Headlines – Page 1462
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Europe's notaries need to modernise and abandon their pompous ceremonies
by Gill Mather, a sole practitioner based in Colchester, Essex I heartily agree with Jonathan Goldsmith’s Euro blog ‘Notaries in revolt’ that much of what notaries do is ceremonial, unnecessary and ludicrously expensive.
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Demonstrating little benefit: the assigned risks pool is draining resources
This autumn has seen by far the most difficult professional indemnity insurance renewal for many years. The number of firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) – the system under which solicitors who have been unable to obtain insurance on the open market are given temporary ...
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Stock Exchange activity, WHSmith expansion and new fire stations
Sovereign wealth: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised a number of underwriters on issuing the government of Dubai’s inaugural sukuk, worth around $2bn (£1.2bn) in total this year. It is believed to be the largest sovereign sukuk ever issued. City firm Taylor ...
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Office of Fair Trading probes insolvency lawyers' fees
Fees paid to insolvency lawyers are set to come under scrutiny by the Office of Fair Trading after the competition watchdog launched a probe into corporate insolvency. The City of London Law Society’s insolvency committee was due to convene to discuss the OFT’s market study as ...
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Top City firms look to banks to cover further redundancy payouts
Top City firms are preparing for a possible second wave of job cuts by making sure they have secured adequate lines of credit from banks to cover further redundancy payouts, according to one of the sector’s major lenders. Meanwhile, mid-tier law firms are being squeezed ...
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Whistleblowing proposals could give ‘improper bargaining power’ to claimants
Government proposals on whistleblowing could give ‘improper bargaining power’ to claimants and allow serious allegations to escape investigation, employment lawyers have warned. Under proposals contained in a Department for Business Innovation & Skills consultation, whistleblowing claimants would be able to decide whether the employment tribunal should ...
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Solicitors issue advice warning over child neglect cases
Solicitors representing children in cases of chronic neglect are being obliged to act without the advice of a guardian or social worker, lawyers warned this week. A shortage of guardians at the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service has led to courts directing solicitors to appoint ...
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Jack Straw urges magistrates to keep cases in own court
Justice secretary Jack Straw has called on magistrates to deal with more cases themselves rather than sending them on to the Crown court. Speaking at the Magistrates’ Association conference in Birmingham, Straw noted that the number of cases in the magistrates’ court fell by 9% in ...
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Solicitors blamed for delays in conveyancing process
Homebuyers and sellers have blamed solicitors more than estate agents for delays during the conveyancing process, according to research published by the Office of Fair Trading. The consumer watchdog published four reports undertaken as part of its market study into home buying and selling. One showed ...
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Private equity investors focus on legal sector
Private equity investors are becoming much more interested in doing deals with law firms, a report on the Legal Services Act 2007 launched today has revealed. A study by public relations company Byfield Consultancy, in association with law firm Fox Williams, shows that private investors ...
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ABI to introduce new voluntary code on third-party capture
The Association of British Insurers is to introduce a voluntary code of conduct on third-party capture early next year in an effort to appease critics of the controversial practice, it emerged last week. However, claimant lawyers have dismissed the initiative as a tactic to allow insurers ...
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Silverbeck Rymer faces six-figure repayment to former miners
Liverpool firm Silverbeck Rymer could repay more than £100,000 to former miners after being rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for its handling of their government compensation claims. Partners James and Charles Rymer were reprimanded by the SRA for deducting £117,000 in total from 189 miners’ ...
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Conservatives pledge to apply brakes to alternative business structures
A Conservative government would seek to slow down the introduction of alternative business structures, shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham revealed last week. Describing ABSs as ‘one more assault on the high-street solicitor’, Bellingham (pictured) predicted that big names would enter the market and cherry-pick the more ...
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SRA moves to scrap assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will recommend abolishing the assigned risks pool in a consultation to be launched today. The regulator also wants to make it easier for struggling law firms to be taken over rather than shut down.
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Bar Standards Board opens door to joint practices
Barristers and solicitors will be able to go into practice together as a first step on the post-Clementi road, following a historic meeting of the Bar Standards Board last night. The board met to consider recommendations from its working group on alternative business structures to determine ...
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Legal ethics – past and present
In the first of three articles for lawgazette.co.uk tracing the history of ethics and the legal profession, Mark Humphries describes the origins of legal ethics and how medieval regulation addressed the same issues that arise in modern-day practice
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Professional indemnity costs rise by £15m
Solicitors paid £15m more to insurers for professional indemnity insurance this year, Solicitors Regulation Authority figures have revealed. The cost of insuring the profession rose from £226m in the 2008/09 indemnity year, to £241m in 2009/10, a rise of 7%. Between them, ...
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Lawyers praise ‘brave new world’ for mental health
Mental health lawyers have welcomed the publication of a government plan to support people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system. The government published its five-year delivery plan last week for implementing the Bradley Report’s 82 recommendations for improving the way people with mental ...
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The DNA of a good rainmaker, and does gender count? (Part two)
In my last blog I looked at ‘amount of time spent’ – the first of several attributes of a good rainmaker as identified in The Women Attorneys and Business Development Study.
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Legal Services Board issues proposals on ABS regulation
The Legal Services Board has published a consultation paper outlining the core principles it expects all licensing authorities (LAs) to use in regulating alternative business structures, as it moves towards the next stage in liberalising the delivery of legal services. The paper proposes removing restrictions that ...