Last 3 months headlines – Page 1259
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SRA research reveals 'power' of high street firms
High street firms have ‘power’ and are known in their communities, the first phase of a consumer research project conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed. The study to look at how the public access legal services was commenced last month and announced today. Over ...
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Benefit fraud: claim/review forms
This is the second of four articles prompted by the case of Coventry City Council v Vassel 2011 EWHC 1542 Admin. In particular, it looks at mens rea and the difficulties that arise when local authorities fail to give adequate information to benefit claimants on how to notify a change ...
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Banks could not accept the financial products market was saturated
Disputes over interest rate hedging (derivatives) products sold by banks are in the news again this week – this time US state and local governments are looking at whether the products were ‘mis-sold’ and whether they have a case. Closer to home, as predicted by UK lawyers I spoke to ...
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SRA ditches online roll list
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has abandoned its online system for maintaining a list of solicitors who want to stay on the roll, costing it hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost fees. There are around 35,000 qualified solicitors who do not have practising certificates, but who ...
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New patron of legal diversity trust
Conservative life peer Baroness Sandip Verma of Leicester has become patron of the BLD Foundation, a group that works to improve diversity and social mobility in the legal profession. The BLD (formerly Black Lawyers Directory) Foundation provides young people with access to an array of ...
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Chancery Lane’s Olympic Gold
Obiter is removing a hat to cheer double Olympic medal winner and Law Society member of staff William Styles (pictured). Styles won a gold and a silver. And he has already got his own Wikipedia entry.
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Helena Kennedy QC to co-chair IBAHRI
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has announced that Lady Helena Kennedy QC will become its first female co-chair. The peer and former barrister will join existing co-chair Sternford Moyo, the former president of the Zimbabwe Law Society, to lead the IBAHRI Council. ...
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Partners block promotion prospects
One in three solicitors in private practice blames their ‘stifled’ career progression on increased competition from their peers combined with fewer partners retiring, a survey has revealed. The survey of more than 200 private practice solicitors, published today by recruiters Laurence Simons, quoted Law Society ...
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Should funders bring collective actions?
As the government closed its consultation on collective actions in competition law cases at the end of last month, there was an outcry from business groups warning against the plans. Among the critics were the CBI, and our old friends the Institute of Legal Reform ...
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Professor Gus John to carry out SRA racism review
Professor Gus John is to carry out an independent comparative case review to determine if there is any evidence of racism in the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority investigates black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors.
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DPAs must be transparent, Chancery Lane warns
Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) could improve the way economic crime committed by commercial organisations is dealt with, but the process must be transparent to retain public confidence, the Law Society has said.
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News
DPAs must be transparent, Chancery Lane warns
Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) could improve the way economic crime committed by commercial organisations is dealt with, but the process must be transparent to retain public confidence, the Law Society has said.
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Government wrong to make graduate stack shelves, High Court rules
The government was wrong to require a graduate to leave her internship in a museum to stack shelves in a high street shop, a high court judge ruled today. However, the government had not breached her human right to protection from slavery and forced labour, the ...
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Justice reforms have increased burden on judiciary, says LCJ
Reforms to the efficiency of the administration of justice have increased the burdens on the judiciary at a time when their pay and pension packages are being cut, according to a report from the lord chief justice, Igor Judge.
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SRA licenses 15th ABS
Seven-partner Gloucestershire high street firm Langley Wellington has become the 15th alternative business structure to be licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority since licensing began in March 2012. It joins firms ranging in size from Kent sole practitioner Lawbridge to Co-operative Legal Services, with plans to ...
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New ABSs critical of application process
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has too few resources to handle the licensing of alternative business structures (ABSs) and should ‘triple in size or work 24 hours a day,’ the senior partner of one of the four firms licensed this week told the Gazette. The four new ...
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The Briefs and criminal law – it’s a numbers game
Those of you able to tear yourself away from the Olympics last night might have caught the first of a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary about the lawyers and clients at the Manchester office of Tuckers. The Briefs was made by Chameleon Television, which spent a year with ...
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Accused silk in court on VAT fraud charge
A London silk has appeared in court charged with a £600,000 VAT fraud. Rohan Anthony Pershad QC, who practised from Thirty Nine Essex Street, was summoned to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court yesterday.