All articles by James Dean – Page 22
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News
Lovells moves closer to transatlantic merger
City firm Lovells and US firm Hogan & Hartson moved closer to a transatlantic merger today as management at each firm agreed to recommend the tie-up to partners. Information on the proposed merger will be sent to partners at each firm late next week, before a ...
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Recession to blame for rise in law firm investigations
Regulatory investigations into law firms have increased steadily over the lifetime of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, parliamentary statistics show. SRA figures requested by justice minister Bridget Prentice in answer to a parliamentary question show that the SRA handled an average of 574 cases per month in ...
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News
Aspiring will-writing regulator's colourful past revealed
A new will-writing organisation is lobbying the Legal Services Board for will writing to become a regulated activity and, if successful, will apply to become a will-writing regulator. The company behind the Fellowship of Professional Willwriters and Probate Practitioners (FPWPP), which launched this week, has previously ...
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Recession litigation boom fails to arrive
City litigators have been ‘surprised’ that an expected wave of post-credit crunch disputes has not yet materialised, according to two groups monitoring financial services litigation and dispute resolution.
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Solicitors overpaid millions by LSC for legal aid work
Solicitors have been overpaid nearly £25m for legal aid work, public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) reported today. The NAO said solicitors overclaimed for legal aid work to the tune of £18.3m in 2008-09, while £6.4m was erroneously paid to solicitors who provided legal ...
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‘Super injunctions’ come under fire from senior judge
MPs were preparing to debate the impact of so-called super-injunctions on parliamentary proceedings as the Gazette went to press. This followed last week’s media feeding frenzy that saw renowned libel lawyers Carter-Ruck accused of trying to gag parliament on behalf of a client, the oil ...
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News
Unregulated will writers failing clients, says Chancery Lane
Unregulated will writers are providing the public with unenforceable wills while charging for legal services they are not trained or regulated to provide, the Law Society claimed this week. Solicitors specialising in will writing told the Society they have been handed invalid wills drafted by unregulated ...
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News
Court rules on legal privilege in Prudential case
Accountants and lawyers should operate on a ‘level playing field’ when it comes to disclosing legal advice on certain issues, a High Court judge said last week.
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News
Lord chief justice calls for rethink of court tradition
The operation of the traditional court needs to be rethought to take into account technological advances that have rapidly changed society and influenced jurors, the lord chief justice (pictured) said this week. Speaking a year after becoming head of the judiciary, Lord Judge said that the ...
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News
Boom time for litigation funding
Third-party litigation funding broker Calunius Capital has begun investing in its own cases, Gazette sister publication Litigation Funding will reveal this week, amid a flurry of activity in the litigation funding sector. Calunius said it is investing in litigation in conjunction with funders that ...
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News
Call for ‘hard line action’ on coal health compensation
The government has come under renewed pressure to probe the alleged undersettlement of coal health compensation claims, after an MP wrote to business secretary Lord Mandelson calling on him to take ‘hard line action’ against any law firms that might have undersettled. Dai Davies, Independent MP ...
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News
Call for ‘hard line action’ on coal health compensation
The government has come under renewed pressure to probe the alleged undersettlement of coal health compensation claims, after an MP wrote to business secretary Lord Mandelson calling on him to take ‘hard line action’ against any law firms that might have undersettled. Dai Davies, Independent MP ...
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News
‘Super-injunction’ not able to gag parliament, says Prentice
The Guardian newspaper and libel lawyers Carter-Ruck were wrong to conclude that a ‘super-injunction’ could prevent reporting on parliamentary proceedings, justice minister Bridget Prentice said yesterday.
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News
Law Society warning on unregulated will writers
Unregulated will writers are causing havoc among members of the public and in some cases are failing to provide people with valid wills, the Law Society claimed today. According to the Society, many solicitors specialising in will writing, trusts and probate have been handed invalid and ...
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News
Money Claim Online and getting tough on debts
Sometimes, when calling in debts from friends, I mimic a silver screen drug lord calling in a debt from a business associate, promising a bloodbath of gun violence should he fail to pay up. It’s more like an unintentionally comic Tony Montana-in-Scarface type of threat, rather than a coolly menacing ...
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News
CPS consults on changes to prosecution code
The Crown Prosecution Service today launched a 12-week consultation on changes to the code for Crown prosecutors. The code sets out the principles that prosecutors must follow when deciding whether or not to prosecute an individual. The test set out in the code, and applied in ...
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News
Litigation funder lists on AIM
Litigation funder Burford Capital has raised £80m following a share placing on the London Stock Exchange’s alternative investment market (AIM). The placing means that Burford has become the second UK-listed third-party litigation funder, after Juridica Investments listed on AIM in December 2007 and raised £80m. Juridica ...
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News
UN to help developing nations negotiate with western projects lawyers
Lawyers in developing countries could be given help when negotiating investment deals with City project lawyers under a UN initiative to bolster their bargaining power when human rights are at stake.
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News
US firm could reap benefits of UK reforms with Lovells tie-up
US firm Hogan & Hartson has remained quiet on whether it might use a tie-up with City firm Lovells to access external capital in the future, following reports this week of a merger between the two firms. The merger could potentially give Hogan & Hartson access ...
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News
SRA rules out lowering premiums in assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Compensation Fund looks set to receive a £5m boost to its reserves which could ease the financial pressure on individual firms, under plans being put forward at the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s board meeting today. However, in a separate development the SRA has concluded that ...