Last 3 months headlines – Page 1311
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News
Marriage Foundation motives are laudable
Was Mr Justice Coleridge wise to arrange such a very public launch for his Marriage Foundation this week? Whether or not you support its aims - and I do, for reasons I will explain - you may well wonder whether a serving family judge should campaign for one kind of ...
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Hot property?
Last week brought the gloomy news that the country has slid back into recession. The much feared double dip was to a large extent blamed on the contraction in the construction sector. It would seem that tricky times are ahead for real estate lawyers, but far from tightening their belts, ...
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Law firms remain cautious despite profit growth
Law firms continue to rebuild profitability while keeping a tight rein on overheads, according to a respected annual bellwether of the sector’s financial health. Practices are also relatively bullish about future fees, with most expecting a 3% rise in 2012.
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Female partner boost at magic circle
The number of women promoted to partnership at magic circle firms has risen by 50% - but they still make up just a quarter of all the promotions. A total of 95 solicitors were this week elected to partnership at the leading five firms. Of these, 24 were women - ...
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Italian firm applies to become an ABS
A leading Italian law firm has joined the race to become an alternative business structure as the number of advanced applications approaches 100. Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati, which has an annual turnover of €100m (£82m), could become one of the first non-UK law firms to ...
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SRA reprieve for financial advice law firms
Some 70 firms set to lose their dual authorisation to give combined legal and financial advice later this year may have been granted a reprieve. The Solicitors Regulation Authority had told the affected firms that when they became alternative business structures they would lose their ...
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Labour would ‘rebalance’ justice system and legal aid
Labour will not yet commit to reversing specific changes contained in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, the shadow justice minister said this week. However, Andrew Slaughter MP promised a future Labour government would ‘rebalance the justice system’ in favour of those ...
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News International under pressure to waive advice privilege
Media giant News International last week came under pressure at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards to waive privilege over advice from its solicitors.
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Seldon: ‘I’d fight age bias claim again’
The former equity partner whose age discrimination claim was dismissed by the Supreme Court last week after six years of litigation would ‘do it all again’, he told the Gazette. Leslie Seldon (pictured) said there was ‘no bad blood’ between him and Clarkson Wright & Jakes ...
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Clarke asks top judges to probe disclosure sanctions
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has asked two senior judges to review sanctions for disclosure failures in criminal trials, to ‘mitigate the resource burden’ imposed by disclosure.
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On the beat with PACE
I write in response to the article ‘Suspects denied right to consult solicitor’. As I have been representing the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) strategy I wanted to clarify the national policing position on this matter.
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Voicing concern
Journalists Catherine Baksi and John Hyde are to be congratulated for their perseverance in reporting on what is correctly described in your editorial as the ‘farce’ resulting from the engagement of Applied Language Solutions (aka Capita) for the justice system’s interpreting and translating services.
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For the record
The article ‘Reaching a verdict’ made reference to the tragic case of Sally Clark. It rightly praised the work of a family member in uncovering the medical records that proved critical in the appeal. However, I should point out that the records were obtained for ...
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Bad representation
I refer to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s advice on dealing with a litigant in person. It is particularly helpful to those who have not been there before. A litigant in person is in a better place than a litigant represented by an incompetent solicitor. Some years ago I made a ...
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Generation gap
I am a sole practitioner and higher rights advocate on crime and motoring. I read with interest the various letters and articles with regard to virtual files, laptops in court and the ‘real progress’ that is being made. For example, signing up for secure email.
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JAC commissioner: 'let solicitors become judges'
The newly-appointed solicitor commissioner to the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has expressed scepticism about targets and quotas for diversity as well as the ‘tipping point’ method of favouring under-represented groups.
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'Safe harbour’ compliance advice for whole profession
The Law Society has announced it will offer ‘safe harbour’ compliance advice to the whole profession. The move follows Chancery Lane’s launch last month of the Compliance Reference Group (CRG) pilot for enquiries on regulation from top-100 firms. The service will now ...
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Post-legislative scrutiny of the 2000 FoI act
Last year the justice select committee, chaired by Sir Alan Beith, launched a call for written evidence for its post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI). The committee invited written evidence on the following issues (although those responding were free to discuss other matters): ...
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Franchises elicit every human response from lawyers, but rarely good-humoured scepticism
The emergence of law firm franchises - the subject of a feature by Neil Hodge this week - is an alien and unwelcome development for many solicitors. Negative responses range from fear to disdain. Franchises are not to everyone’s taste, but as a response to a changing legal market they ...