Last 3 months headlines – Page 1521
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Professional indemnity insurance boost for sole practitioners
Travelers, the second-largest professional indemnity insurer, has struck an exclusive agreement with Quinn’s former broker, Prime Professions, to offer cover to sole practitioners left in limbo by Quinn’s expected departure from the market. Quinn presently insures around 1,900 sole practitioners and about 1,000 small firms.
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Worse even than the LCS?
It may be difficult for many consumer-advising solicitors to imagine a service much more hostile to, and biased against, solicitors than that offered by the unqualified advisers at the Legal Complaints Service, forwhom ‘service-related complaint’ often appears to translate to ‘opportunity for solicitors to open their chequebooks, regardless of the ...
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Solicitor comparison websites are an opportunity (though prices will fall)
The launch of the solicitors’ comparison website wigster.com, reported by the Gazette, is likely to engender polemic reaction from within the profession.
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Chancery Lane in legal bid over family tender
The Law Society is preparing a high court challenge against the Legal Services Commission’s family tender process. Chancery Lane today informed the LSC of its intention to seek a judicial review of the exercise, which has slashed the number of firms able to do family law ...
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Why some lawyers are turning away from the goal of equity partnership
Pity those poor equity partners. They may pocket an eye-watering wedge of the profits and dictate how the firm is run, but there can be a heavy price to pay.
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Miners in court over alleged undersettlement of claims
The first known court actions against law firms for alleged undersettlement of sick coal miners’ government compensation claims began this morning. As first revealed by the Gazette in July, 18 cases will be heard today and tomorrow in Leeds County Court.
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Midlands merger creates £30m turnover practice
Birmingham firm Shakespeare Putsman and Nottingham firm Berryman will merge to create a Midlands practice with £30m in combined turnover. The firm will employ 440 people across the East and West Midlands. Shakespeare Putsman merged with Stratford firm Needham & James in ...
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Redundancies predicted over family legal aid tender
Some 90% of family lawyers think the legal aid tender result will lead to widespread redundancies across the profession, according to a survey of Resolution members. The poll also showed that 86% of respondents whose firms were unsuccessful in the tender have appealed. ...
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Thoughts from the American Bar Association's annual meeting
I was at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco last week. Here are some conclusions.
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Lack of capital putting firms at risk of Halliwells-style collapse
The legal market could see another law firm fall in a Halliwells-style collapse in the next 12 months due to lack of capital and high property costs, experts have told the Gazette. Accountants also warned that the demise of the north-west firm may make it more ...
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Law Society opens PII helpline
The Law Society today opened its professional indemnity insurance (PII) helpline to help steer solicitors through this year’s renewals season. The Society said that the free helpline ‘will support solicitors having difficulties with professional indemnity insurance during the renewal period’. The Law ...
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Baker & McKenzie reports profits boost
The London office of US and City firm Baker & McKenzie has upped its partner profits by more than half, the firm reported yesterday. Average profits per equity partner (PEP) shot up 56% to £650,000 for the year ending 30 June 2010, from £418,000 for the ...
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How cost-cutting has yielded results at Baker & McKenzie
How do you conjure up £78,000 more pay for each of your equity partners without generating any more income than you did previously? Well, for a start, try asking the guys in Baker & McKenzie’s London office for a lesson in cost-cutting.
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Terror laws overused by police, research suggests
Less than 4% of people arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 were convicted of terrorism-related offences in 2009, new research has found. Just eight people were convicted out of 207 arrests made under the act in 2009, according to Home Office statistics analysed by legal information ...
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Firms await result of family tender appeals
Hundreds of legal aid solicitors are currently awaiting the outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s appeals process for family legal aid contracts. The deadline for submitting appeals was 6 August, and the LSC has 28 days to process the appeals.
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Conveyancers should be free to act for both sides, consumer panel says
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has called for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to scrap the conduct provisions that prevent a solicitor from acting for both seller and purchaser, and for both lender and borrower in a conveyancing transaction. Responding to the SRA’s current consultation on its ...
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Gazette survey on firms’ recovery from recession
The Gazette is asking solicitors to participate in a survey about how law firms are recovering from the economic crisis. In association with the Gazette, Wesleyan for Lawyers, part of a financial services mutual, is conducting a profession-wide survey examining how the financial crisis has ...
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Try a multifaceted approach to producing law articles
Many firms now provide a legal news service as part of their marketing efforts and as a way of providing extra value for clients. The problem is that while it’s easy to start a service highlighting legal developments, it can be difficult to maintain. After a few months, the enthusiasm ...
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Advocates to face tougher regulation under new proposals
Solicitor-advocates and barristers could be forced to work for longer in the lower courts before being granted higher court rights, under proposals put forward by the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG). At present, solicitors can appear in the higher courts after completing the Higher Rights of Audience ...
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Irish solicitors take court action over transfer rights
Irish solicitors have taken the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Legal Services Board to court over the regulators’ decision to take away their automatic right to practise in England and Wales. According to reports in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post, the Irish Law Society has issued High Court ...