energy' to replace 'feminine energy' in the work place. For reasons of sound business, and common sense, law firm leaders won't agree.

As Trump hits the Whitehouse, will US and global law firms join big tech's rush to abandon equality and diversity efforts? I think not. Their experience of looking at, not least, gender pay gaps shows the financial and productivity cost of talent getting 'stuck'
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Anyway, happy Martin Luther King Day, everyone.

We could have danced all night After the Solicitors' Waltz, something to have M&A lawyers reaching for their dancing shoes.

As welcomed the new year, the traditional New Year's Day Concert in Vienna had a treat for M&A lawyers - grab your [equity] partner by the hand for the Transactions Waltz... www.lawgazette.co.uk/obiter/we-co...

Happy Christmas from us. (Me with our youngest daughter, Amy, yesterday). X

I am bowled over that Women's Legal Landmarks in the Interwar Years, which I co-edited with Rosemary Auchmuty and Erika Rackley, has been named one of the best legal books of the year in @thetimes.com. What great news just before Christmas! Buy it here www.bloomsbury.com/uk/womens-le...

Jonathan Aitken discussing C of E and child abuse by clergy on R4's The World At One, provides a moving reminder of the lens of denial that led him to a prison sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Law firm at centre of LPA allegations ‘may sue BBC’ Craybeck Law hits out at 'misleading and inaccurate' BBC investigation into its use of lasting powers of attorney.

Essex law firm at the centre of a BBC investigation into malpractice around Lasting Powers of Attorney self-reports to the SRA and says it may sue BBC.

Also MoJ declined to strengthen protections around LPAs urged by the Law Society: www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/law-fir...

International Human Rights Day Are enough non-lawyers celebrating Human Rights Day?

"My grandfather Narciso Reyes had to fight disbelief at the freshly endorsed words on the page."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed by the UN General Assembly meeting in Paris 76 years ago today. So happy Human Rights Day. Wrote this in 2015
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