Headlines – Page 1491
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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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Government: local authority mutual insurance companies
Pity really, everyone was having such a wonderful time. It was, as the saying goes, a swell party and one designed to save lots of money. But then, all of a sudden, there was a raid: the front door was kicked in, the music stopped and everyone had to go ...
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Criminal procedure
Assumptions – Breath samples – Driving while over the limit – Newton hearings Thomas Goldsmith v Director of Public Prosecutions: DC (Lord Justice Sullivan, Mr Justice Openshaw): 4 November 2009 ...
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Personal injury
Duty of care – Findings of fact – Football Andrew Kerr v GED Willis: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Neuberger (master of the rolls), Mr Justice Smith, Lord Justice Toulson): 4 November 2009 ...
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The best advice on how to prepare for a legal services revolution
As firms begin to emerge from the recession in 2010, they may feel they want to get their breath back before tackling the next challenges that face them. But as any law firm consultant will tell you, now is the time to get lean, efficient and in shape to deal ...
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Kiss and tell
Judges’ speeches are not generally known for their racy content. But an address by Mr Justice Eady to the University of Hertfordshire last week seemed to contain more sex than an average night at one of the university’s halls of residence.
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Leaner is meaner
Who could have predicted that a few dodgy collateralised debt obligations would set in motion a train of events that would eventually lead to a shortage of junk food in City law firm offices?
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Movember
Notice any similarities between these lawyers from Gerrards Cross firm BP Collins? Yes, they are all chaps in suits, but look harder. Sharp-eyed observers will note that they are all sporting various degrees of facial hair. A Buckinghamshire fashion trend, you wonder? Nope, along with menfolk across the globe (and ...
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Solicitor laureate?
As if Obiter needed any convincing about the poetic abilities of Solicitors of the Supreme Court, Mike Redpath, a self-employed solicitor in Salisbury has – quite out of the blue – sent us this little topical ditty. ...
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Lend us a hand
After completion some lenders require the mortgage deed to be deposited with the Land Registry (eg The Mortgage Works), while others require the mortgage deeds themselves (eg NatWest).
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Who is really writing this blog?
All the other bloggers are revealing their true identities, so why shouldn’t I? Here goes: I only pretend to be a journalist working on the Gazette. All that stuff I write about employment law and personal injury and mental health and lawyers in local government. It’s not the real me.
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Fee abomination
The payment of referral fees is an abomination which is destroying our profession. I am so pleased the Law Society’s Council has decided to call for their abolition.
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What a waste
Mr Booth’s concerns and Mr Fenton’s response (letters, 12 November) highlight the real problem with HM Courts Service. It likes to dictate how things should be organised when alternative, local methods of working would be more appropriate.
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Amending the Code by the back door
As your readers will be well aware, practising solicitors are currently bound by a Code of Conduct which runs to more than 200 pages. The code is being regularly amended, often making it very difficult for solicitors to know what regulatory rules they have to obey on any given occasion.
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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 ...