Last 3 months headlines – Page 1515
-
News
Crowned advocate
With the traditional image of a solicitor being a little – dare we suggest – staid, it is heartening to know that a touch of glamour will be heading our way in a few years. Jessica Linley, a 21-year-old law student at Nottingham University and the current Miss Nottingham, has ...
-
News
Altar-native career
Richard Taylor, partner at DLA Piper in Sheffield and the Gazette’s IP guru, has something of a passion for churches. So much so that he is currently on the box presenting a new BBC television series, Churches: How to Read Them, based on his own book of the same name. ...
-
News
Birth pangs
It seems that personal injury solicitors anxiously awaiting the outcome of Lord Young of Graffham’s ’elf and safety review, which is intended to check the growth of the compensation culture, may have to wait another week. If rumours that have reached Obiter’s ears are to be believed, those in the ...
-
News
What to do if your firm has yet to obtain PII
The uppermost issue for many law firms at present is whether they will manage to get professional indemnity insurance (PII) for the coming year, and how much it will cost. We are often asked how many firms we expect will fail to get PII on the ...
-
News
How Leeds law firms are battling the downturn
Times have been challenging for almost everyone in the Leeds legal market: from Fox Hayes, which went into administration last year, to members of the original ‘big six’ Leeds firms such as Hammonds, which made over 70 redundancies and had to close its conveyancing business, Hammonds Direct; to Lupton Fawcett ...
-
News
The Law Commission wants to move from criminal to civil penalties
What is the criminal law for? That deceptively simple question was addressed recently in a masterly paper by Professor Jeremy Horder, issued just a few days before he completed his term as the commissioner responsible for advising ministers on reform of the criminal law. As a ...
-
News
LSC reverses contract decision following judge's warning
The Legal Services Commission has averted one legal challenge to its tender process by awarding a social welfare contract to a Birmingham firm which sought a judicial review of the LSC’s initial decision not to make an award.
-
News
Welfare law work and exclusion
I was pleased to read the comments of Mr Justice Collins, in connection with the ‘irrational’ approach of the Legal Services Commission regarding the social welfare law tender process. Unhappily, this is consistent with the experiences of my own firm.
-
News
Colombia and human rights
Further to the article ‘UK lawyer delegation suffers Colombia rights rebuff’, I would like to inform you that the government and embassy of Colombia provided the delegation with assistance in arranging and confirming governmental meetings during their visit to my country in August.
-
News
The record of the Legal Complaints Service
I read with interest your interview with LeO chief ombudsman Adam Sampson . As chair of the board of the Legal Complaints Service, I have worked closely with Legal Complaints Service chief executive Deborah Evans and her team to ensure that LeO gets off to the ...
-
News
Football, home fixtures and hotels
Net returns: North-west firm Brabners Chaffe Street advised Liverpool Football Club on appointing Roy Hodgson, formerly of Fulham Football Club and advised by London firm Michael Simkins, as team manager. It also advised Manchester United on acquiring striker Javier Hernández (pictured) from Mexican ...
-
News
Council first for LawWorks pro bono project
Lawyers at Sutton Council are to become the first local authority legal team to volunteer their services to the LawWorks pro bono project. The 14 solicitors and three barristers in Sutton’s legal team are signing up to the charity, which provides free legal help to ...
-
News
SRA pays out over £9m to former clients of Wolstenholmes
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far paid out more than £9m to former clients of Cheshire firm Wolstenholmes. The SRA closed down the firm, which had offices in Cheadle and Birmingham, last year, on the grounds of suspected dishonesty and breaches of the solicitors’ accountancy ...
-
News
Lib Dem peer attacks partners over tax avoidance
Some partners at certain magic circle law firms are still not paying their fair share of tax, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman claimed this week, after first raising the issue back in June. Lord Oakeshott said in the House of Lords then that, according to ‘a ...
-
News
The Law Society will continue to fight over the legal aid tender
‘There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.’ So said US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in 1964. More than 45 years later we are still fighting to ensure access to justice for all. ...
-
News
Manchester CLAS will ‘eclipse’ small practices
The Law Society has warned that Manchester’s new community legal advice service (CLAS) will drive small legal aid firms out of the market, and make conflicts of interest hard to avoid. Following a tender process that overran by nearly two months, the Legal Services Commission and ...
-
News
SRA ‘unlikely’ to relax ABS restrictions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...
-
News
Pro bono panel for 2012 Olympics
The Law Society and Bar Council are to establish a joint pro bono panel of advisers for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Although City firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the official legal adviser to the London Olympics, the games’ organising committee has asked the two representative ...
-
News
We want your thoughts on the Gazette website
How often do you visit the Gazette website? Do you participate in our social media activities? Are you aware that our online platforms contain a wealth of information that complements your weekly print magazine? It appeared to us timely to ask these questions in the ...
-
News
Top law firms reject conflict rules change
Top City law firms have rejected ‘foolhardy’ proposals to change the conflict of interest rules put forward by the profession’s regulator, warning it against making ‘rushed changes’.