Headlines – Page 1464
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Pro bono conundrum and those left exposed by legal aid cuts
The pro bono protocol says work of this nature is ‘always only an adjunct to, and not a substitute for, a proper system of publicly funded legal services’. This can be a difficult distinction at times, but it has been the mantra of the pro bono movement as it has ...
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LSC chairman defiant over family funding cuts
The chairman of the Legal Services Commission struck a defiant note in a debate on family funding cuts, stressing that ‘it is difficult to convince ministers and a hard-headed Treasury that they are getting value for money out of legal aid’. Sir Bill Callaghan was ...
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Call for public to have direct access to the bar
The public wants direct access to barristers in crime, family and immigration work and is ‘dissatisfied with paying two lawyers for one job’, a panel of leading barristers claimed this week. Kevin Leigh, barrister at No5 Chambers in London, said: ‘It’s about giving proper choice to ...
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Grieve issues warning over access to justice 'crisis'
The country is facing ‘the biggest crisis in access to justice since the second world war’, shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve QC told the Bar Council’s annual conference last Saturday. The warning came as Bar Council chairman Desmond Browne QC revealed that Lord Bach, the legal ...
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Gazette reporter wins Bar Council award
Gazette reporter Jonathan Rayner has won the print category of this year’s Bar Council awards for outstanding legal reporting. He received the accolade for a piece published on 5 March that addressed his son’s mental illness and journey through the health and justice ...
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Denton Wilde Sapte reports increase in fee income
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte has emerged as the top performer among firms that have reported half-year financial results so far, as the only firm to increase its fee income. Revenues at the firm for the six months to October rose 3.5% to £87.7m, up from ...
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Unpaid volunteers not covered by discrimination legislation
Volunteers who give their time unpaid to charities are not covered by domestic or European equal treatment legislation designed to protect employees, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled. The ruling arose from a claim brought by a citizens advice bureau volunteer who alleged she had ...
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‘Dire need’ for solicitors to undertake pro bono work
There is a ‘dire need’ for solicitors to undertake pro bono work, legal aid minister Lord Bach admitted this week. Addressing Monday’s joint national pro bono conference in London, which kicked off National Pro Bono Week, Bach suggested there should be a ‘professional expectation’ ...
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Flint Bishop finds marketing success with affiliate partnerships
A Midlands firm has come up with an innovative way to market online legal services ahead of the more competitive environment heralded by the Legal Services Act 2007. Flint Bishop has set up what it calls an ‘affiliate partnership’ distribution channel, whereby it targets organisations with ...
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Scrapping single renewal date for PII 'improbable', claims SRA
A move to scrap the single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) in 2010 is ‘improbable,’ the Solicitors Regulation Authority said this week. The SRA also warned that any shift to staggered renewals ‘will not in itself significantly alter the overall dynamics of the market’. ...
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Law Society Council considers 'useful' Hunt review
Law Society president Robert Heslett last week praised Lord Hunt’s ‘very useful’ review of legal services regulation, welcoming the Tory peer’s core proposal for self-governance for firms that meet robust levels of internal compliance.
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Call for better career information for law students
The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) called for law students to be given better information about their career prospects to avoid disappointment as the number of people choosing a law degree hit a new high. Provisional figures from UCAS, the organisation that runs the university and college ...
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LCS braced for deluge of Scottish equal pay cases
A deluge of impending complaints over Scottish equal pay cases handled by the UK’s most prolific equal pay lawyer could swamp the Legal Complaints Service if they are sent across the border to England, the Gazette has learned.The complaints relate to compensation agreements drawn up by a law firm run ...
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Mid-tier corporate firms see profits plummet
Partner profits have plummeted by more than a quarter among a large swath of corporate firms as ‘acute pricing pressure’ and a fall in work take their toll on the bottom line, according to research by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers published today. The PwC annual law firm benchmarking ...
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Students seduced by City firms may be in for a disappointment
I reckon sixth-formers spend too much time on legal websites and blogs, gazing dreamily at the magic million-pound-plus partner profit figures put out by top commercial law firms.
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Legal Services Board consultation fuels research debate
by Jonathan Goldsmith, secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of EuropeIn a week in which the Legal Services Board has issued another consultation on alternative business structures, I want to speak about the importance of good-quality research before important policy proposals are made which may radically ...
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Slash costs by not going anywhere (you will need video instead, though)
I spent a fascinating afternoon at the Legal Video Network Summit in London recently...
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Legal Services Board launches consumer panel
The Legal Services Board has unveiled its eight-strong consumer panel to represent the interests of individual and business consumers in England and Wales. The LSB said that the independent panel will help it develop a ‘sharper focus’ on consumers’ interests across the legal services sector, and enhance access to justice.
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Diary of a redundancy – an epilogue
One month into your new job at the legal advice centre and you’re still behaving too much like a lawyer. Or so, knuckles sharply rapped, you’ve been told.
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Call for change to libel laws
English libel law imposes unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on free speech, sending a ‘chilling’ effect through the publishing and journalism sectors in the UK, according to an inquiry into libel law by two free speech charities. As a result of their findings, published today, Index on ...