Headlines – Page 1486
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Weight on my mind
Without wishing to make light of what is clearly a very serious matter for the Norfolk solicitor who had been charging clients by the weight of their files – Brian D Woodham’s letter (see [2009] Gazette, 3 December 11)...
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Dictation diktat
As a regular visitor to courts I am well used to being searched and generally do not have a problem with it. What does grate is when I am required to surrender my hand held dictation machine.
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The SRA’s outgoing chair reflects on the ongoing journey towards optimal regulation
Since my decision not to seek reappointment as chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority beyond this month, I have reflected on both the progress in the regulation of solicitors in recent years and the challenges for the future. With such a vast subject, lack of space precludes mention of all ...
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Hourly fee charging is under fire but it drives efficiency and quality
by Dick Jennings, a practising solicitor and member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & SupplyThere is growing condemnation among in-house counsel of hourly fee charging. Private practice lawyers cower, meekly agreeing or asserting that they have been against it all along.
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In praise of... solicitors
Guardian readers will recognise the above formulation, which the newspaper occasionally employs to applaud society’s less conspicuous mainstays. We employ it in part to balance last week’s opinion, which reflected on the declining respect in which solicitors believe their profession is held and ...
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Water project, lottery loans and town planning
Water works: City firm Trowers & Hamlins advised a consortium of lenders on financing the $1bn (£612m) Salalah independent water and power project in Oman. City firm Denton Wilde Sapte advised the state-owned Oman Power and Water Procurement Company. ...
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Surge of merger activity at top-100 firms
Three-quarters of top-100 law firms have been approached by other firms with a view to merging this year, new research has suggested. However, a fifth of firms unsuccessfully tried to complete a merger over the past year, according to a survey by accountancy and financial services ...
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Immigration lawyers boost for top firms
Highly skilled immigrant lawyers should not have to hold a master’s degree to work for the UK’s top law firms, the government’s migration adviser recommended last week. In its report on Tier 1 immigrants, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) said that such immigrants should be allowed ...
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MoJ fails to answer parliamentary questions about external legal spending
The Ministry of Justice has declined to give full answers to a string of parliamentary questions on its spending on external services. Pete Wishart, Scottish National Party MP for Perth and Perthshire North, asked how much the MoJ had spent on external legal advice since it ...
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Europe appoints new justice head
Europe has appointed its first commissioner to hold a separate justice portfolio, taking a ‘step in the right direction’ towards separating the conflicting demands of justice and security.
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Anger over 'cost-cutting' plans for serious criminal cases
Solicitors and barristers have reacted with anger to last-minute ‘cost-cutting’ proposals on pay for the most serious criminal cases, which they say ‘drive a coach and horses through two years of patient and careful negotiation’. A Legal Services Commission consultation on fees for very high ...
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Jack Straw hints at more autonomous Welsh justice system
Jack Straw has mooted the possibility of a separate justice system for Wales, but not without a referendum showing that this is what the Welsh want. Speaking at a Law Society lecture in Cardiff last week, the justice secretary said there could be ‘an organic development ...
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Lawyers attack government plans to extend family reporting
Family lawyers have attacked government plans to extend the media’s right to report family cases, warning that they will clog the courts with preliminary hearings and lead to miscarriages of justice. The media have been allowed to report on the process of family cases since April, ...
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Law Society unlikely to introduce fellowship scheme
The Law Society appears likely to rule out introducing a fellowship scheme in the near future, but may consider extending membership in light of the introduction of alternative business structures. Introducing a fellowship scheme for solicitors ‘who reach an agreed professional standard’ was one of the ...
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Bar eyes contract push with new procurement vehicles
Solicitors could find themselves approaching barristers for work as the bar takes advantage of new freedoms approved last month, the incoming chairman of the Bar Council told the Gazette this week. Nicholas Green QC said there would be a reversal of the ‘normal order of things’ ...
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Bar Council claims ‘privileged’ perception is ‘outdated’
The Bar Council has claimed that the perception of the bar as a profession for the privileged is ‘outdated’ – but it is unable to say what percentage of barristers attended state school. It published a report last week showing a range of initiatives taken to ...
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MPs lobby to exclude solicitors from asbestos compensation scheme
MPs are lobbying prime minister Gordon Brown to exclude solicitors from any government-run scheme to compensate workers for asbestos-related pleural plaques. A group of Labour MPs closely involved with a parliamentary bill on the matter have held ‘frequent’ private meetings with Brown and senior ministers. Jim ...
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Criminal legal aid firms threaten boycott of BVT pilot
More than 120 criminal legal aid firms will refuse to take part in Legal Services Commission plans to pilot best value tendering (BVT) unless they are indemnified against transfer of undertaking, protection of employment (TUPE) actions arising from it, the Gazette has learned. The commission wants ...
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Law Society threatens legal action over complaints staff
The Law Society has threatened the government and the new solicitor complaints handling body with legal action following their decision not to automatically reassign staff from the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) to the new Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). The functions of the LCS are to ...
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Has the bar been betrayed by government?
In his inaugural speech before taking over the tiller from Desmond Browne QC as chairman of the bar, Nick Green QC listed three things that have contributed towards creating instability for barristers: legal aid cuts, competition from solicitor-advocates and the ‘ambitious’ expansion into advocacy by the Crown Prosecution Service.