All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 49
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News
Pioneering public sector alliance to offer 'budget' legal services
Cardiff and East Midlands law firm Geldards has teamed up with Kent County Council (KCC) to offer ‘budget’ legal services to the public sector across England and Wales. The two organisations have formed Law:Public, a public sector legal team of more than 100 lawyers, in what ...
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Commission proposes radical shake-up of social care law
The Law Commission has today proposed the most radical shake-up of adult social care law in 60 years. The proposals, uniting the provisions of 38 separate acts in one modern statute, aim to avoid red tape, delays and litigation. They will also save public money and ...
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Law Society wins top Business Superbrands award
The Law Society has been voted the strongest brand in the Association & Accreditation (A&A) sector of the Business Superbrands survey for the second year running. It was also ranked 75th overall out of the top 500 brands across all sectors, up from 118th last ...
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Local government lawyers to develop new competence powers
Local government lawyers are to draft a new ‘power of general competence’ to give local authorities greater freedom to act independently of central government to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their areas. The new power of general competence is intended to complement the ...
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Women jurors more likely to change their minds than men
Women jurors are more likely to change their minds as a result of jury deliberations than men, a Ministry of Justice report has revealed. The research showed that while female jurors were significantly more likely to convict at the start of deliberations, when discussions were completed ...
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Can the BNP change its spots?
At an extraordinary general meeting on Sunday 14 February the British National Party (BNP) approved its new constitution allowing people of all ethnicities to become members.
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Law Society mulls Zimbabwe protest
The Law Society is considering intervening in the case of a solicitor who was imprisoned by the Zimbabwe authorities for asserting that evidence incriminating his client was obtained under torture. Zimbabwean solicitor Mordecai Mahlangu was arrested when acting for Roy Bennett, a Zimbabwean farmer of European ...
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Ghanaian law firm opens in London
A law firm with ambitions to become the ‘Linklaters of Africa’ has become the first Ghanaian firm to open in London. Ghanaian corporate and commercial firm Oxford & Beaumont has set up in the UK to service UK law firms conducting business in Ghana.The four-partner firm, ...
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SLG teams up with schools and charity to highlight pro bono
The Solicitors in Local Government (SLG) group has teamed up with three schools and a legal advice charity to raise the profile of local authority lawyers in the ‘neglected’ area of pro bono work. The SLG has agreed a partnership arrangement with the Citizenship Foundation to ...
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Firms face court action risk over money laundering reports
Law firms could find themselves being sued for reporting suspected money laundering following a Court of Appeal decision last week. Law firms, banks and other businesses handling client money are obliged to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) ...
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Local government lawyers make PC fee plea to the SRA
Local government lawyers are pressing the Solicitors Regulation Authority to concede more ground in its proposals to lower the practising certificate fee payable by employed solicitors. The SRA has proposed that the PC fee be split into two elements, with 40% of the costs to ...
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DLA Piper denies lawyer’s discrimination claim
National firm DLA Piper has appeared before the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) this week to deny a lawyer’s claim that it discriminated against her on the grounds of her ‘perceived’ disability.
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News
Is the pope right to speak out about the Equality Bill?
You have to hand it to the Equality Bill – its detractors come from every walk of life. At one end of the spectrum there’s the white working class British guy who thinks the bill is all about giving his job to women or black people.
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News
Most consumers think all will writers are solicitors
Some 67% of consumers wrongly believe that all will writers are solicitors, research has shown. A survey of more than 1,000 people revealed that 82% assumed that training and qualifications are required before someone can become a will writer. More than ...
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Vietnamese lawyer escapes death sentence
A Vietnamese lawyer who acts as a consultant for a magic circle firm has been found guilty of activities aimed at ending communist rule, but his death sentence has been commuted to five years’ imprisonment. Le Cong Dinh was charged with activities including posting articles ...
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MPs condemn 'serial litigant’ website
A website set up by an employment solicitor to enable lawyers to identify ‘serial litigants’ in employment cases has been ‘condemned’ in a parliamentary early day motion (EDM) signed by more than 40 MPs. The website, serial-litigants.com, uses records ...
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Law firm ‘disarray’ over retirement proposals
Proposed changes to the mandatory retirement age would pose management challenges for law firms and throw succession plans into ‘disarray’, employment lawyers have warned. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published a series of proposals this week to allow people, including solicitors, ...
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Septuagenarian associates – coming to an office near you
Imagine you have won £6.5m. Even if you just tuck it under your mattress, that’s a cool £100,000 a year tax free for the next 65 years. You have an exquisite choice. You can kiss goodbye to the commute, the dark winter mornings...
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News
Government unveils strategy to tackle overseas bribery
The government has today announced a four-pronged strategy to tackle overseas bribery. The strategy aims to strengthen the UK’s bribery laws through the new bribery bill; encourage UK companies to apply appropriate ethical standards; support law enforcement agencies in the detection of corruption; and reduce the ...
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LawCare helpline sees surge in solicitor calls
A charity that provides pastoral support to solicitors has recorded its busiest year to date, with a 10% rise in lawyers reporting stress and other problems. LawCare opened 549 case files last year, up 10% on 2008. Calls to the helpline were becoming ‘longer and ...