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All articles by Grania Langdon-Down – Page 6
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Corporate governance and coping with visits from the FSA
The telephone rings. It’s reception. Financial Services Authority investigators are downstairs with a search warrant. How prepared are you to respond to such a knock at the door? That question has been put high on the agenda of in-house lawyers as the regulatory and business crime regime becomes ever more ...
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What litigators need to know about the forensic investigation process
In today’s electronic world, where filing cabinets of information can be copied onto a device small enough to swallow, litigators are increasingly turning to forensic investigators to help identify the data that could make or break their case. This is creating a growing industry, from specialist teams within the big ...
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Latest developments in business education for lawyers
Training for lawyers can be a lot like buying legal services – a distress purchase made at the point of no return, says Deborah Walker, business development manager at Manchester Metropolitan University’s (MMU) School of Law.
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Charities may be in for a difficult year, but there remains cause for hope
Charities may still be facing the worst effects of the recession after suffering mixed fortunes during 2009, say practitioners looking ahead to the coming year.
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Does environmental law have built-in growth potential?
With work expected to increase in planning, renewable energy and climate change, is environmental law a specialism with growth build-in? With the government hoping to kick-start a ‘green recovery’, so that the UK emerges from the recession as a low-carbon economy, environmental law remains high on ...
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Cash-strapped charities reassess their spending on professional services
Charities are increasingly feeling the impact of the recession, with more than half reporting a drop in income at the same time as demand for their services increases. This is forcing them to make painful decisions about drawing on reserves, dropping projects, selling property and shedding staff.
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Litigation funding: an overview of a contentious area of growth
A litigator’s job description could increasingly be said to include the skills of bookie and salesman – assessing the odds of winning a case and advising clients on the evolving market in funding their litigation.
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Pastoral care: support is out there in tough economic times
The impact of the recession on the legal market is unprecedented, but there is plenty of support available for those affected. On Monday, Jasmine Walker (not her real name) was talking to the partners in her conveyancing practice about ways to bring in new business. On ...
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Probate lawyers face tough challenges ahead
Probate lawyers may find themselves in the line of fire as plunging stocks and shares devastate the value of estates, prompting beneficiaries to take a hard look at their role in protecting those assets. Beneficiaries are increasingly prepared to take their battles to court – last ...
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Developing new skills may help lead to prosperity
As some firms struggle to survive, there is no better time than the present for lawyers to develop the extra skills they may need to prosper. From ‘cocktail party’ training to better writing skills to a three-year doctorate in legal practice – just what skills should ...
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The Middle East: a legal goldrush or an ‘over-lawyered’ region?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is fast becoming the jurisdiction with the most English solicitors outside the UK. The adage ‘go east, young man’ has heralded a talent goldrush as firms in the Middle East report a torrent of job applications from solicitors hoping to join the 500-plus England and ...
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Offshoring legal work: do lawyers risk outsourcing themselves?
When City firm Lovells was faced with reviewing more than a million documents as part of a major case, it decided to outsource the work to India – saving more than £3m in the process. This is a sign of the times – increasingly, client pressure over fees is prompting ...
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Tumultuous period for costs draftsmen continues
An imminent root and branch review of the costs system and an overhaul of ‘no win, no fee’ agreements, with Justice Secretary Jack Straw threatening to cap success fees, could change the landscape for costs draftsmen. Sir Rupert Jackson, recently promoted to the Court of Appeal, ...
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Economic downturn impacts Welsh firms
Law firms in Wales, from big commercial firms to rural high street practices, are waiting to see just how they will be affected by the turmoil afflicting the wider UK economy. ‘No one is immune to what is happening but there aren’t the extremes here,’ says Alan Meredith, senior partner ...
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Why do women solicitors earn less than men?
When Fiona Fitzgerald, chair of the Association of Women Solicitors, was preparing to launch the joint campaign with the Law Society on equal pay, she first checked her own firm’s record.
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In-house beautiful
Almost a quarter of practitioners now work in-house, and very few of them appear to have any intention of returning to private practice. As the old days of aiming for partner and owning a stake in a law firm slowly pass away in favour of ...
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History man
In a pioneering career which has spanned private practice and the high court bench, Lord Justice Lawrence Collins has proved that solicitors can take on any role in the judicial system. Lord Justice Lawrence Collins still cannot quite believe that, as a former solicitor, he ...
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Building bridges
Lawyers fear the law commission's drive to step outside the courts in housing disputes will undermine the justice system, reports Grania Langdon-Down Aproposal by the Law Commission that a significant number of housing disputes should be transferred from county courts to tribunals prompted such hostility from ...