Last 3 months headlines – Page 1702
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Wall Street task force
The American Bar Association (ABA) is to establish a high-level task force on financial services regulation in response to the crisis on Wall Street. In an exclusive interview with the Gazette, President Tommy Wells said the initiative is partly aimed at defending the principle of ...
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First year of OPG dogged by delays and disruption
A damning report into the first 12 months of the body charged with protecting people lacking mental capacity to make decisions for themselves has revealed a track record of delays, inaccurate information and inefficiency. The body, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), came into being ...
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Online complaints plan on hold
Controversial plans to publish complaints against solicitors online have been shelved. In a long-awaited decision, the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) this week said it still favours the idea – but passed responsibility for any scheme to its successor body, which comes into being in 2010.
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Legal aid a 'cottage industry'
Government policies are creating a ‘cottage industry’ of legal aid provision, with large firms being driven out of the market, solicitors warned this week as a major firm shed its bulk criminal legal aid practice. Hickman & Rose, whose managing partner Jane Hickman is a ...
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Blue collar
District judges sported their new Betty Jackson-designed robes as they processed from Westminster Abbey to the judges’ breakfast in the Palace of Westminster to mark the opening of the legal year last week. To fit in with their judicial colleagues they wore barristers’ wigs for the occasion, but these will ...
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Legal aid leads Europe
England and Wales has fewer courts per head of population than Belgium, Ireland or the Russian Federation, but spends at least four times more on legal aid than any other Council of Europe jurisdiction, an official survey reveals this week. The Council’s European Commission for the ...
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Call for ban over HIPs
An investigation that exposed home information packs (HIPs) as flawed has prompted calls for insurance-backed personal searches to be banned. Birmingham Trading Standards inspected HIPs at 15 estate agents, randomly selecting six packs for scrutiny. Five contained false or misleading search information. ...
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Banks silent over client money
Confused solicitors have called on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to clarify what would happen if a bank’s collapse wiped out pooled client money. At the end of September, the FSCS told the Gazette that, as long as solicitors told their bank they were depositing ...
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Litigation cash woe
Increased demand for litigation funding amid the current financial crisis may not be met because backers are taking on more lucrative work, an expert has warned. Hedge funds and private equity houses – which were providing more and more cash to the emerging third-party funding market ...
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Franchising, construction, acquisitions and investments
Toy story: City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse advised toy retailer Hamleys on a franchising deal that will allow it to open up to 20 stores in India. The franchise will be run and operated by a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private ...
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The case for the defence
As Graham Zellick steps down as chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, he tells of his fears that budget cuts could seriously impede the body’s work. ‘I do not think we feature very much on the radar,’ says Professor Graham Zellick, retiring chairman of the ...
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American perspective: we interview the head of the ABA
Paul Rogerson speaks to Tommy Wells, president of the 400,000-strong American Bar Association, about Wall Street, the White House – and Guantanamo. PR: Perhaps we should start with ...
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Ritu Sethi's inspiring journey to success
Criminal lawyer, fitness instructor, motivational speaker and television chat show host. Award-winning polymath Ritu Sethi talks about her ‘learning curve’. Ritu Sethi isn’t the only female managing and senior partner within the legal profession, but she is probably the first with a dual qualification ...
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The international dimension
Globalisation is the defining characteristic of the profession and must not be obstructed by protectionist impulses, which may re-emerge as the economy declines.
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New Labour's legal aid folly
You ‘fat-cat’ solicitors are in reality doing more for less. Did you know that selling a grey squirrel is now against the law? There is gallows (sic) humour in the fact that New Labour has created 3,600 new criminal offences since it came to power ...
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Adding less insult to injury
The ‘blame game’ over fees must not detract from the critical issue of clinical safety within the NHS. The Gazette recently featured the headline ‘lawyers blamed for negligence fees rise’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 2). I have serious concerns that the blame game over fees ...
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As time goes by
Maurice Fooks and Victor Gersten have, between them, been practising law for an extraordinary 120 years. Last week they were kind enough to share some of their memories with Obiter.
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Yorkshire mixture
Ee, by gum! After sleepless nights the wait is over. The shortlist for this year’s Deliciouslyorkshire annual food and drink awards has been announced. Patent and trademark attorneys Harrison Goddard Foote are one of the many sponsors associated with the event – which is organised ...
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Killer bill
For general counsel, the hours spent poring over legal bills is probably not the highlight of the job. But, every now and again, a rare gem may be uncovered – something that cracks a smile or even draws a snigger. At the C5 forum on reducing ...
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Typing blunders
Steamy goings-on in the Cotswolds. Richard Davies, of Kendall and Davies in Bourton-on-the-Water, continues our series on legal typing errors with the all-time classic ‘sex party application’. He recently received a letter on a matrimonial matter from solicitors acting for his client's husband – referring to his ‘Stella contribution’. ...