All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1268
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News
Town halls call for monitoring officers with legal expertise
Local authorities are overwhelmingly in favour of requiring monitoring officers to be legally qualified, a recent consultation by Solicitors in Local Government (SLG) and the Law Society has revealed.
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Chancery Lane drive to promote high street solicitors
The Law Society is to launch a £250,000 advertising campaign to promote high street solicitors next week. The latest campaign, which takes a Beatles theme with the strapline ‘Help, I need somebody’, will be featured in the print media and on posters in more than 200 ...
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Supreme confidence
Joshua Rozenberg’s article reports Lord Neuberger’s warnings about the ‘peril’ of ‘mucking around’ with the British constitution by creating a UK Supreme Court (see [2009] Gazette, 3 September, 6).
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The cost of HIPs
Mr Ockenden, director general of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers, was rather disingenuous in his letter about estate agents ‘overcharging’ for HIPs (see [2009] Gazette, 3 September, 11).
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General counsel opt for quality over cost, says thinktank
Corporate general counsel are not particularly concerned about the size of legal bills when considering the value of work done by their external law firms, new research has suggested. In-house thinktank Global Leaders in Law, which examined how general counsel measure value in legal services, found ...
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Questioning the single renewal date for PII
Should there be a single renewal date for solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance? The question is an old one, and when the PII market is soft, competition heavy, and premiums low, answers are less forthcoming. But now that there are real renewal problems facing many law firms, the question becomes a ...
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Legal market guru Hodgart predicts 'global elite' of firms
Four of the five magic circle law firms will step into an emerging international elite, advising on only the biggest deals and paying the most lucrative partner salaries, according to legal market guru Alan Hodgart. In an interview with the Gazette, Hodgart, a consultant at business ...
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Firms keep trainees 'in limbo', says JLD
Trainees and junior lawyers are being unfairly kept ‘in limbo’ as firms delay making a decision on whether to retain them until the last moment as a result of the recession, the Gazette has learned. Kevin Poulter, former chairman of the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD), said ...
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SRA unveils mortgage fraud probe
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to examine the role played by solicitors in mortgage fraud as it marshalls its resources to tackle the escalating problem. The SRA claimed its investigations have already led to frauds worth several million pounds being thwarted. Over ...
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Sick and frustrated
Our property departments are decimated by the effects of a global recession created by causes totally beyond our control and yet for which we still suffer. Our sole practitioner colleagues are being threatened with expulsion from conveyancing panels, as a result of which many could lose their livelihoods.
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News
Getting to grips with points-based immigration
Immigration continues to be a highly politicised and sensitive area. The government is keen to use objective data received on the impact of migration on the British economy to continue to monitor and change the newly introduced points-based system (PBS). The government is eager to demonstrate that the pledged flexibility ...
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Hamming it up
Obiter must confess to feeling slightly sheepish. Last week, this column teased magic circle firm Allen & Overy for scrimping on the pennies, when it sent out its annual report, but neglected to include all the gastronomic breakfast goodies – posh pastries, marmalade ...
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Legal sitcom Lunch Monkeys hits the TV screen
A sitcom set in the postroom of a personal injury law firm and starring Nigel Havers made its debut last week. Lunch Monkeys, which debuted on BBC3 on Thursday and was watched by 403,000 viewers, is a six-part series written by former solicitor David Isaac. ...
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Real property
Compensation – Compulsory purchase – Neighbouring land – Rental value (1) Stewart John Pattle (2) Craig Pattle v Secretary of State for Transport: UT (Lands) (Judge Huskinson, Andrew Trott): 21 July 2009 ...
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Supermarket scoop?
There was great excitement at Obiter Towers last week. For a few short minutes, it seemed the much heralded ‘Tesco Law’ had finally arrived. And the Gazette had missed the scoop. An article in International Supermarket News revealed that Tesco had launched an online legal ...
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Keep your head, and your past clients
It's difficult to write a positive article when solicitors' firms are facing the reality of Professor Stephen Mayson's prediction from a couple of years ago, when he told the profession that thousands of firms faced extinction.
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News
Surge in online professional networking
Nearly a third of professionals have set up an online professional profile, research showed this week. A study of more than 2,000 professionals commissioned by business network LinkedIn showed that 29% now have an online business profile. More than one-fifth of those ...
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Law Society publishes Excellence Awards shortlist
The Law Society published the shortlist for its legal Excellence Awards this week. Entrants range from David Wilde, the senior partner of a two-partner Devonshire firm who has been shortlisted for private practice solicitor of the year, through to the microfinance working group at magic circle ...
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Lawyers, the rule of law and trust
On a happy introductory note, I can record that lawyers gained a major victory this week at European level. Before submitting himself to a vote in the European Parliament to support his candidacy to be renominated as president of the European Commission (a vote he won), José Manuel Barroso conceded ...