Headlines – Page 1355
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Bunga-Bunga
Delegates at Inner Temple last week must have been wondering what they had let themselves in for when Lord Justice Moses began the annual law reform lecture.
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How the property market is changing as law firms weigh up office space
There is a strong sense that the property market is changing in important ways for law firms of all sizes as occupiers.
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We must not stand by and let government devastate access to justice
On 12 November I stood in a muddy field in Runnymede and listened to the great and the good, including justice secretary Ken Clarke, hail the Magna Carta as the foundation of fundamental rights and the protector of human freedom and civil rights. Chief among those rights are equality before ...
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The inspiration behind the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law
by Professor Jeffrey Jowell QC, the inaugural director of the Bingham Centre The Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law will be formally launched at the Royal Courts of Justice on 6 December. Supreme Court president Lord Phillips will preside over a meeting addressed by ...
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Audit training
A law degree (or CPD) plus Legal Practice Course is insufficient preparation for practice, and so there has to be an element of practical training. At the moment there is little quality control of training contracts; if you can last the two years, then you are in. ...
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Building quality
As chairman of the Conveyancing Association, I am writing to lend the support of our body to the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Members of the association, which include a significant proportion of large conveyancers, fully support and endorse all efforts to improve the legal process of conveyancing. ...
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Be realistic about legal aid cuts
I do not think we can fault the reasoning behind the legal aid cuts, which largely preserve funding for the essential areas of human rights. We should be realistic and admit that some areas of law are not priorities, and one wonders why they were ever included in the scheme ...
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Injustice of legal aid cuts
I observed the following incident at a north London magistrates’ court. A defendant, who was clearly mentally ill, had been charged with an offence that was contrary to section 5 of the Public Order Act. The facts were that he had been shouting at a ...
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Which PEST is bothering your firm?
It will be 2011 in a few weeks and whenever your year-end is, planning for the coming year raises some interesting questions. What factors will affect the business planning for your firm? Here’s a standard business analysis tool that seems very relevant to solicitors firms since there seems to be ...
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Green pioneers slash carbon footprints
Almost 40% of law firms in the Legal Sector Alliance (LSA) have cut their carbon footprints in the last year, according to the alliance’s annual report, released today. In 2010, the average amount of carbon generated per LSA member employee varied between 0.48 and 8.94 tonnes, ...
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'Mixed practice' warning for publicly funded barristers
Incoming Bar Council chairman Peter Lodder QC today warned publicly funded barristers to diversify or face a bleak future. Legal aid rate cuts have been ‘too numerous and too deep’ for young barristers to survive on that single source of income, he told Bar ...
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Regulator sets out guidance on pre-emptive ABS discussions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued new guidance setting out what is permitted in firms’ negotiations with potential investors ahead of the licensing of alternative business structures (ABSs) in October next year. The guidance stresses that non-lawyer individuals or businesses are currently prohibited from having any ...
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Rise in number of intestacy disputes
The number of people challenging the inheritance left by their relatives or partners has risen by 38% over the past year, according to figures obtained by City firm Wedlake Bell. Data from the High Court shows that the number of cases launched by people, including children, ...
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Legal aid solicitors overpaid by £77m
Legal aid solicitors have been overpaid by almost £77m, according to a report published today by public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office. Qualifying the Legal Services Commission’s accounts for the second year running, the NAO estimated a total of £76.5m had been overpaid to legal ...
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Time for partners to focus on personal finances
The current climate has led many legal partners to rethink their plans for saving for the future. Now more than ever, with the Christmas break right around the corner and tax returns due in January, many partners will be reflecting on their personal financial plans and approaches to any further ...
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Latest news from inter-governmental organisations
It is a strange paradox that as the world becomes more globalised, our attention is drawn more to the local, as if we are incapable of encompassing a span that takes in the whole world. As a result, developments which take place at inter-governmental organisations – in some strange city, ...
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Why workplace monitoring is critical to an inclusive legal profession
by Stephen Ward, communications director and and diversity champion at the Law Society On 25 October, the Law Society published the first annual report on the progress of its Diversity and Inclusion Charter. Some 180 firms and in-house practices are now signatories to the charter, ...
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Legal executives seek independent conveyancing rights
Legal executives could be granted independent rights to provide conveyancing services from next September, if a forthcoming application to the Legal Services Board is successful. But conveyancing solicitors have questioned the economic logic of encouraging new entrants into an already overcrowded market, where transaction rates have ...
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Family courts have lost authority, warns judge
A High Court judge has warned that the family court needs to reassert its authority to tackle the ‘lack of respect’ shown for its orders. Speaking at the Association of Lawyers for Children annual conference at the weekend, Mr Justice Coleridge said that, in placing ...