Headlines – Page 2683
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Twenty Twenty-four
It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks, like everything else, were striking. Not that anybody noticed. Hilda Smith, her chin nuzzled into her breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the doors of Oceania Legal Services Plc. She was just in ...
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Cool reaction to European patent unification
Leading intellectual property lawyers in the UK have reacted coolly to the unitary patent and unified patent court process approved by the European parliament on Tuesday. ‘No one can doubt that having a single system is, in principle, a good idea,’ said Claire Bennett, partner in international firm DLA Piper's ...
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Review: me and my shadow
Crying all the way to the bank: Liberace v Cassandra & Daily Mirror Revel Barker Revel Barker, £15.99 It was the titanic clash between bluff, folksy 1940s British decency and glitzy, globetrotting 1950s celebrity, played out in the High Court in London. Guess who won. In its way, the 1959 ...
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Education review comes out for ‘incremental’ reform
Legal education and training is not ‘fundamentally broken’ but is failing to ensure consistent levels of quality across the profession, a long-awaited pan-profession report says today.
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LETR: business as usual for the bar as report rejects common training
Training for barristers and solicitors is almost certain to remain separate following the Legal Education and Training Review’s rejection of the idea of a common professional course.
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LETR: consumer watchdog is ‘greatly disappointed’
The Legal and Education Training Review is a ‘missed opportunity’ because it fails to heed calls for a re-accreditation scheme for solicitors, the legal consumer watchdog said today.
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Hopes rise for legal services in EU-US free trade deal
Free trade talks between the EU and US are almost certain to end with agreement freeing up the movement of lawyers, a leading European figure in the campaign to remove barriers has predicted. Louis-Bernard Buchman, chair of the International Legal Services committee of the Council of Bars and Law Societies ...
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Grayling in concession on client choice
The justice secretary has agreed to retain client choice and signalled his support for an alternative tender model proposed by the Law Society, based on a modified version of GP contracts in the NHS.
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Dishonesty reports double as solicitors 'take chances' - SRA
Reports of solicitor dishonesty have almost doubled in the past two years as economic pressures start to bite across the profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed today.
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It’s not enough to be a good lawyer
Having read a number of pieces recently on diversity and the lack of women and ethnic minorities in senior leadership positions in the legal profession, I keep seeing similar comments about lack of these opportunities. The message seems to come across again and again that opportunities need to be offered ...
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Results season matters more this year
It’s law firm results season – with every day bringing news of financial results, for the top-100 firms in particular.
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Ministry IT costs soar as deadline looms
Numbers of temporary staff working on the Ministry of Justice’s £500m National Offender Management Service (NOMS) IT system have soared as the government rushes to complete projects before the general election, research has revealed. NOMS aims to share data across 125 prisons and 35 probation services. The project is due ...
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Acted for Ian Brady in prison application
Who? Corinne Singer, 51, a mental health consultant at virtual national firm Scott-Moncrieff & Associates (Scomo). Why is she in the news? Acted for moors murderer Ian Brady in his application to be moved from Ashworth maximum security hospital back to prison. Singer submitted that, because Brady is not benefiting ...
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SRA to fast track ABS applications
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will fast track alternative business structure applications from firms seeking to bid for new criminal legal aid contracts, it has been revealed. In a letter to the House of Commons Justice Committee, SRA board chair Charles Plant said that ABS applications from non-traditional law firms could ...
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TSol set for major recruitment push
Whitehall’s central legal services provider the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) is to recruit 40 lawyers after spending nearly £4.6m on temporary staff through outsourcer Capita, the Gazette can reveal. The recruitment campaign is for advisory, commercial, employment and litigation lawyers at civil service grade 7, with salaries between £47,086 and ...
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SRA to rubber stamp next phase of red tape cuts
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it is open to further ideas for cutting regulation after several demands from members of the profession. The regulator is this week expected to rubber stamp the second phase of its programme to reduce red tape. Under the new reforms, compliance officers will no ...
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Trainee retention rates rise at top City firms
The proportion of trainees winning places at top firms has increased this year to an average of 83%, figures for the September intake show. Magic circle firm Slaughter and May reported the highest retention rate, 90%, offering placements to 46 trainees. Rival Clifford Chance said 80% of its 60 trainees ...
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SRA intervenes after solicitor arrested
A solicitor from Cheshire has been suspended from practising after he was arrested on suspicion of fraud. The Solicitors Regulation Authority today intervened to prevent partner Andrew Taylor from practising at his firm in Cheadle. Police confirmed last week that they had arrested a 56-year-old man on suspicion of fraud ...
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Troubled Challinors owes £11.2m, draft statement of affairs reveals
Troubled Midlands firm Challinors owes more than £11.2m to unsecured creditors as it prepares to go into administration. The firm yesterday confirmed it has filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators and is in talks with insolvency practitioners KSA Group about the future of the business. A draft statement ...
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Firms still hostile to judicial ambitions
More than half (57%) of solicitors eligible for judicial appointment say that they could not rely on the support of their firms when applying for the bench, according to research to be published by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the Gazette can reveal. In contrast, 80% of barristers are confident ...