Headlines – Page 1332

  • News

    City law firms urged to rethink strategy

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    City firms must reinvent themselves to keep pace with the changing corporate sector over the next decade, according to a report published last week. Legal consultancy Jomati, run by Tony Williams, former managing partner of magic circle firm Clifford Chance, said firms will need a new ...

  • News

    Essex legal aid firms to merge

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Two established Essex firms will on 1 July become the latest legal aid firms to merge. Fisher Jones Greenwood, which has offices in Colchester, Chelmsford and Clacton-on-Sea, will join forces with Chelmsford firm Budd Martin Burrett in the fourth major legal aid firm tie-up this year. ...

  • News

    News focus: counsel for Europe

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Proposals for an EU-wide approach to collective redress exposed deep divisions among delegates gathered in Luxembourg for last week’s plenary session of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). Collective redress, sometimes called group litigation or class action, was the subject of one ...

  • News

    ‘No win, no fee’ unjustly blamed for rise in negligence claims

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Your recent article reporting on the increased number of medical negligence claims in 2010 is interesting, but the Medical Defence Union reaches a highly speculative conclusion. The MDU offers no firm evidence for its suggestion that ‘no win, no fee’ arrangements are behind the increase ...

  • News

    Working in the law for less

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    As a practising barrister with no party-political affiliation, I have, like all lawyers, had to think long and hard recently about what our reaction should be to the savage cuts to legal aid imposed by ministers who have very adequate incomes, and in some cases substantial private wealth. ...

  • News

    Good legal service matters

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    With regard to ‘Join a brand, warns Holt’ there is a fundamental difference between providing a service and selling a product. Tesco and WHSmith sell products. The legal profession provides legal services. Some may wish ...

  • News

    Respect atheism

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    I am an atheist who is married to a Christian and who is the father of another Christian. While I do not share their faith, I respect it. With respect to Ian Newman (letters, 19 May), I do not recognise ...

  • News

    Government right to throw weight behind promoting commercial legal sector abroad

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    by Ted Greeno, senior litigation partner at Herbert Smith A fresh breeze is blowing through Whitehall.

  • News

    Christianity is not totalitarianism

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    I cannot believe that Darren White equates Christianity with totalitarianism. The latter imposes its will on the population. The former tells people what the situation is and leaves them free to decide for themselves. Likewise David Rhodes, with respect, misunderstands what ...

  • News

    Different ethics

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Atheism and Christianity produce different law and ethics. Militant scientific atheism tells us that, biologically, a human is more intelligent but no more special than a chimpanzee or a slug. Our noblest thoughts are just chemical ...

  • News

    Lord Judge could not have predicted the impact of the internet on the law

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Technology is inherently subversive, in that it can undermine established authority. It did so during the Industrial Revolution, by creating the bourgeoisie and heralding the decline of the landed aristocracy. And it is hardly fanciful to suggest that it is ...

  • News

    Faith is rational

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Lord Justice Laws’ statement (quoted by Ian Newman in his letter) that 'religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence', is of course itself 'necessarily' subjective being the reasoning or opinion of an individual, no matter how eminent or important.

  • News

    Religious privilege exists

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    In his letter of 19 May (Christianity needs more than just ceremonial support) in response to my letter of 6 May, Ian Newman makes some interesting points. He seems upset that the Queen has done nothing to ‘Defend the Faith’. ...

  • News

    Land proof needed

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Edwin Lee refers in his letter to an increase in property fraud. The cause of it is not so much the open register, but HM Land Registry’s decision to do away with documentary proof of land ownership. A person who rents ...

  • News

    High Court delays judgment over Sittingbourne court closure

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    The High Court has reserved judgment in its judicial review of the Ministry of Justice’s decision to close Sittingbourne Magistrates Court. The court will close for business tomorrow, but the legal challenge to that closure, brought by Kent firm Robin Murray & Co, was heard yesterday ...

  • News

    Cost judges voiced fears over Jackson reforms, report reveals

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    Three costs judges from the Senior Court Costs Office broke ranks to object to radical reform of civil litigation, it has emerged. Masters Campbell, Haworth and Leonard said they were ‘unhappily’ unable to agree with the majority view of the costs judges who supported recommendations made ...

  • News

    LSB to further probe value of quality schemes

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Board is to seek further evidence to assess the usefulness of quality schemes for indicating whether law firms provide a good service to consumers, it revealed today. The LSB has asked its Legal Services Consumer Panel, the body that advises it on the ...

  • News

    Branding with hot irons?

    2011-05-26T00:00:00Z

    ‘Brand’ is a widely used description that covers many things in a lot of marketing areas and means many things to many people. Focusing on your firm’s brand is one way (of many ways) to manage the marketing process within your firm. ...

  • News

    US firms show strong rebound from economic woes

    2011-05-25T00:00:00Z

    Uncertainty may still reign in the UK, but across the pond the legal sector is feeling rather more optimistic, research has suggested. A survey published today indicated that most law firms in the US are seeing revenues rise, partner numbers increase and an end to salary capping. Leaders of the ...

  • News

    Law firms ‘must improve practice management’

    2011-05-25T00:00:00Z

    Business advisors have told law firms to improve their practice management if they want to emerge from the challenges of 2011. Members of the Institute for Turnaround (IFT) warned there are too many firms that are failing to recognise or deal with financial problems early enough. ...