All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1257
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News
Fixed fees may prompt firms to lose track of profits
At first blush there is no obvious link between fixed fees, Halifax expanding its legal offering and law firm mergers, but together they encapsulate the challenge facing smaller practices. When the cry goes up to ‘do something’ in the face of difficult times, the ‘something’ most ...
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Firms merging for the wrong reasons, study shows
Nearly 60% of small and medium-sized law firms are looking to grow through merger and acquisition, but they risk giving themselves bigger headaches, new research seen exclusively by the Gazette has claimed. The survey of 188 practices by the 360 Legal Group found that 59% have ...
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Pay gap poser
Is not the headline ‘Pay gap points to discrimination’ undermined by one of the figures in the article (see [2009] Gazette, 9 July, 1)? The greatest discrepancy of all between male and female pay is apparently 34% for sole practitioners.
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Out-of-work lawyers lured by global volunteer projects
Out-of-work solicitors are turning to international volunteer projects to keep their hand in during the recession, according to a leading development charity. Challenges Worldwide, which recruits and trains volunteers with professional skills to work with partners in developing countries, has seen an upward trend in the ...
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The guide to sentencing and precedents
Banks on Sentence, Robert Banks, Robert Banks, £46 ‘Fings ain’t wot they used to be’ as your criminal client might say. Time was when he, you and judges had an instinct fashioned by experience which led, more or less, ...
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Jordans sets precedent for mining useful information
Jordans Company Secretarial PrecedentsPeter Van Duzer, Cecile GillardJordans, £120 I was delighted when I was asked to review Jordans Company Secretarial Precedents, as it is a book I have always had to hand.
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Speaking out of turn
There is such a thing as asking for trouble. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949, the Legal Services Commission set up a special website last May, and then invited practitioners and the public to post comments about their experiences of legal aid.
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Pedal power
Hats off to members of the new South Essex Junior Lawyers Division, who completed a gruelling 60-mile bike ride from London to Southend last week. The trainee solicitors raised more than £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation, managing to cross the finish line despite one of the team, Ausilia Matraxia, ...
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Halifax Legal Express and the fierce urgency of now
How difficult can it be to understand that the legal services market has changed? Radio 4's 'Chambers' broadcast its first episode this week and they are still referring to the legal changes to come in 2011/12. They are correct in that, at least, as alternative business structures will be sorted ...
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Should the CPS be renamed the Public Prosecution Service?
Last week Keir Starmer QC held a press briefing to announce the publication of a colourful little pamphlet designed to inform the public about the future of the service he leads.
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Regulation and free markets
In Europe, hardly a day goes by without news of further regulation of the financial services sector in the wake of the economic crisis.
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Practising certificate fee set to rise by 19%
The Law Society’s Council last week ‘reluctantly’ voted to increase the practising certificate (PC) fee by nearly a fifth. The 2010 fee will be £1,180, up from £995. The full contribution to the Compensation Fund will rise from £150 to £390. In ...
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Why are we behind Dubai on courts IT?
On the Gazette we’ve been here many times before, but that’s only because I feel duty-bound to keep pointing this out: we could have a really tidy electronic filing and document management (EFDM) system for our commercial courts (and beyond) for a fraction of the price that we appear to ...
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Data page for July 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data.DownloadsDownload the data page for July 2009 below:Data page 20 July 2009 (192kb)
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Claims management market booms with 60% rise in number of firms
The number of businesses entering the claims management market has risen by 60% in the past year, new figures show, while the industry’s regulator said solicitors were responsible for malpractice in personal injury claims-handling. The Claims Management Regulator’s 2009 impact assessment revealed that 2,885 businesses were ...
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Debt blocks access
The final report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions should have been seen as the propaganda it is.
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Bar Council accuses CPS of ‘Alice in Wonderland accounting’
The Bar Council accused the Crown Prosecution Service of ‘Alice in Wonderland accounting’ this week over the CPS’s claim to have saved millions using its own lawyers rather than external advocates. In its 2007/08 annual report, the CPS said it had saved £17.1m ...
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Solicitors hit by HSBC bank charges on client accounts
HSBC, the world’s biggest bank, has taken a ‘commercial decision’ to introduce extra charges for solicitors which could add thousands of pounds to law firms’ banking bills, the Gazette has learned. The new policy, which applies specifically to solicitors, comes despite the fact that most client ...