Headlines – Page 1510
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Sleep of the just?
Lord Bonomy, a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has a rather forbidding demeanour that befits his calling. This distinguished Scottish judge and criminal prosecutor was one of the headline speakers at the Law Society of Scotland’s 60th anniversary conference, held in Edinburgh a couple of ...
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Biting off more than you can chew
Long nights and short summers don’t seem to have dulled the wit of Torben Melchior, president of the Danish supreme court. He told last weekend’s plenary session of the council of bars and law societies of Europe in Copenhagen that, despite public and media perceptions to the contrary, courts’ sentencing ...
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Pulling power
Lawyers and law students from across north-east England donned their gym kit to take part in the York College of Law’s fourth annual sports day. More than 30 teams, including Eversheds, Olswang, Forsters and Gordons competed in football, netball and rugby tournaments, but the highlight was the ‘tug of law’ ...
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Biased system
Anyone reading the recent articles on judicial appointments by the Lord Chief Justice and the president of the Law Society might think that there were few barriers to attaining a fair system of making judicial appointments (see [2009] Gazette, 17 April, 10-11). This is simply not the case.
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Equal footing
I was pleased to read Tim Lawson-Cruttenden’s response to the ‘solicitor bashing’ faced by solicitor-advocates of late (see [2009] Gazette, 14 May, 10). It is about time someone fought their corner.
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The bigger picture
In his critique of the career of Lord Hoffmann (‘Judging the Judges’, 23 April), Joshua Rozenberg presents an incomplete picture of his role in the Pinochet litigation.
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ICC's credibility hangs on Palestinian statehood decision
President Obama’s meeting this week with the Israeli prime minister has focused attention on the universal goal of a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside its Jewish neighbour. But there is increasing concern in legal circles that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court risks making the ...
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Revolution for regulators coming ready or not
The Legal Services Board’s discussion paper on regulation of alternative business structures is most significant for its bold and unambiguous statements of intent.
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Inns of Court president withdraws letter on solicitor-advocates
The Law Society has forced the bar onto the defensive in the increasingly charged debate about the role and performance of solicitor higher-court advocates (HCAs). Lady Justice Smith, president of the Council of the Inns of Court, has taken the unusual step of withdrawing ...
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Jack Straw announces crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ employment lawyers
Justice secretary Jack Straw has announced a crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ employment lawyers who he says are exploiting vulnerable clients by taking a large proportion of the damages they win in ‘excessive legal fees’. The move to curb the use of contingency fee agreements in tribunals – ...
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Trebling of compensation fund levy on SRA agenda
The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority will decide today whether to recommend a 313% increase in compensation fund contributions in 2009/10. SRA officers have proposed that solicitors holding clients’ money contribute £470, up from £150 last year. Last month, the regulator predicted that practitioners ...
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Solicitors doubt judges’ impartiality in advocate appraisals
Solicitor-advocates have issued a warning that declining faith in judges’ impartiality in respect of different arms of the profession may imperil plans to assess publicly funded defence advocates. The Legal Services Commission is testing a process to ‘quality assure’ all publicly funded criminal defence advocates, both ...
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France to press ahead with Clementi-style reforms
Clementi-style reforms of France’s legal landscape are to go ahead next year despite a retreat on a major element, the reforms’ architect said this week. Jean-Michel Darrois, a company law specialist and head of Paris firm Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier, headed a commission of academics, ...
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Jackson hints on ending recoverability of success fees
Lord Justice Jackson has given his clearest hint yet that he is minded to end the recoverability of success fees when he makes his final recommendations to reform civil litigation costs. Speaking at the Sweet & Maxwell conditional fee agreement conference last week, Jackson asked ...
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Law Society calls for halt to best value tendering scheme
The Law Society has urged the Legal Services Commission to stop its plans to roll out best value tendering for police station work and urged firms in the pilot areas to think carefully before taking part. In an outspoken address to a conference, ‘Sixty years of ...
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Virtual court ‘puts solicitors at risk’
Defence solicitors taking part in pilots of ‘virtual courts’ could be at risk of injury from their clients, practitioners have warned. The concern has arisen because the video equipment to be used in the pilot requires solicitors to sit alongside their client in a modified ...
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Drive to put lawyers on governing board of every school
International law firms will no longer be able to pump new lawyers into booming practice areas and expanding international offices, even after the recession ends, according to the head of one of the world’s biggest firms. ‘You will see less of the crazy, untamed growth ...
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The 2009 London Legal Sponsored Walk
The 2009 London Legal Sponsored Walk raised a record £380,000 to support law centres across the country. Among 4,000 walkers were 50 judges, 12 City firm senior partners, the lord chief justice, master of the rolls, attorney general and shadow attorney general, and the director of public prosecutions. Lord Justice ...
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Drive to put lawyers on governing board of every school
Lawyers could take a seat on every school governing board under a project aimed at encouraging children from a wider range of backgrounds to enter the legal profession. The Law Society-backed project, ALLIES, will help lawyers to apply to become governors, and bring together ...
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Law society calls for government to act on HIP fees
The Law Society has called on the government to regulate the home information pack (HIP) industry to protect home buyers from secret referral fees paid to estate agents. Following a claim by a Channel 4 News investigation that pack prices could be inflated by more than ...