Headlines – Page 1481
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Firms shut down ahead of PII renewal
Law firms of various sizes have begun to close down ahead of the professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal deadline, with others contemplating closure to avoid paying spiralling PII premiums for the second year running, the Gazette has learned.
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Questioning the single renewal date for PII
Should there be a single renewal date for solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance? The question is an old one, and when the PII market is soft, competition heavy, and premiums low, answers are less forthcoming. But now that there are real renewal problems facing many law firms, the question becomes a ...
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Women lawyers receive awards
The Association of Women Solicitors has presented ten ‘outstanding’ women solicitors with awards to recognise their excellence in business and people management. The winner of the large firm award was Susan Bright, head of competition at City firm Lovells, who manages a team stretched across ...
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Cyclist makes a splash
Obiter receives quite a few emails about solicitors performing sponsored bike rides and sponsored swims. But this is the first time we have learnt of a lawyer doing both at the same time. David Thomas, a consultant at Bindman & Partners, was happily ...
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Is Google's Android the best thing since a sliced-up iPhone?
I reckon I've found something better than my BlackBerry. No, really.Since the Gazette got into social media in an increasingly big way, it's been my duty (or pleasure, or bane, depending on the day) to keep an eye on our different media 'channels' and interact with them increasingly regularly.
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LSB rebuffs regulator’s plea for control of board appointments
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has rejected a call from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to wrest ultimate control of SRA board appointments from the Law Society. In its latest consultation on legal services regulation, published today, the umbrella body dilutes an earlier commitment ...
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What is going on at the LSC and the MoJ?
The latest announcement by the Legal Services Commission delaying the tendering process for the new criminal contracts for at least two months probably comes as a relief to many practitioners, particularly those in the best value tendering pilot areas.
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Junior lawyers on community mission to Borneo
The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has teamed up with volunteering charity Raleigh International to develop a unique annual public service project in Borneo. Junior lawyers from the UK will work with a local community in the south-east Asian island of Borneo on infrastructure projects to build ...
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The right to choose your own lawyer
The European Court of Justice this week decided a case relating to the free choice of lawyers (Case C-199/08, Eschig). The Court overrode a condition in an insurance policy and decided that a European directive granting free choice of lawyers had to be respected regardless of the insurance condition.
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Diary of a redundancy (part two)
The train home is weirdly empty: no grim-faced commuters. Home is weird, too. You’ve never before witnessed its weekday rhythm: the sounds of playtime from the primary school, the clink of bottles over the whine of the milkman’s electric float. You’re normally still in London this early in the day, ...
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Best value tendering pilot deferred
Tendering for all criminal contracts, including the best value tendering (BVT) pilot process, has been deferred for at least two months, the Legal Services Commission announced today. Tendering for the 2010 criminal contracts was due to begin in October, but the LSC has put the date ...
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Separated from parliament, will the Supreme Court become too powerful?
Creating the Supreme Court ‘as a result of what appears to have been a last-minute decision over a glass of whisky’ seems to verge on the frivolous, Lord Neuberger tells me. ‘You muck around with a constitution like the British Constitution at your peril, because ...
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Local government - London Authorities Mutual Limited
The phoenix is a splendid mythical bird that is serious about regeneration. Near the end of its 500-1,000 year lifecycle it burns itself to ashes, only to emerge anew to live through another lifetime.
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Helping the community is good for law's hard-nosed image
Corporate social responsibility has come of age. Everybody is embracing it, from magic circle firms to sole practitioners, all trying to be considerate neighbours, treat others with respect, reduce fuel consumption, recycle waste materials, participate in the community and adopt other responsible behaviours.
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The true cost of social mobility
Your feature about social mobility underplayed what can be the biggest barrier for applicants to the law – money (see [2009] Gazette, 20 August, 8).
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Beware CMCs bearing gifts
I read with interest the letter from Denise Kitchener, chief executive of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, headed ‘Cutting out the middle man’ (see [2009] Gazette, 20 August, 5). I found myself smiling wryly at the comment of the Ministry of Justice regulator who – presumably with a straight ...
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Going it alone
Christina Blacklaws describes the potential feelings of isolation some lawyers working from home in virtual law firms can experience (see [2009] Gazette, 20 August, 5).
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Court jesters offer light relief
Is there something about the courtroom – the gravitas of the surroundings, the adversarial ambience – that makes people’s minds (professionals included) turn to mush? Having stumbled across some of the amusing courtroom quotes collated by Mary Louise Gilman, editor of the National Shorthand Reporter, Obiter is beginning to wonder. ...
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£26k for a bunch of flowers
Pretty, isn’t it? Well, at £26,000, it ought to be. This floral design, which would not look out of place on a pair of Laura Ashley curtains, is the official emblem of the Supreme Court, and incorporates an English rose, some Welsh leek leaves, a Scots thistle and a northern ...