All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 21
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News
JLD chair claims trainees need more protection
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is failing to protect trainee solicitors from exploitation and threats, the new chair of the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has claimed. Heather Iqbal-Rayner (pictured) has drafted a letter to SRA chief executive Antony Townsend in which she claims that the regulator refuses ...
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News
Legal apprenticeships no threat, says CILEx
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, which traditionally champions a vocational route into the legal profession, has insisted that it does not feel threatened by government plans to introduce apprenticeships as an alternative to law degrees. Diane Burleigh (pictured), the institute’s chief executive, was responding to ...
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British Airways employee wins discrimination case
The European Court of Human Rights has today ruled that English courts breached a British woman’s freedom of religion rights to wear a crucifix - a visible symbol of her faith - in the workplace. However, in three other judgments on the right to manifest religion ...
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Education and training review delayed again
Publication of the Legal Education and Training Review’s (LETR’s) research report, which is expected to recommend the most fundamental reform of legal education in 30 years, has been delayed for a second time with no revised date for when it is likely to be released.
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Nicklinson posthumous right-to-die appeal
A widow has been granted leave to continue her late husband’s challenge to the existing law on murder and assisted suicide. The Court of Appeal has made an order that Jane Nicklinson (pictured, left), as the administrator of her late husband Tony’s estate, may take forward ...
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News
Minister signals weekend courts U-turn
The government has indicated that it will drop plans to open courts at weekends, instead introducing longer weekday sittings. It also plans to achieve ‘colossal savings’ by expanding the use of video links between courts, police stations and prisons, and to continue its restorative justice and ...
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News
Hunting in the dock
The latest friends of the prime minister to have found themselves in the criminal dock are members of the Heythrop Hunt. This is Cameron’s local hunt in Oxfordshire, with which he rode half a dozen times before the Hunting Act in February 2005 made hunting with dogs unlawful. ...
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Commission: ‘strong argument in favour of a UK bill of rights’
The commission that has spent 21 months and £700,000 investigating the creation of a UK bill of rights has come out in favour of a bill that would ‘incorporate and build on all of the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)’. However, ...
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News
Judiciary publishes guide for litigants in person
The judicial office has today published a self-help guide for litigants in person presenting cases to the interim applications court. The 16-page guide, penned by High Court judge Mr Justice Foskett, takes litigants through each stage of the process, from giving notice and presenting documents to ...
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News
Linklaters links up with Saudi law firm
Magic circle firm Linklaters has formed a relationship with one of Saudi Arabia’s largest law firms, it has emerged. Under the alliance with Abdulaziz AlGasim, which has over 30 lawyers, the firms will work closely to support their clients on Saudi Arabian and international transactions. ...
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News
In-house salaries continue to trail inflation
In-house lawyers’ salaries have fallen in value over the past two years with average pay increases running below inflation, new figures show today. Salaries rose by 2.7% in the year to September 2012, according to research by Incomes Data Services (IDS). Over the same period, inflation averaged 3.7%. In the ...
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News
Expectations low for Cameron’s bill of rights commission
The body set up to investigate replacing the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a British bill of rights is expected to publish a ‘disappointing and vague’ report tomorrow. The commission on a bill of rights, which is now made up of four Conservative nominees and four ...
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News
Office banter is not black and white
We all like a good chuckle – even the high-minded hacks on the Gazette have been known to engage in badinage. But when does good-natured banter cross the line to become grounds for a discrimination or harassment claim? When does a joke stop being funny?
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News
AWS to join Law Society’s Women Lawyers Division
The Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) has voted to join the Law Society’s new Women Lawyers Division (WLD) in order to give women solicitors a ‘stronger, louder and unified voice’, it emerged this week. The vote, held on Monday evening at Chancery Lane, followed two years ...
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Colombian lawyers still under threat
The Caravana international delegation of lawyers was ‘dismayed’ to learn that assassinations of Colombian judges and lawyers have increased since its last visit to the country two years ago, the Gazette can reveal.
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News
Unified patent regime clears parliamentary hurdle
London is to hear all European patent cases concerning medical biotechnology, hygiene and chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, following today’s vote in the European parliament in favour of setting up a new court system for a unitary EU patent. The vote signals the final stage of nearly 40 ...
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News
Human Rights Day warning to prime minister
The Law Society has warned the government that the ‘increasingly worrying tone’ of domestic debate about the Human Rights Act has placed the UK’s reputation for international human rights leadership at risk. In a letter to prime minister David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, ...
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News
‘Oppressive’ employment litigants costs call
‘Oppressive’ litigants in employment tribunal cases should have punitive costs awarded against them, the Law Society has said in its response to a review of tribunal rules. The Society also criticised the review’s proposed scrapping of the £20,000 cap on awards and called for provisions to ...
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News
IP violations revealed by EU
EU customs officers detained almost 115 million products suspected of violating intellectual property rights in 2011 compared with 103 million in 2010, the latest European Commission annual report on customs efforts to enforce IPR has revealed. The intercepted goods were valued at £1.04bn compared with £880m ...
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South Korea opens billion-pound legal market
A new multi-billion pound legal market has opened for firms following the Republic of Korea’s decision to liberalise the rules around who can practise law in the country. Korean Bar Association vice-president Lee Byung-Joo (pictured) told the Gazette this week that Korea’s situation between Tokyo and ...