Last 3 months headlines – Page 1279
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High notes
Old Africa hand Obiter has always had a thing for South African music. Think Soweto Beats, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela. And now also think Cape Town Opera, which came to Oxford for the European premiere of its musical tribute to elder statesman Nelson Mandela earlier this week. ...
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Tough questions
Mission creep was always a danger for Obiter’s friend Lord Justice Leveson (pictured). It was maybe there from the very moment the prime minister decided that a little local trouble with endemic phone hacking at News of the World merited a wide-ranging look at the relationship between media, politicians and ...
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Street wise
Hackney Community Law Centre, as you would expect, is hip and down with the people. This week sees the launch of its Community Law Shop service, where it is taking legal advice to the streets. In step with one of the latest marketing wheezes, it has styled its new initiative ...
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Insolvency
Property available for distribution – Pari passu – Anti-deprivation Revenue and Customs Commissioners v Football League Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice David Richards): 25 May 2012 The Chancery Division declined the ...
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Extradition
Extradition hearing – European Arrest Warrant – Appellant being arrested pursuant to European Arrest Warrant Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority: SC (Justices of the Supreme Court, Lords Phillips (president), Walker, Brown, Mance, Kerr, Dyson, Lady Hale): 30 May 2012 ...
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Greenwich LBC sees off equality challenge
Greenwich Community Law Centre (the law centre) once again failed to overturn a decision by Greenwich London Borough Council (the council) after the law centre was not reappointed following a recommissioning exercise. On 24 April, the Court of Appeal, in upholding the 21 December 2011 decision of Cranston J, found ...
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How firms can benefit from lawyers taking up non-executive appointments
For some, the lure of a string of non-executive directorships represents a potentially lucrative nest-egg between giving up full-time legal work and retirement proper. For others, the chance to be on the board as a part-time director provides invaluable education into how organisations are run and how boards operate. They ...
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Two High Court cases focus on the legality of assisted dying
Next week the High Court will begin hearing two cases that raise profound ethical issues. The question in each case is whether it can ever be lawful to help another person take their own life. This is a subject on which we might reasonably have expected ...
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Why the SRA scrapped the minimum salary for trainees
Since a minimum salary for trainees was introduced in 1982, there have been numerous debates around the appropriateness of both the SRA and the Law Society intervening in the market for trainee solicitors. Today the SRA is one of the few professional regulators that currently sets a minimum salary for ...
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Law Society declares support for same-sex marriage
The Law Society will today enter the escalating political row over same-sex marriage by declaring its support for legalisation – while defending the ‘religious freedom’ of churches and other faith groups that refuse to perform ceremonies. The Society’s response to a Government Equalities Office consultation, which ...
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CPS delays rollout of ALS interpreters
The Crown Prosecution Service has delayed its rollout of the Ministry of Justice framework agreement for the provision of interpreters and translators, the Gazette has learned. The CPS was due to sign up fully to the agreement on 1 June. The MoJ ...
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SRA chief wants more trainee positions
Solicitors Regulation Authority board chair Charles Plant (pictured) today calls on the Law Society to launch a campaign encouraging solicitors to employ more trainees, after the regulator abolished the minimum salary requirement. And he insists there is ‘little evidence’ that the 30-year-old mandatory minimum ever met its stated objectives of ...
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Law Society dismisses ‘nonsensical’ third-party redress plans
The Law Society has dismissed as ‘nonsensical’ a suggestion that solicitors should have to provide redress to third parties to whom they owe no professional duty. The Legal Services Consumer Panel’s proposal to create a general right for third parties – those who are not a ...
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Indemnity cover saved
Your correspondent of 24 May omitted to mention that by ‘giving the practice away’, at least the professional indemnity runoff cover (two and a half times the last premium) was saved. Further, although the goodwill of the fish and chip shop was £120,000, it would have ...
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Nominations open for Law Society Excellence Awards
The Gazette has opened nominations for its Legal Personality of the Year accolade, one of a suite of Law Society Excellence Awards designed to recognise the profession’s most outstanding and dynamic practitioners. This is the sixth year of the Society’s Excellence awards, which include: Solicitor ...
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‘Hundreds’ of miscarriage of justice claims over legal advice failings
Hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees convicted of immigration-related offences such as failure to produce a passport may have been the victims of miscarriages of justice, the Gazette can reveal.
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Modern profession
I have just read Susan Singleton’s response to my earlier letter about the trainee minimum wage. Her letter is indicative of the current state of mind of the profession.
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SIFA warns against liberalisation of referrals process
Solicitors referring clients for financial advice will be exposed to indemnity claims if the process is liberalised, the profession has been warned. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is considering relaxing rules which dictate that lawyers can refer clients only to independent financial advisers, as opposed to advisers ...
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Debt fear factor
I am surprised that the Solicitors Regulation Authority thinks that removal of the minimum salary will improve opportunities for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.