Headlines – Page 1528
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SRA takes on new powers to issue £2,000 fine for low-level misconduct
Solicitors could face a fine of up to £2,000 and a published rebuke for low-level professional misconduct under new rules which will come into force in August. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has adopted powers to issue written rebukes and impose a fine where it considers there ...
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Parents in child care cases are receiving poor representation
Law firms acting for parents in care proceedings are exploiting the fixed-fee system by using unqualified staff – in one case a receptionist and another a secretary – to do legal work, prominent family lawyers warned this week. Solicitors acting for children warned that the court ...
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Exploiting the goodwill of children’s lawyers
Solicitors acting for children have spoken out this week about the dire quality of representation that some – by no means all – firms acting for parents are offering. I’ve been told stories of parents’ cases being handled by staff who are clearly not qualified for the job – in ...
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Sentencing policy attacked by MPs for being incoherent and inconsistent
MPs have branded current sentencing policy incoherent and inconsistent, and warned that it risks being driven by a misguided view of what the public want. In a report on parliamentary scrutiny of sentencing guidelines published today, the justice committee says the five aims of sentencing set ...
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Freshfields overtakes CC as top UK firm by size
Freshfields has overtaken magic circle rival Clifford Chance as the biggest UK firm by revenue, posting a 9% rise in turnover to £1.29bn for the year ended 30 April. Profits per equity partner (PEP) were static at £1.44m. Clifford Chance, which was the largest firm ...
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Ronnie Biggs was doing time, till he done a bunk
I have in my somewhat exotic record collection a curious disc cut by The Sex Pistols in 1978 entitled No one is innocent. It features a guest appearance by Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, and though I have not listened to it for 30 years I can still remember the ...
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Linklaters pushes ahead with revenues increase
Magic circle firm Linklaters today reported a slight increase in revenues to £1.30bn, placing it ahead of fellow magic circle firms Clifford Chance and Freshfields. Linklaters profits per equity partner (PEP) stood at £1.30m for the year to 30 April 2009, a fall of 9.6% on ...
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Increased competition for trainee jobs at top firms
Competition for traineeships with the UK’s biggest law firms has reached a new intensity, with an average of 130 graduates applying for each trainee job, new research suggests today. As many as 78 more applications per place are being made this year than in 2007/08, when ...
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Your client database is worth a lot more than you think
Client databases are often seen as a dull subject – complex to manage and just getting in the way of fee-earning. But databases are necessary for every legal services practice that wants a future.
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Shoosmiths profits fall by more than half
National firm Shoosmiths today reported profits down by more than half, with a slight reduction in turnover. Profits at the firm tumbled to £5.6m in 2008/09, down 54% on 2007/08. Profits per equity partner dropped from £318,000 to £150,000 over the same period. Turnover fell 4% ...
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Deals or no deals?
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to detect that mergers and acquisitions are a little on the sparse side at the moment, but for those in need of statistics to back this up, Thomson Reuters has obliged.
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Pro bono costs win
Pro bono lawyers have saved a family from eviction and secured a £20,000 donation to the Access to Justice Foundation (AJF) charity. Shelter solicitors John Gallagher and Marie Burton, and barrister Andrew Walker of Maitland Chambers, acted for a family facing eviction from their home of ...
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Taylor Wessing hit by 14% profits fall
City firm Taylor Wessing today reported global profits down by almost 14% despite a small rise in turnover, with its UK business hit hard by the economic downturn. The firm estimated that profitability in the UK was down 30% on 2007/08, with UK turnover falling by ...
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Lawyers invited to get on board diversity charter
Law firms, in-house lawyers and purchasers of legal services have signed up to the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter, launched this week. The charter, initiated by the Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) and supported by telecoms giant BT, aims to encourage FTSE 250 companies only ...
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Diversity seminar backs joint action on judicial appointments
New measures to increase diversity in the judiciary have been jointly agreed by the Law Society, Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) and Bar Council. Key new initiatives include a Law Society mentoring programme to support solicitors applying for judicial office, and an extension of the Bar Council’s ...
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Ashurst partner pay falls below £1m
Partner pay at City firm Ashurst has plunged below the £1m mark, after the firm today reported a 35% fall in profits. Profits per equity partner fell from £1.04m in 2007/08 to £673,000 in the year to 30 April 2009. Revenues fell 7%, from £323m to ...
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Profits down by a third at City outfit Nabarro
City firm Nabarro today reported profits down by 35% and revenues down by 10%, describing the result as ‘disappointing’ but ‘not surprising’. Profits per equity partner declined from £574,000 in 2007/08 to £375,000 in the year ended 30 April. Revenues fell by 9.7%, from £140m to ...
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Veale Wasbrough poised to merge with Vizards Tweedie
Veale Wasbrough and Vizards Tweedie today announced that they are engaged in advanced merger talks. The combined firm would have about 330 members of staff and 46 partners, operating from offices in central Bristol and Fetter Lane in London and generating a combined turnover of £22m. ...
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‘PC fee increase not attributable to Chancery Lane’
by Des Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society Last week Council reluctantly recommended an increase to the practising certificate fee for 2009/10 to £1,180 to fund the work of the SRA, LCS, Law Society, SDT, Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints.
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Society proposes conveyancing shake-up
A chain matrix-style online portal and an updated conveyancing protocol are among measures outlined in a Law Society consultation published today to improve the home-buying and selling process. The electronic conveyancing portal will enable parties to track the progress of their transaction. Unlike the scheme trialled ...