Headlines – Page 1495
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Rise in number of intellectual property disputes
Intellectual property (IP) disputes in the High Court jumped by a third last year, according to recently released judicial statistics. At 562, the number of IP disputes in 2008 represents a significant increase over the 422 in 2007, and around two and a half times the ...
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Revenues down at Allen & Overy
Half-year revenues at magic circle firm Allen & Overy fell by 7% as the City giant became the first to announce its financial performance results over the past six months. Revenues fell from £548m to £511m during the six months to 31 October. More than half ...
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Make more time for your life: unsubscribe from spam
At a very social day of learning about social media for law firms this week – we mostly sat around and talked about the issues, rather than listen to endless PowerPoint-led talks – I got a sage piece of advice: unsubscribe from any email newsletter you no longer read.
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City firm Denton Wilde Sapte increases turnover
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte grew turnover 3.5% over the half-year, and said that it has met its revenue forecast. Revenue for the first half of the 2009/10 financial year was £87.7m, compared with £84.7m over the first half of the 2008/09 year. ...
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Prosecutors should explain sentences to victims, says attorney general
The attorney general has said prosecutors should explain sentences to victims and has issued revised guidelines on plea and sentencing. Speaking to a conference of Crown Prosecution Service Crown advocates – qualified CPS lawyers in the Crown court - as their superintending minister, Lady Scotland (pictured) ...
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Does a recent decision mean some people will never escape past convictions?
Imagine the scene, you are 18 years old, you have rather unwisely been a bit rowdy after sampling your first shandy and the overworked police officer has arrested you for a breach of the peace. You are not judged to be a serious threat to society and are bound over ...
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Employment – is Or-well with the Equality Bill?
Was it Harriet Harman who wrote that ‘all employees are equal, but some employees are more equal than others’? Whoever it was, they may well have foreseen some of the more interesting provisions of the latest version of the Equality Bill, which, we are assured, is still cranking its way ...
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Employment
Criminal Records Bureau – Data protection – Principles - Duration (1) Chief Constable of Humberside (2) Chief Constable of Staffordshire (3) Chief Constable of Northumbria (4) Chief Constable of West Midlands (5) Chief Constable of Greater Manchester (appellants) v ...
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Family law
Ancillary relief – Divorce petitions – Enforcement M v M: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Thorpe, Wall, Mr Justice Coleridge): 21 October 2009 The appellant husband (H) appealed against ...
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Home truths: new regulations for cancelling contracts
Solicitors who see clients at home need to be aware of new regulations for cancelling contracts, says District Judge Pal Sanghera The Cancellation of Contracts made in a Consumer’s Home or Place of Work etc Regulations 2008 came into force on 1 October 2008. In a ...
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Superlawyer saves the day
Clients may have a habit of thinking their business must be dealt with as a matter of life and death but, just occasionally, they do have a point. A client dinner attended by quick-thinking solicitor Richard Taylor, an intellectual property partner at DLA Piper, is a prime example of how ...
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Court in the act
Has anybody heard of William Garrow? The chances are you will have soon, as a new BBC drama based on this unsung hero of the criminal justice system began on Sunday. Garrow was a pioneering barrister who stood up for the rights of the defendant ...
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Preaching to the flock
Sheep are, according to John Campbell QC, president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, ‘a good example for the modern mediator, since they think for themselves as well as their flock’. Introducing former lord chief justice Lord Woolf at the institute’s annual mediation symposium, the president, who grew up on ...
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Chancery Lane is fighting for members’ interests in testing times
Time passes quickly. Three months after becoming president it remains the case that the main challenge facing the profession is change. After all of the changes currently in train are complete, one hopes (prays) for a period of constancy, unlikely as that may seem. Alas, ...
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Time-wasting job
Re: ‘Woolf lambasts failures in CPR’ (see [2009] Gazette, 22 October, 1). I have steered clear of litigation for most of my 40 years in practice, but I did advise one party on the pension aspects of a financial settlement following divorce.
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Cause of freedom
I am not an uncritical admirer of the US, but full marks to states which are passing laws enabling their courts to refuse to enforce English libel judgments. It is no cause for pride that our courts attract libel claimants.
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Course fees too low
Your opinion column about rising university costs being a hindrance to ‘poor’ students misses the point. The price set for law degrees and the LPC is determined not just by providers but also those buying courses.
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Profession reserved for the wealthy
I would like to say how pleased I was to see your opinion article ‘Bottom of the class’ (see [2009] Gazette, 29 October, 8). I feel very strongly that class is becoming an increasing barrier in the legal profession and it will soon be the case ...
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Dubious principles
In the first of this year’s BBC Reith lectures, Professor Michael Sandel spoke of ‘a new citizenship’; a politics oriented less to the pursuit of individual self interest and more to the pursuit of the common good. He criticised the policies of the last 30 years as ‘a heady, reckless ...
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Spare us the jobsworths
In these changing times, I have accepted with equanimity the need to be searched on entering court buildings, notwithstanding that I am known in my local magistrates’ court, where I have been practising for over 30 years.