ANNUAL REVIEW 2018 WELCOME CONTENTS There are two key themes in this year’s Bindmans Annual Review: our work defending whistleblowers, and issues Defending whistleblowers arising from Brexit. We are also mindful that a further twelve months have passed without any answers coming out 04 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. We have a dedicated team of lawyers who are representing in the region of 190 of the 10 The human cost of the hostile environment former residents of the Tower; they are working intensely to ensure that as core participants in the Inquiry their voices Grenfell Tower - time for the companies to speak are heard. We are concerned that those responsible for the design, construction and refurbishment of the Tower 12 have remained silent; as Paul Ridge states, only a few of those corporate core participants invited to make opening 14 Brexit: rights to a fair vote and a change of heart statements have done so. 16 Koshka Duff Our cover story features Chris Wylie, the man who blew the whistle on his former employer Cambridge Analytica. The 18 Professional negligence: what do do if you have received bad advice from your impact of his actions has been felt far and wide. Tamsin Allen writes of her visits with Chris to the US, to Canada and professional advisers Trinidad. It is a complex case and demonstrates the firm’s skill in cross-departmental working, involving lawyers from 20 Justice for Julian Cole our Public Law, Crime and Employment teams. 22 Adopting an adult We are delighted that The Guardian chose to include four of our cases in a key article on the experience of 23 Search, sift and seizure of legally privileged and journalistic material whistleblowers. Peter Daly and Robert Maddox detail some of these cases including Shahmir Sanni whose own case is Better communication: the route to more satisfied NHS patients? linked to Chris Wylie’s. 24 26 What is a Serious Crime Prevention Order? Brexit has been at the forefront of most people’s minds in 2018. John Halford, Amy Rowe and Clara Barry Born look Deal or no deal: Family law post-Brexit at some of the issues. John charts the work he has undertaken for Fair Vote in bringing a judicial review to the Prime 28 Minister’s decision not to set up an inquiry into the irregularities in the EU Referendum campaign; he goes on to look 30 The problem with police disclosure at the possibility of revoking the Article 50 notice and holding a second referendum. Amy and Clara outline the impact 32 The year of the whistleblower of a deal scenario and the possibility of continuing reciprocal arrangements for families with other EU member states. They also consider the situation for cases involving children, divorce, maintenance and domestic violence if there is no 34 #MeToo and the systemic prosecutorial disclosure failings that the campaign deal. did not need Apology to Lybian man arrested after Manchester bombing for false allegation of Much of our work relates to challenging the Government, the Police or a State agency. Rachel Harger’s and Jules 36 Carey’s case for family of Julian Cole, Ella Jefferson’s article on failures in the Crown Prosecution Service, Laura Hobey- ISIS link Hamsher’s story of Beth and Mitchell, Jude Lanchin’s observations on the Gang Matrix, Ashley Fleming and Abigail 38 Extremism and hate speech: a matter of fact or opinion? Evans on the hostile environment concept and Lana Adamou’s case of Hannah are all examples of the cases that our All you need is love? solicitors undertake every day. In some instances, this has an international dimension as Saimo Chahal’s Buttet case 40 and Kate Goold’s and Alison Stanley’s work for a client facing extradition indicate. 42 The Gang Matrix Extradition and asylum: prosecution or persecution? There are two stories in the Review relating to the Press, each with a different stance. Jessica Skinns writes of the 44 treatment of confidential journalistic material under search, sift and seizure procedures. Tamsin Allen recounts owns 46 Clarifying the law on State Immunity in the European Court of Human Rights of her cases to illustrate the damage that is done when newspapers identify a person early in a criminal investigation. 48 Dishonesty and criminality Jessica states that the protection of journalists and their sources are the cornerstone of a fully functioning free press; Tamsin’s case shows what happens when that freedom is misused. 