Focus On' Professional Liability

• Published date: 27 July 2023
• Law Firm: Gatehouse Chambers
• Author: Gatehouse Chambers

Introduction

In our latest Focus On: Professional Liability, we have collated our activity and articles from recent months, including great news of a judicial appointment in the team, as well as links to our popular Brews including one on the ever prevalent and topical threat of AI.

News

Ebony Alleyne appointed by the Lord Chief Justice as a Deputy Master of the King's Bench Division

We are delighted to announce that Ebony Alleyne has been appointed by the Lord Chief Justice as a Deputy Master of the King's Bench Division. Ebony will sit in the Royal Courts of Justice.

Joint Head of Chambers, Charles Bagot KC, commented: "We could not be more thrilled that Ebony has been appointed to this prestigious part-time Judicial role following the latest competitive selection exercise. Ebony will be an outstanding addition to the ranks of High Court Deputy Masters."

Ebony will continue to practise at Gatehouse Chambers and this judicial role will complement her successful construction and commercial practice.

Recent articles

ChatGPT - Generative AI and the Law

Readers will probably have heard by now of OpenAI's ChatGPT. Many of you will have experimented with it, or one of the other available generative artificial intelligence (AI) models such as Microsoft's Bing. If you have not yet utilised any of these new technologies, you will very likely have read about them. This article is based on my experience with this novel technology, chiefly ChatGPT, as at May 2023, and aims to provide some thoughts on the potential benefits and pitfalls for the legal profession in its use as well as examples of potential use cases.

Click here to read the full article by Charlotte John.

Why Can't We Have Both? Solicitors' Liens in Equity and the Taking of New Security

The equitable lien is the traditional means by which equity provides a form of security for the recovery by solicitors of their agreed charges for the successful conduct of litigation, out of the fruits of that litigation. As Lord Briggs explained in the recent case of Gavin Edmondson Solicitors Ltd v Haven Insurance Co Ltd [2018] UKSC 21 at [3]-[4], the solicitor's equitable lien is a security interest and is enforceable against the proceeds of the litigation up to the amount contractually due to the solicitor, in priority to the interest of the successful client, or anyone claiming through the client. As stated in both Gavin Edmondson and Bott & Co Solicitors v Ryanair DAC [2022] UKSC 8, it also serves the...