Last 3 months headlines – Page 1236
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Just business
Once again the profession is tying itself in knots over pro bono work, in effect fiddling while Rome burns (‘Should pro bono be compulsory?’).
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Roundtable: the changing role of corporate counsel
In-house lawyers in commerce and industry operate in a landscape that has changed hugely since the turn of the millennium. This new terrain has been shaped by across-the-board growth in the demands of regulators, investors and legislators worldwide, and by an increased sensitivity to litigation risks.
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Lost generation fears of Labour's Sadiq Khan
Criminal legal aid solicitors will be such an endangered species by 2015 that Labour would not need to take forward plans for price-competitive tendering in the sector. That is the startlingly frank opinion of shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan MP, who has given the Gazette ...
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Top firms risk collapse, US economist warns
The very largest corporate law firms are wedded to an unsustainable business model designed around support for their own massive overheads, one of the US’s leading general counsel has warned, predicting more collapses like that of US firm Dewey LeBoeuf. Michael Trotter, now with US firm ...
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Study recommends shift in CPD provision
The annual requirement for 16 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) should not be extended and could even be lowered, according to a report commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The Nottingham Law School study also says law firms should have to contribute to the ...
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Fund will assume risks of ABSs, says MoJ
The solicitors’ compensation fund will take on the risks of alternative business structures indefinitely following the shelving of plans for a separate fund, the ...
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Litigant in person ‘not entitled to indulgence’
The Court of Appeal has told a self-represented litigant that his lack of legal understanding does not entitle him to ‘extra indulgence’. The finding will comfort solicitors facing a soaring number of self-represented opponents. Peter Elliott, who claims to be ...
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Hudson warning over failure to modernise conveyancing
Failure to computerise the conveyancing process could damage the UK economy, the chief executive of the Law Society has told a United Nations conference. Speaking at a UN Economic Commission for Europe event on the role of land registration in economic recovery, Desmond Hudson (pictured) ...
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Eversheds pioneers ‘big data’ for clients
National firm Eversheds says it is the first law firm to offer its clients ‘big data’ techniques to help them understand competitors’ business strategies and avoid major risks. Big data is an IT industry buzz phrase for the analysis of very large sets of data ...
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War tribunal ‘politically motivated’
A barrister representing a prominent Muslim figure in Britain has criticised a tribunal seeking his extradition to Bangladesh on war crimes charges.
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A new look for new times
The Law Society Gazette, which turns 109 next month, has gone through many iterations in print. Today’s issue introduces the first comprehensive redesign for several years and reflects our determination to ensure solicitors from every constituency of a diverse readership are seen and heard in these pages.
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Osborne's employee plan is flawed
by Richard Fox, head of employment law at City firm Kingsley Napley and chair of the Employment Lawyers Association It was a complete surprise to most people when, at the beginning of last week, George Osborne announced to the Conservative party conference, a plan to introduce ...
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Top hat and... wardrobe malfunction
Obiter is more than a little disappointed that a feature in the latest British Vogue titled ‘Law of attraction’ includes few practical answers to the sartorial challenges thrown up by the average lawyer’s diary (too many chunky knits, mainly). However, male colleagues who fear being wrong-footed ...
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Fright night
Obiter last week asked for a fictional/historic character whose estate you’d least like to wind up. At least six readers proposed Henry VIII; ‘look what happened to Thomas Cromwell’. Genghis Khan was another popular choice. Fictional probate clients from hell ranged from Willy Wonka to ...
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Ale and hearty
Forget all those promotional pens and desktop toys, and never mind primetime TV: why not promote your firm’s name through a properly convivial medium? Somerset firm Amicus Law has done that by commissioning its own real ale – Amicus Ale – through the efforts of ...
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Degree of discipline at party conference
Party conferences are difficult things for the majority parliamentary party. You have to rouse the faithful but the course of government is already set. One moment of temptation – by applause or a headline – and some department is stuck with an initiative that went down a storm in ...
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Are DBAs a viable option in personal injury?
As personal injury lawyers prepare to kiss goodbye to recoverability of after-the-event insurance premiums and success fees in conditional fee agreements from next April, so they will be waving hello to the new kid in town, the damages-based agreement. Will DBAs prove to be the hero of the hour, rescuing ...
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Interpreter firm still missing target, official statistics reveal
The company contracted to provide court interpreters has failed to reach its performance target after six months, statistics released today reveal. The overall success rate for jobs completed by Applied Language Solutions between 30 January and 31 August was 89%. The contract’s performance target is ...
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Public procurement
Public contracts – Claimants tendering for development contract from defendant market authority By Development Ltd and others v Covent Garden Market Authority: Queen's Bench Division, Technology and Construction Court: 28 September 2012 ...