Last 3 months headlines – Page 1720
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Human traffic warning
Immigration lawyers must become more ‘victim-focused’ if they are to stop giving unwitting help to human traffickers, a top European lawyer has told the Gazette. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, a lawyer and deputy secretary-general of the Council of Europe, said trafficking could go undetected when practitioners endorsed ...
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Society wary over Charter Mark idea
The Law Society has reacted cautiously to the Legal Services Ombudsman’s idea of introducing a Charter Mark scheme for solicitors. Ombudsman Zahida Manzoor also warned that the Legal Complaints Service’s (LCS) current proposals to publish complaints records ‘could potentially lead to some solicitors paying compensation irrespective ...
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Bond Pearce in Grand Prix win
South-west firm Bond Pearce advised Donington Park race track on the deal that will make it home to the British Grand Prix for ten years from 2010. The deal was struck between Donington’s owners and Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management, which was advised in-house. Formula One’s ...
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Put diversity on the agenda, urge counsel
Leading black minority ethnic (BME) in-house counsel have called on aspiring company lawyers to use their positions to promote the diversity agenda. Sandie Okoro, group general counsel at Baring Asset Management, said: ‘You have an enormous amount of influence as an in-house counsel, so get diversity ...
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Property search 'lottery'
The London Borough of Hillingdon has been dubbed the worst performing local authority for delivering property search services, according to a joint survey by search company One Search Direct and home information pack (HIP) provider Simply HIP. The research said the council took an average of ...
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Law reform programme unveiled
The Lord Chancellor will be forced to update Parliament annually on plans to implement Law Commission recommendations, the commission’s chair said this week. Sir Terence Etherton told journalists the proposal was a sign of a closer working relationship between the commission and government. ...
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Judicial candidates selection concern
The Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) has voiced concern over reports that candidates have been put forward for judicial appointment in competitions they had not entered. SAL chairman Sailesh Mehta said he had been informed that a position was to be given to a candidate who ...
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Protection 'racket'
Solicitors are poised to take on a wave of new legal work following a Competition Commission (CC) report on payment protection insurance (PPI), which showed that policyholders appear to be overcharged by more than £1.4 billion a year. The provisional findings of the CC investigation, published ...
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Quality of legal aid provision 'at risk'
The government is risking lowering standards in legal aid provision if it presses ahead with its reform programme, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) warned at the launch of a new fundraising campaign – Friends of LAPG – last week. Speaking at the event – which ...
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Indemnity rates on the up in 'increasingly volatile' market
Solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) rates will increase this year because insurance companies are not making ‘adequate’ returns, leading insurer Travelers has warned. Conveyancing firms – especially those with a bias towards residential property – will suffer the biggest hike, Jon Davies, assistant general manager ...
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Law firm 'yet to feel credit crunch'
Half of law firms claim the credit crunch has not yet had an adverse impact on their businesses, according to a straw poll taken at Travelers’ On Risk conference. Just 12% of delegates – made up of more than 100 partners and risk managers from a ...
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'Outsource work or risk being cut out of the loop'
Law firms should be looking to cut costs and outsource some legal work to compete effectively once alternative business structures (ABSs) come into being, Kerry Underwood, senior partner at Hertfordshire firm Underwoods, has warned. Speaking at a legal process outsourcing (LPO) event hosted by the South ...
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Top 100 cautious despite growth
Major firms are forecasting single-digit growth in fee income for the coming year, despite continued double-digit growth up to April, according to business advisory firm Deloitte. The top 100 achieved 12% growth in the quarter ended 30 April compared to the same period in 2007, Deloitte ...
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Deals of the week
Flying deal: City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner advised Ascent, a consortium comprising defence company Lockheed Martin and defence contractor VT Group, on a contract to provide UK military flight and weapons system training to RAF, Royal Navy and Army Air Corps pilots for ...
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Own goal
Commiserating with legal aid minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath over the relegation of his football team, Birmingham City, to the Championship, Carol Storer, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG), highlighted the struggle faced by hard-pressed Championship clubs when competing for the best talent with their wealthier Premier ...
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Messing about in boats
Vintage-boat owner and conveyancing solicitor Chris Malley (inset) emailed Obiter to tell of his acting part in film director Richard Curtis’s latest feature – yes, he of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill fame – apparently titled The Boat that Rocked. Malley, 61-year-old partner at Weymouth firm Simon ...
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Try and tri again
Yet more lawyers pushing themselves to the limit. This time solicitors Paul Arthur, 43, Anna Burns, 25, Julian Evitts, 33, and trainee Helen Rice, 26 – all from Chester firm Oliver & Co – have completed their first triathlon, raising £650 for Macmillan Cancer Support and the British Lung Foundation.
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Cry freedom
High Court win against the House of Commons Commission was a landmark victory for freedom of information campaigners Freedom of information (FoI) brings clarity to the rule of law, obliging governments to reveal how they operate and make decisions. Operations and decision-making become less arbitrary and ...
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Preaching diversity
As I read the letter headed ‘Cheap Labour’ (see [2008] Gazette, 29 May, 11), it struck me that it could have been written by any number of my women solicitor colleagues, many of whom suffer the double discrimination of being female and black or Asian.
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Hours of need
Both Nicola Prior and Andrew Holroyd missed an important point when discussing inequality in the workplace in last week’s Gazette (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 11, 15). There is a lot of talk about ‘solicitors of similar PQE’, but firms are surely entitled to reward ...