All articles by Eduardo Reyes – Page 37
-
News
Morale low among Ministry of Justice staff
Evidence of poor morale among staff at the Ministry of Justice has emerged from the civil service’s annual ‘people survey’. Among its findings is that staff at the ministry and its agencies have no confidence in decisions made by senior managers. Only 32% of respondents would recommend the MoJ as ...
-
News
Business specialist launches franchise scheme
A south-east law firm which has won awards for its innovative approach to business advice has used its name to launch a new franchise. Acumen Business Law, based in Hove, East Sussex, will license firms to use the name Acumen Business Law Enterprise. Acumen’s managing ...
-
News
Lib Dem votes on legal aid
The House of Lords is now debating amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill in the shadow of a government defeat on key proposals for welfare reform. While we are right to focus a lot of attention on the strength and ...
-
News
Commission's conclusions should return assisted dying debate to moral realms
by Eduardo Reyes, Gazette features editor The report on assisted dying, produced by a ‘commission’ formed by thinktank Demos, and part-funded by author and campaigner Terry Pratchett, made headlines last week for stating that there were practical ways that the existing law on suicide could be ...
-
News
Choosing death
A report on assisted dying, produced by a ‘commission’ formed by think tank Demos, makes big headlines today. The commission, whose year of hearings and evidence gathering was chaired by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, has no official status. But, by its composition, the commission has done its best to ...
-
News
Lord Falconer slams assisted dying law
A thinktank led by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer (pictured) has called the law on assisted dying ‘inadequate and incoherent’. In a report published today, the Commission on Assisted Dying concludes that the law can be reformed without endangering protections for vulnerable people. The report’s ...
-
News
Corporate clients open to instructing ABSs
General counsel in FTSE 350 companies are overwhelmingly open to the idea of instructing law firms that are externally owned. According to research based on replies from 51 businesses, 90% of general counsel said they ‘definitely would’ or ‘probably would’ purchase legal services from a firm which took external ownership. ...
-
News
Role of solicitors' charity is more important than ever
Two key charities that support solicitors and their dependants have seen their workload increase significantly as a troubled economy continues to place strain on the finances and private lives of many lawyers. The number of enquiries for support received each month by SBA The Solicitors’ Charity (formerly the Solicitors Benevolent ...
-
News
PI lawyers risk conflict claims under ABS
The legal profession is unprepared for conflicts of interest in personal injury law that will occur from 2012, the Gazette has been told. Such conflicts could leave PI lawyers open to negligence claims and increase professional indemnity insurance premiums. The problem arises from the willingness ...
-
News
News focus: Vince Cable’s employment law ‘bonfire’
Business secretary Vince Cable’s speech announcing ‘radical reform to the employment law system’ reads oddly. It contains contradictions of the sort that do not usually make it into the final draft of a minister’s speech.
-
News
ABS ‘threat’ to in-house legal teams
In-house legal teams will be vulnerable to replacement by services run by outsourcing businesses, such as Capita and Serco, once the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is able to license alternative business structures (ABSs).
-
News
Open all hours
Anyone who’s taken time out to read my recent Gazette features will know that I’ve received many pieces of legal services and legal market surveys and research down the years. Sometimes they impress, and sometimes they don’t - and unlike restaurant critics who haven’t worked ...
-
News
Human rights, words and lawyers
Last Saturday I attended part of the ‘Fairness, Justice and Human Rights’ conference, which was organised by the University of Essex Human Rights Centre, the Law Society and others. I was struck by a phrase used in passing by one speaker, who referred to the United ...
-
News
Are solicitors really living through the ‘end times’ for law as they have known it?
In his memoir Editor, journalist and author Max Hastings mused on the difference, as he saw it, between readers of the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. Mail readers, he observed, woke every morning and opened their paper of choice to find that the world had altered irretrievably for the ...
-
News
Litigants in person numbers soar
The dire state of the economy has already led to a dramatic increase in the number of litigants in person, new figures from a voluntary organisation suggest. This is before government cuts to civil legal aid come into effect, which many solicitors predict will trigger another huge rise.
-
News
Liam Fox finds his inner lawyer
Politicians, especially when in government, find lawyers and the law make good knocking copy. As my colleague John Hyde reported in a blog from the Conservative Party Conference, MP Ben Gummer was more colloquial than most in telling solicitors to ‘get real’ and stop ‘irresponsible’ opposition to government plans on ...
-
News
Mansfield takes a stand on tuition fees
If elected chancellor of Cambridge University next week, human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC (pictured, centre) plans to adopt a vigorously interventionist approach to the role. Mansfield told the Gazette that government policy on admission fees ‘disregards our international [convention] obligations’ as well as ...
-
News
What makes a reliable survey or piece of research?
Research studies and surveys of the legal sector have been a feature of business life for some time now - and any number can be expected in the run-up to, and beyond, the liberalisation of the legal services market. But can you trust the results of the surveys you read? ...
-
News
Advising clients on compliance in UK-Swiss tax agreement will not be straightforward
The UK-Swiss tax agreement, announced last month, will be in force from 31 May 2013, and full details will only be made available as both countries sign it. But it is already clear that the existence of the agreement places legal advisers in a difficult position when advising their clients ...
-
News
Vickers review puts lawyers centre stage
Banks’ legal and compliance departments are expected to grow with the implementation of reforms recommended this week by the Independent Commission on Banking, chaired by Sir John Vickers (pictured). The centre of power for corporate counsel will be located firmly on the retail side and ...