50 Baby love? Maternity discrimination in the workplace Many clients come to us following receiving poor advice from another professional firm, possibly an accountant and often another solicitor. Alison Mackintosh sets out the range of our professional negligence work and some of the successes that have been achieved. At a time of reduced public funding and limitations on the use of Conditional Fee Arrangements, I would like to thank my colleagues for their passion for justice, their commitment and their pioneering spirit which, in many instances, have secured successes for their clients and, in the case of some individuals, made their lives so much better. David Harris, Chief Executive his former company Cambridge mainstream media had covered up. inception worked exclusively and Analytica had obtained data about closely with Cambridge Analytica. HIV+ pregnant women, ostensibly At the time Chris joined Cambridge He and Shahmir were convinced to work out why they were not Analytica he was in his early that Vote Leave had overspent and taking anti retro-viral drugs, but had twenties and doing a PhD in Fashion cheated in the campaign and that then deployed this data to target trend forecasting in London. AIQ had helped. Shahmir came to them in an election campaign by He is gay, vegan, a liberal with see us and showed us how a Google the former health minister, with progressive values. I asked him Drive shared by him and others discussions of profitable kick-backs how on earth he ended up working inside the Vote Leave campaign had in the form of investment offers in with these people. The explanation been altered in a way which looked national infrastructure. The pattern was complex, but part of it related highly suspicious and yet another was repeated around the world. to his intellectual curiosity and incredible part of the story unfolded. He told me how the company the benevolent potential of using had stolen medical data and information about people to affect Shahmir had been working as a leaked it in the Nigerian elections; their behaviour. There was also the volunteer on a youth outreach circulated a video of people being context – in 2013 no one had heard programme within Vote Leave murdered to vulnerable voters to of Steve Bannon, the Alt Right still after leaving University. Suddenly, stoke Islamaphobia and examined appeared to be a bunch of crazy old less than two weeks before the Trinidadian internet browser men and Trump was a washed up Referendum, his programme, histories to build up ‘pre-crime’ reality TV star. Chris stayed with the BeLeave, was given a huge donation profiles for the security minister. company for less than a year and of around £675,000 all of which left when it became clear how it was went straight to AIQ without even At the heart of all this was the use of enabling far right actors. When he touching the BeLeave bank account. DEFENDING WHISTLEBLOWERS individual data to distort elections. realised that its work in the US had AIQ was working in the Vote Leave Chris explained how the far right influenced the outcome of the 2016 Office on its digital strategies. At realised that in order to change election, he started to talk. the time, Shahmir assumed that politics, you have to change culture. everything was being done legally To do that, you need to know how Chris next explained to me that his as the lawyer at Vote Leave had ike many others, I had more like a musician or activist than between Robert Mercer and Steve people tick. The way to do that is information went even further than been advising the young volunteers. Lbeen captivated by Carole the former research director of a Bannon from the US and SCL, a to use their online and social media the vast landscape of corruption However, after the referendum Cadwalladr’s article in the Observer major international company. He company used to operating in a data, an incredibly rich seam of he had already revealed to me. His and following press coverage, about shadowy companies working told me over a series of meetings military context with the credibility golden information about their friend Shahmir Sanni had worked Shahmir realised he had been used to disrupt elections and by her about a complex web of military of old Etonians and military most intimate lives. Couple that inside the Vote Leave campaign effectively to commit electoral fraud. long and thoughtful investigations contractors, private intelligence connections. with disinformation and rumour, all headquarters, Vote Leave had Two of the Vote Leave officials into possible cheating in the firms and military surveillance individually targeted, and you have spent 40% of its whole budget on a involved are now senior advisors to Referendum campaign. During the technologies being deployed It sounded almost unbelievable, a uniquely powerful tool. When data firm, AIQ, which had since its Theresa May and the project was summer of 2017 I received a request against British and American voters. but Chris had kept a meticulous I asked how this differs from any from the Observer to advise one of He described corrupt deals in former catalogue of documents and the other sort of electioneering, or even her confidential sources.