All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1433
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Personal injury solicitors will cut use of CFAs, poll finds
Personal injury lawyers will cut the number of conditional fee agreements they offer to clients as a direct result of the civil justice funding reforms announced by the government last week, according to research seen exclusively by the Gazette. A survey of 100 claimant personal injury ...
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Clifford Chance opens in Istanbul
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance today opened an office in Istanbul, to work alongside affiliate Turkish firm Yegin Legal Consultancy. Banking and finance partner Simon Williams will head the office, which will focus on infrastructure, energy, finance, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets work. ...
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Society defends solicitors over legal aid
The Law Society president has reacted to negative news coverage concerning the growth in the number of solicitors. The Society president Linda Lee has written to the Daily Mail newspaper in response to an article published yesterday under the headline ‘Now we have more lawyers than ...
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Public backs compulsory mediation assessments
Two-thirds of the public support the new enforced mediation assessments being introduced for divorcing and separating couples tomorrow, according to research published by City firm Charles Russell. Under the rules, which come into force on 6 April, couples seeking to take private law family cases to ...
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Bill Clinton and marketing your law firm
Former US president Bill Clinton may not be the first name that springs to mind when it comes to law firm marketing but he came up with some good advice that can help anyone wanting to get a message across. And getting a message across ...
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Surveyors need solicitors to be up-to-date on dilapidations cases
Advances in construction techniques and material science have allowed for the design of more colourful and exciting buildings over the last twenty years. As well as new buildings, old buildings can be given a new lease of life by re-cladding the exterior, using these new ...
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Is the latest mediation drive just a cloak for legal aid cuts?
The government’s new mediation protocol came into force yesterday, requiring couples to attend a mediation awareness session before embarking on legal proceedings to resolve financial and children-related issues after divorce or separation. Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly has become a dedicated follower of mediation, heralding it as ...
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Government bids to improve social mobility in professions
The government has launched a strategy to end the culture of privilege that sees former independent school pupils dominating the top jobs in the judiciary and boardroom to the exclusion of people from less affluent backgrounds, it emerged today. Launching the new strategy Opening Doors, Breaking ...
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New tax on settlors imposes ‘cumbersome bureaucracy’
A new system for collecting tax from settlor interested trusts is complex and expensive, and imposes a ‘cumbersome bureaucracy’ on everyone involved, the Law Society has warned. A settlor interested trust is one where a person – the settlor - has placed assets, such as money ...
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Bribery Act guidance
It is now 13 years since the UK committed to fulfil its obligations under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and almost nine years since it became a signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption. In that time, there has been an unremitting flow of effort aimed ...
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Carlisle solicitor admits fraud
A former Carlisle solicitor is awaiting sentence after admitting a £250,000 fraud. Pauline Lesley Butler, who worked as a sole practitioner at her firm Pauline L Butler in Carlisle, pleaded guilty at Carlisle Crown Court last week to charges of fraud and false accounting. ...
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DAS considers offering written legal advice
Legal expenses insurer DAS is considering providing written legal advice to its policyholders once reforms allow, its legal chief told the Gazette this week. DAS head of legal Kathryn Mortimer said that the insurer, which has already made clear its intention to acquire Bristol firm CW ...
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Welcome news as Allen & Overy offers placements and minimum wage
Nick Clegg’s strategy to boost social mobility targets unpaid internships, a nice illustration of the incongruities that can arise in coalition government. As recently as February, his Tory partners were busy auctioning internships in City banks and hedge funds at a £400-a-head fundraiser. Clegg doubtless reasons ...
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Forecasting the creative impact of alternative business structures on law
The challenge of alternative business structures (ABSs) appears to have given fresh legs to a neologism. Lawyers should be ‘pessoptimistic’ – that is, in a state of contradiction, living with both dread and a sense of opportunity. A pessoptimist (the word was coined by Palestinian ...
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Family lawyers welcome 'ambitious' Justice Review Panel plans
Family lawyers have welcomed the ‘ambitious’ proposals published by the Family Justice Review Panel last week, but warned that the changes will not work unless there is adequate funding. The Law Society and Family Law Bar Association supported the interim recommendations of the panel, which ...
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Anybody listening?
I took part in the recent consultation exercise concerning the Jackson proposals for the reform of civil litigation. The government has now published its response. As far as I can see, the Jackson proposals will be fully implemented. There is ...
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APIL calls for damages discount review
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has alleged that a failure by the justice secretary to review the damages discount rate has led to some claimants being under-compensated by ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’. Launching a judicial review against the MoJ last week, APIL said the ...
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Solicitors Regulation Authority unveils handbook
The Solicitors Regulation Authority published the final version of its new solicitors handbook this week, as it revealed it had received ‘quite a number’ of enquiries from potential new market entrants about becoming alternative business structures. The SRA has applied to become a regulator of ...
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Conveyancing solicitors call for binding contracts
Conveyancing solicitors and estate agents have called on the property industry to develop legally binding preliminary contracts to reduce the number of house sales that fall through. At an event hosted by the president of the E-Homebuying Forum, Sir Bryan Carsberg, last week, representatives from ...
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Legal Services Board rebuffs Djanogly on ILEX rights
The Legal Services Board has dismissed a call by justice minister Jonathan Djanogly for it to consult more widely on proposals to extend the rights of legal executives to conduct litigation and appear in court. Last week, Djanogly told the House of Commons that an application ...