Headlines – Page 1475
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Sole practitioners removed from Co-Op panel as no deal reached
Sole practitioners in England and Wales have been removed from the conveyancing panel of the merged Britannia Building Society and Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) after negotiations with the Law Society failed to reach agreement. However, their colleagues in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been granted an ...
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Law firms should be able to ‘self govern’, says Hunt report
By Paul RogersonA wide-ranging review of solicitors’ regulation commissioned last year by the Law Society and conducted by Lord Hunt of Wirral was published on Monday. Among the Tory peer’s 88 ?recommendations is a proposal for what he describes as ‘authorised internal regulation’, a new system of self-governance available ...
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Office for Legal Complaints to be based in Birmingham
The Office for Legal Complaints, the new body created by the Legal Services Act 2007 to handle complaints about solicitors, is to be based in Birmingham. The OLC, which has been allocated set-up costs of around £15m and annual running costs of £19.9m, will replace the ...
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SRA considers reducing premium in assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority held a meeting this week to consider whether or not to reduce assigned risks pool (ARP) insurance premiums after a record number of firms were forced to join the pool.
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City law firms to lose out to regions
Regional law firms look set to benefit at the expense of their City rivals in the coming year, research seen by the Gazette has indicated. A survey by research agency Acritas of 500 senior in-house counsel at large and mid-sized organisations showed that 29% were planning ...
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Black cap for judges’ pensions
Earlier this year I blogged that judges’ generous pension entitlements would end up squarely in the line of fire following fiscal meltdown. And lo, it has come to pass, as the two main parties try to out-macho each other in respect of how severely they can punish public servants who ...
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Lovells ‘in US merger talks’
City firm Lovells and US firm Hogan & Hartson are discussing a merger to create a firm with combined revenues of more than £1bn, according to reports. The firm would comprise 2,500 lawyers and would be among the 10 largest in the world if the tie-up ...
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London councils slash £1.5m in legal spend
Six London boroughs have joined together to slash almost £1.5m a year in legal fees. The London Boroughs Legal Alliance (LBLA), which links lawyers from Harrow, Hammersmith & Fulham, Camden, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Kensington & Chelsea borough councils, aims to save £1.44m a year by using ...
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MoJ announces review of legal aid delivery
The Ministry of Justice has today announced a review into the delivery of legal aid to ensure the £2bn budget is spent correctly. Legal aid minister Lord Bach has asked Sir Ian Magee, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, to assess the ...
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What kind of law firm are you? NB: You may not know the answer
The legal services market appears to be on the up, at least for the big firms. Mortgage approvals are rising. Halifax Legal Express wants to recruit a panel to deal with the legal services enquiries its automated system can't handle.
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Chancery Lane ‘dismay’ at Co-op’s panel cull
The Law Society has expressed its ‘dismay’ at the decision by Co-operative Financial Services to cut 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel. The Society said that the Co-op has jeopardised its ethical image by threatening consumer choice and putting solicitors’ livelihoods at risk. Access to ...
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Can lawyers agree over contingency fees?
Contingency fees, which are widely used in employment tribunals but banned in other areas of law such as personal injury, have come to the fore recently as various bodies have submitted their responses to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on the issue, launched in July.
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Lord Hunt publishes regulation review
A wide-ranging review of solicitors' regulation commissioned by the Law Society and conducted by Lord Hunt of Wirral (pictured) is published today. Among the Tory peer's 88 recommendations is a proposal for what he describes as 'authorised internal regulation', under which law firms of all sizes would regulate themselves subject ...
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A riposte to Professor Richard Susskind
I attended last week a meeting in Dublin of the chief executives of bars and law societies from around the world – well, from Europe, and common law jurisdictions beyond Europe (Africa, North America and the Asia Pacific region).
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Private equity: the discussion is already well under way
Over on our LinkedIn group some really interesting discussion topics are being batted around, especially about what possible future investment in law firms by private equity firms might mean...
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Society's PII helpline to target assigned risks pool
The Law Society has announced that from next Monday, 5 October, its professional indemnity insurance helpline will expand its service to assist firms that have fallen into the assigned risks pool because they were unable to obtain cover before the renewal deadline.
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A look at the latest changes to the Civil Procedure Rules (50th update)
The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2009 (SI 2092) were made on 28 July 2009 and, with certain exceptions, come into force today. They are accompanied by an update (the 50th) containing amendments to the practice directions which are such a key part of the modern system. ...
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Duty calls: the hard and sometimes demanding and thankless role of a duty solicitor
The duty solicitor I’m shadowing negotiates electronically controlled gates under the unblinking gaze of CCTV cameras. He arrives at a windowless room beneath the court, where the table and seats are bolted to the floor and there is a glass viewing port in the heavy wooden door. A guard from ...
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Horses for courses
A friend passed me an article entitled ‘Taking the reins’, by Lucy Trevelyan, about equine law (see [2008] Gazette, 7 August, 14). As I am a life-long horsewoman (and journalist who sometimes writes for the equestrian press) I found it really interesting.