All articles by James Dean – Page 14
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News
Top firms suffer revenue fall – but profits rise
Revenues at top law firms have slipped over the last year, but some firms have seen a significant recovery in partner profits, early results suggest. Of the three major firms that had reported financial results for 2009/10 as the Gazette went to press, all saw falls ...
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City firm Denton Wilde Sapte set to decide on transatlantic merger
Partners at City firm Denton Wilde Sapte and US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal are set to decide next Wednesday whether to give the green light to a merger of the firms. The merged firm, SNR Denton, would comprise 1,400 lawyers and boast combined revenues of ...
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Call for new litigation funding model
A new model of litigation funding is needed to secure access to justice for people of limited means, academics said this week. A joint study by the University of Oxford and the University of Lincoln suggested that, while third party funding has improved access to justice ...
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Solicitor settles action against solicitorsfromhell
A north-east solicitor yesterday settled his libel claim against the owner of a website that blacklists solicitors and law firms. Scott Eason, principal at Eason Law, had instructed libel lawyers Carter-Ruck to bring a claim for damages of between £50,000 and £100,000 and obtain a High ...
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City lawyer acquitted of insider dealing
A City lawyer accused by the financial services watchdog of insider dealing was today acquitted by Southwark Crown Court. Michael McFall, a former partner at US firm McDermott Will & Emery, was acquitted of eight counts of insider dealing by the Financial Services Authority (pictured). Finance ...
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RTA claims portal ‘progress’ – but 50 firms still without login details
Some 50 law firms were still awaiting delayed login details for the new road traffic accident (RTA) claims exchange as the Gazette went to press because of a ‘processing error’. In addition, some firms were still unable to plug their case management systems into the RTA ...
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News
Denton Wilde Sapte set for transatlantic merger
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte and US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal are set to merge to create a 1,400-lawyer transatlantic firm. The merged firm would have combined revenues of around £500m and would span 18 countries. The firms’ management boards have ...
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News
Regional firms risk losing corporate talent to London
A sharp rise in recruitment of corporate solicitors in London could set in motion a talent drain from regional firms, recruiters told the Gazette this week. Recruitment consultants said City firms are rushing to hire corporate lawyers after making excessive cutbacks at the height of the ...
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Law firms must tell clients how to complain, says LSB
Lawyers must provide clear information to clients about how they can complain about the service they receive, the Legal Services Board said today. Noting ‘a perception of poor complaints handling by [legal] regulators and the individuals and entities that they regulate,’ the LSB said that firms ...
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News
OFT chief slams 'excessive demands' of defendant lawyers
The delaying tactics and ‘excessive demands’ of defendant lawyers in competition actions are hampering cases and draining the resources of competition authorities, the chairman of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) alleged last week. Philip Collins told the Law Society competition section’s annual conference that the ...
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News
Chancery Lane welcomes Queen’s speech proposals
The Law Society has responded to the coalition government’s proposals contained in today’s Queen’s speech. The Society said it is ‘delighted’ with the government’s proposals to: bring forward plans to introduce a Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill; bring ...
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Bar rules delay blamed for low LDP take-up
The delay in the relaxation of rules preventing barristers from entering law firm partnerships has been blamed for the low take-up of the first wave of new legal business structures. According to the latest Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, 216 legal disciplinary partnerships were up and running ...
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News
‘Big push’ to clear RTA portal backlog
Some personal injury firms handling road traffic accident (RTA) claims are still waiting to be plugged into a new electronic data exchange nearly a month after it launched, due to a backlog of login requests. Introduced as part of Ministry of Justice reforms to speed up ...
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APIL criticises government for dropping damages bill
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has criticised the new government for dropping a bill to implement damages reform. The draft Civil Law Reform Bill, which included proposed changes to the law of damages, was absent from the Queen’s speech on Tuesday. APIL said that ...
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Law Society president warns of looming threat to profession’s independence
The Legal Services Board’s proximity to government could threaten the independence of the legal profession, Law Society president Robert Heslett warned last night. In a speech at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Heslett questioned the need for the LSB’s ‘draconian’ power to seize control ...
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Lawyer fears over Tories’ FSA U-turn
City lawyers have criticised an apparent U-turn by the Conservatives over their plans to scrap the Financial Services Authority (pictured) and hand its fraud-busting powers to a new agency. According to reports, the Conservative manifesto plan to scrap the FSA has been scuppered by the Liberal ...
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Claims begin to filter through RTA claims portal
Low-value road traffic accident personal injury claims sent through a new electronic data exchange launched three weeks ago have begun hitting insurers’ desks this week, figures show. Of the first 617 claims submitted as the Gazette went to press, liability had been admitted in 386 cases ...
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Court of Appeal rules on plea bargain sentencing
White-collar criminals sentenced to a year or less in jail should have their sentences suspended if they cooperate fully with related fraud investigations, the Court of Appeal ruled last week. The lord chief justice Sir Igor Judge (pictured), presiding in R v Dougall, chastised the Serious ...
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Duncan Lewis boosts turnover by 56%
London legal aid firm Duncan Lewis aims to consolidate its position over the coming year after bringing in more than 100 new staff and upping its turnover by 56%, according to the firm’s recently published accounts. The firm, the largest civil legal aid practice in the ...
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News
Cameron McKenna signs deal to outsource ‘middle office’ functions
City firm CMS Cameron McKenna is to outsource a substantial part of its non-legal office functions in a deal valued by outsourcer Integreon at £583m over ten years. Much of the firm’s non-billable ‘middle office’ functions including accounting and finance; human resources and training; marketing and ...