All articles by James Dean – Page 34
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News
Battle to save Iceland-funded lender: latest
Talks to provide a lifeline to a specialist solicitors’ lending arm of collapsed Icelandic bank Landsbanki were under way as the Gazette went to press. Key Business Finance (KBF) chiefs were in crunch takeover talks with a number of banks to secure the company’s future. KBF ...
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Review of regulation
A separate compliance regime for big City corporate firms is to be considered as part of a profession-wide review of regulation, the Gazette can reveal. The development comes amid indications that some of the UK’s biggest practices are considering alternatives to the existing system of ...
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Litigation cash woe
Increased demand for litigation funding amid the current financial crisis may not be met because backers are taking on more lucrative work, an expert has warned. Hedge funds and private equity houses – which were providing more and more cash to the emerging third-party funding market ...
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Banks silent over client money
Confused solicitors have called on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to clarify what would happen if a bank’s collapse wiped out pooled client money. At the end of September, the FSCS told the Gazette that, as long as solicitors told their bank they were depositing ...
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CPA plans huge India expansion
CPA Global, the legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider, is to expand its 450-strong team of lawyers in India nearly eight-fold, in response to growing demand from Europe and the US. The company expects to employ 3,500 lawyers in India by 2011, the Gazette has learned. The ...
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News
Firms shut as cover crisis deepens
High street firms are being forced to close because they cannot afford to pay vastly increased professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums, while hundreds more are destined to end up in the assigned risks pool (ARP), the Gazette has learned.
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News
In-house lawyers ‘bullied’ by firms
Corporate counsel are being bullied into retaining panels of law firms despite conflicts of interest, a conference heard last week. Counsel at the C5 Reducing Legal Costs event reported taking the decision to drop law firms from their panel because those firms were simultaneously advising competitors – but some said ...
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NHS negligence cover comes under scrutiny
Pressure is mounting on the government to explain the relationship between the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), which pays compensation to victims of clinical negligence, and after-the-event (ATE) insurer FirstAssist. In a letter to health secretary Alan Johnson and justice secretary Jack Straw – seen by the ...
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Market chaos sparks client money fears
The security of billions of pounds of client money held in UK banks was called into question this week following the apparent near-collapse of HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender. Law firms across the UK reported being inundated with calls from clients worried that cash pooled in ...
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AIG bailout wards off PII catastrophe
The US Government’s $85bn (£48bn) bailout of insurer AIG has averted a catastrophe in the volatile solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market, brokers have said. However, some reported that a minority of clients remained wary of obtaining AIG cover, and that the period between AIG’s share ...
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News
Calm after the storm?
Turbo-capitalism has hit the wall and City firms are already feeling the pain. But it could have been a lot worse, as lawyers seek to advise those affected by the market turmoil. It’s an ill wind and all that. As City law firms try to catch ...
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News
DLA Piper in the Middle East push
National firm DLA Piper has tripled its headcount in the Middle East as part of a huge push into the region and has plans for further expansion over the next two months, the Gazette can reveal. The firm, which had around 50 lawyers working in the ...
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News
Crisis set to spur consolidation
The collapse of Lehman Brothers amid turmoil on Wall Street will provide rich pickings for top firms but spell tough times for the rest, analysts have warned.
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News
Firms face assigned risk pool threat
A far greater number of solicitors could end up in the assigned risks pool (ARP) and face paying up to half their fee income in solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums as the crisis in the market deepens. Industry sources have predicted that more small firms ...
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News
MoJ widens judicial pool
The government has decided that legal executives will not be entitled to sit as judges on the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT), but can apply for other judicial appointments following a consultation earlier this year. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) accepted representations from CAT, the Lord Chief ...
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Pll providers shun small firms
Small firms renewing their professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover will be further squeezed in an already hardening market after insurers Norwich Union and Liberty cut policies for these practices. Norwich Union, which controls 8.3% of the legal PII market, has stopped offering new cover to firms ...
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'Firms favour UK trainees'
City University’s law school is telling international students on its law masters programmes to apply for jobs with US firms or go in-house because recruitment practices at English firms favour UK candidates, the Gazette can reveal. Professor Alan Riley, director of the LLM programme at City ...
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Herbert Smith targets lawyers on career break
City firm Herbert Smith is planning to tempt lawyers on a career break to join the firm as part of a recruitment drive. In conjunction with executive search consultancy Sapphire Partners, the firm will host a ‘back to practice’ workshop at its London offices in September, ...
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News
Reality warning for 'optimistic' firms
Experts have warned small firms not to be ‘blind to reality’ after a new survey indicated the vast majority have no intention of cutting spending over the next six months – despite turbulent economic conditions. More than a quarter (27%) of UK firms with three to ...
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News
Lawyers targeted in insurance fraud fight
The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) and Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) are planning a joint crackdown on criminal gangs and solicitors involved in fraudulent insurance scams, the Gazette can reveal. The IFB and APIL have held talks with a view to thrashing out an information-sharing ...