Philip Gray

Blog: The decline of trials and the growth of mediation

Posted by Philip Gray on April 30, 2008 2:02 PM

In the last five years there has been a marked increase in the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and in particular mediation, as a means of settling disputes quickly and on a commercial basis. Despite the improvements to the litigation procedure in the post-Woolf era, litigation remains an expensive, time consuming and stressful process which can turn into a continuous drain on a businesses resources (management time and profits), often with costs in excess of the sum in dispute.

It is estimated that mediation saves UK businesses nearly £1 billion a year. As well as being quicker and cheaper, the mediation process lends itself to settlement as it brings about a more conciliatory attitude on the parties than might prevail in preparation for trial. Most mediators have a settlement success rate of over 70 per cent and in some cases as high as 95 per cent.

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Blog: It’s not just Dragons Den - Innovation and entrepreneurialism alive in Liverpool

Posted by Philip Gray on March 28, 2008 5:20 PM

Recent headlines reporting the sale of online networking site Bebo for around £290M show just how profitable a good idea can be. Inventing and entrepreneurialism in general has become ingrained in popular culture in recent years thanks largely to TV shows such as Dragons Den. The resurgence in entrepreneurialism is particularly evident in Liverpool thanks to the growth of organisations providing support and advice to budding entrepreneurs and inventors.

However, the fact remains that the vast majority of ideas never get off the drawing board. There are two hurdles facing an entrepreneur/inventor, and both can only be overcome by securing funding, and usually a lot of it. The first problem is getting a good idea on paper off the drawing board to produce a working prototype. The second is to obtain legal protection for the idea whether that be a patent or registered design right. Neither come cheap.

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Blog: Back in the Office

Posted by Philip Gray on March 10, 2008 5:38 PM

I’ve been away for a while (from the blog pages, not the desk), but the most interesting events of the past month have come, to a large extent, outside the office, or at least outside of Kirwans’ offices.

The most exciting of which was a trip down to London to attend a mediation at one of the large City firms, on one of our most demanding cases.

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Blog: Rafa's left it too late to claim

Posted by Philip Gray on February 4, 2008 9:35 AM

Last week saw employment lawyers getting very excited about the prospect of Rafa Benitez suing Liverpool Football Club for constructive dismissal after it became public that club owners Hicks and Gillett had approached Jurgen Klinsmann with a view to replacing Rafa. Constructive dismissal can be raised by an employee if they resign as a result of a fundamental breach of trust shown by the employer and do so soon after the breach. (Personally, I was far more excited about the fundamental breach in Liverpool’s defence that allowed Havant & Waterlooville to take the lead twice at Anfield last weekend!). Nevertheless, on the subject of constructive dismissal, the obvious setback for a potential claim is that Rafa, unsurprisingly, remains at the club. I can’t actually remember the last Premiership manager who actually resigned his position without leaving on the increasingly common “mutual consent” basis. Thus in all likelihood a claim was never a real possibility, much like Liverpool's title bid Rafa's left it a too late!

On to a slightly less glamorous, but far more relevant area of employment law to many in the North West, that being employment agencies. This is an area of law that has resulted in an increasing amount of litigation and uncertainly due mainly to the increase in EU migrants working in the primary and secondary sectors and the growth in agencies employing them.

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BLOG: Opening Thoughts...

Posted by Philip Gray on January 14, 2008 5:28 PM

How to start? How to start? And just how many minutes of my week am I actually going to spend pondering the same?!

These were my main thoughts this week. I considered an opening joke, introducing myself in the form of a lonely-heart ad and various other equally less humorous openings; then tried Googling ‘funny openings lines’, before deciding blatant plagiarism was best left in the past with my first year undergraduate history degree.

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