All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1548
-
Feature
BOOK REVIEW The Solicitor's Handbook 2012
Author: Andrew Hopper QC and Gregory Treverton-Jones QC It only seems a short while since the 2011 edition came out at the same price of £74.95. The first question is: do we need another one? The answer is not ...
-
News
Chinese giant to open office in London
Leading Chinese firm Zhong Lun will open its first London office in May, the firm has announced. A team of five solicitors and nine legal professionals will move into the Square Mile after the move was formally approved at a meeting of the firm’s partners last ...
-
News
Sale reports ‘speculation’ says College of Law
The College of Law today dismissed as 'speculation' newspaper reports of its imminent sale to a private equity firm. According to The Sunday Times, the UK’s largest law school has accepted a £200m offer from Montagu Private Equity. News of a sale had been long ...
-
News
A coming struggle on partnership with foreign lawyers
The International Bar Association (IBA) is currently consulting its member organisations around the world on a resolution which recommends a liberal regime for professional rules on partnership - or what it calls association - between local lawyers and foreign lawyers. This topic is always sensitive, because its promotion can look ...
-
Feature
BOOK REVIEW Government and Information: The Law Relating to Access, Disclosure and their Regulation (4th edition)
Author: Ibrahim Hasan Access to information held by public officials is a controversial subject. Ever since the MPs’ expenses scandal, the WikiLeaks saga and even the phone-hacking scandal there seems to be an increasing demand for a clear explanation ...
-
News
HSBC hits back at panel criticism
Banking giant HSBC has denied that its conveyancing panel is closed to new firms following criticism from lawyers. In a prepared statement, the bank today rebutted the Law Society’s claim it had gone back on a promise to offer an appeals process to firms denied entry ...
-
News
10% damages uplift ‘still fair’ says Jackson
The architect of the government’s civil litigation reforms today rejected calls for a bigger uplift in damages payouts. Lord Justice Jackson said his original proposal of a 10% uplift on all settlements is still fair, despite claimants having to spend up to 25% of their ...
-
News
How is social media affecting law?
When I worked as a private tutor for two years (to ease the financial burden of law school) I used to explain to parents that whilst children must spend lots of time reading, talking, and thinking, they must spend as much time again on the computer.
-
News
Society seeks civil litigation compromise
The Law Society has joined forces with two claimant lawyer groups to offer a compromise on civil litigation reforms. The Society, which has campaigned against the government’s changes, has agreed new proposals with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and the Motor Accident Solicitors Association ...
-
News
Law Society warns on skilled migration curbs
Further restrictions on businesses bringing non-EU skilled migrant workers into the UK could stall recovery when economic conditions improve, the Law Society has warned. Law firms need maximum flexibility to be able to recruit quickly when the need arises, it said. The Society said it agreed ...
-
News
Time for the silk cut?
Since the Queen's Counsel selection panel replaced the more secretive machinations of the Lord Chancellor for the appointment of silks, only 11 of the 714 who have received the accolade have been solicitors.
-
News
Lost in translation
Perhaps Crispin Blunt MP spent the first two weeks of February on holiday on the moon. Maybe the justice minister was too busy perfecting that unnerving stare that gives him the air of a Stalinist henchman who’s been giving the task of breaking bad news to ...
-
News
No solicitors make the silk round
Not a single solicitor was among the 88 new Queen's Counsel appointments announced today. Of the 214 applicants, only two came from solicitor advocates; neither was successful. Since 2008, six solicitors have been made QC. Last year two out of the five who applied ...
-
News
Extending the act, emails, and empty properties
Approximately 130,000 organisations are covered by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI). Section 5 of the act allows additional organisations to be added to the list by way of a ministerial order. The criteria are that they must exercise public functions or provide contracted out public authority functions.
-
News
Direct action can work, seemingly against daunting odds
HSBC trumpets that it is the ‘world’s local bank’, a claim that rings hollow with conveyancing solicitors and their clients. Having chosen a panel with just 43 members - thereby severely circumscribing a client’s right to choose their own solicitor - the bank won’t even say who those members ...
-
News
MoJ must address the chaos
by Madeleine Lee is director of the Professional Interpreters’ Alliance We are just a month into the National Framework Agreement for interpreting and translation services in HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
-
News
MoJ warned two years ago over interpreters
Ministry of Justice officials were warned two years ago that a central contract for courtroom interpreter services would lead to wrongful detentions, the Gazette has learned. Emails from a body representing interpreters also warned in 2010 that members would boycott the scheme. The MoJ and its ...
-
News
Government announces legal aid concessions
The government has made two key concessions demanded by opponents of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill, days before the legislation enters report stage in the House of Lords. In amendments tabled today, the government accepted that the broad definition of domestic violence ...
-
News
Scrap it all
I fully agree with Michael Brough’s letter in the Gazette. I have been saying the same thing for several years - but the Law Society seems to be afraid separate representation will put up the cost of house buying. It might do, but only by a ...
-
News
No turning back from liberalisation
I expect that very soon the Solicitors Regulation Authority will announce that it has granted the first group of licences for alternative business structures if, indeed, an announcement to this effect has not already been made by the time this article is published. The end of the profession? I think ...