Last 3 months headlines – Page 1696
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Into the firing line?
In the show’s best tradition, The Apprentice contestant Anita Shah doesn’t come over as a shrinking violet. But the ‘self-confessed perfectionist’ has a novel strategy for getting ahead in the competition to impress Sir Alan Sugar. Shah reckons that you can be successful by investing ...
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LSB consults on regulatory independence
The Legal Services Board has today (25 March) launched a consultation on regulatory independence. A new document sets out proposals for rules that would require the separation of regulatory work from any representative work at eight approved regulators, including the Law Society. It also deals with rules necessary to approve ...
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Table manners
Another tale of old-school judiciary reaches us from Andrew Firman of Carter Lemon Camerons in Aldersgate St, London. A nervous articled clerk appears for the first time before the Master and, seeing a handy space on the table in front of him, deposits his bag thereon. ‘Young man,’ booms the ...
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Barty calls it a day – after 54 years
Winston Churchill retired, Ruth Ellis was hanged and Bill Haley rocked around the clock. In the same year – 1955 – John Barty qualified as a solicitor. He’s been practising in Bournemouth ever since, mainly as partner and senior partner with Rendall Litchfield, now part of Rawlins Davy. After 54 ...
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Rickett takes 10-race challenge
Jacob Rickett, environmental law assistant at Browne Jacobson in Nottingham, is looking to complete a 10-race challenge in a year – including full and half marathons – to raise money for the charity Arthritis Care. Rickett, 27, has a special reason for his passion. He has been diagnosed with ankylosing ...
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Data page for March 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the Data Page for March 2009 below ...
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Whitehall's concessions over secret inquests are a mixed bag
Can a secret inquest ever be justified after a person has died at the hands of the state? Or does the government deserve some credit for limiting the likelihood that future inquests will be held behind closed doors? That was a key issue that divided MPs as they spent two ...
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Bring on equality
I read with some disbelief Jack Straw’s remarks. On what planet is this man living, or more frighteningly, what planet are those who advise him living on?
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Pay for our offices
I am very encouraged by Jack Straw’s announcement that he thinks it entirely proper that lawyers are paid decent rates and his assertion that we should not expect to be paid more than public sector employees.
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Future perfect?
Your otherwise excellent article on the impact of the recession on the north-west legal scene (see [2009] Gazette, 19 March, 14) was marred by an error regarding the alleged lack of legal training providers in the heart of the city.
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Why solicitors are best equipped to be notaries
Having qualified as a solicitor at Allen & Overy, my experience has always been in the commercial world. I then spent eight years in private practice with commercial firms in Hong Kong. While I was in Hong Kong, I became a notary. On returning to the UK, I qualified as ...
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Turning to the index
The Gazette did not find its front page hard to fill this week, what with the Smedley report and Abbey’s bombshell for conveyancing firms. It is just possible, however, that the week’s most significant development in respect of legal business is the establishment of the world’s first stockmarket index for ...
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Corporate firms need regulatory group, says Smedley
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is not up to the job of regulating corporate law firms and needs to be fundamentally restructured to equip it for the task. That is the key conclusion of Nick Smedley, the former senior civil servant commissioned by the Law Society to ...
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Council legal departments face budget crunch
Local authorities face gaps in the availability of legal advice in key areas as council legal departments struggle to cope with rising demand and diminishing resources, according to exclusive research for the Gazette. A survey of 124 heads of legal found respondents predicting a rise in ...
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Solicitors’ defence union back under discussion
Solicitors facing disciplinary hearings or complaints procedures could receive formal representation under a defence scheme being considered by the Law Society. The Society says it is studying the idea of setting up a legal defence union as a voluntary or compulsory scheme. The Society’s Membership ...
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No more automatic secrecy for disciplined judges
The names of judges removed from office following disciplinary proceedings will no longer be kept secret, justice secretary Jack Straw (pictured) announced last week. Launching the second annual report of the Office of Judicial Complaints (OJC), he said there would now be a presumption that ...
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Biggest ever survey of women solicitors
The biggest ever survey of women’s status and role within the profession may contradict recent suggestions that the recession is having less impact on female workers than on men, the new chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) said last week.
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Tories ponder ways to alleviate legal aid ‘crisis’
A contingency legal aid fund and private sector investment are among proposals being considered by the Conservatives to overhaul a legal aid system ‘in crisis’, shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve QC told the Gazette in an interview published today on our website.
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Social welfare boost
A quarter of a million more people will qualify for help with social welfare problems following a 5% rise in the cut-off threshold for civil legal aid, the Ministry of Justice announced last week. Lord Bach, legal aid minister, told the Advice Services Alliance conference in ...