Headlines – Page 1494
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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 ...
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CPS rolls out national telephone charging service
The Crown Prosecution Service and Association of Chief Police Officers today announced the nationwide roll-out of a telephone charging advice service for police. From January, the existing CPS Direct service, which provides advice to police when charging suspects out of hours, will be expanded across ...
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The European Courts – and a certain treaty
Oh, and the Lisbon Treaty… I want to write about the European Courts, but I can’t let a week like the past one go by without comment. We rarely have so much excitement in Brussels. Tony Blair apparently out of the running for the role of new EU President!
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LSB consumer panel to examine referral fees
The Legal Services Board’s new consumer panel will examine referral fees as the very first item on its agenda when it meets for the first time later this month, the Gazette has learned. The news comes after the Law Society’s council last week voted overwhelmingly in ...
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Eversheds reports fall in turnover
National firm Eversheds today reported a 6% fall in half-year turnover but said it is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that its performance will improve. Revenues for the six months to October 31 stood at £178m, down from £188m for the same period in 2007/08. ...
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Fee income falls at Simmons
Fee income at City firm Simmons & Simmons fell by 16% in the first half of the financial year, the firm reported today. The drop, to £120.3m in the six months to 31 October, from £143.5m over the same period in 2008/09, was blamed on the ...