Last 3 months headlines – Page 1416
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Law firms running out of time, warns Mayson
Time is running out for law firms that have not yet considered the changes they should make to compete with new entrants to the legal market, a leading commentator has suggested. Speaking at the Law Society’s Law Management Section conference, Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal ...
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Russian lawyers denied visas for Society human rights event
Twelve lawyers from Russia were denied visas to attend a three-day Law Society human rights training course in London last month. The Russian lawyer who co-ordinated the visas, which would have enabled the lawyers to receive training on the rule of law, described the decision not ...
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Norton Rose in overseas mergers
City firm Norton Rose was this week expected to confirm mergers with firms in South Africa and Canada. The enlarged group will rank among the top-10 legal practices in the world by headcount when it completes a link-up with Canada’s Ogilvy Renault and Deneys Reitz in ...
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Colombian lawyers under threat, report claims
Six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 defence lawyers were murdered in Colombia’s ‘judicial war’ between 2003 and 2009, a report by a delegation of British and international lawyers has claimed. The report, published last week, found that Colombian lawyers still live in constant fear of assassination, ...
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Magistrates set garden bench-mark
Life may not be a bed of roses for magistrates just now, as the government’s programme of court closures gets under way, but the Magistrates’ Association demonstrated its appetite for growth with the Magistrates’ Garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. The bloomin’ good garden, ...
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Sparkes will fly
A Portsmouth solicitor is set to do a parachute jump next month to raise funds for Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, where his friend, legal executive Kristy Richardson (pictured, jumping herself some years ago), is on the waiting list for a heart and lung transplant. Tim ...
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Slaughtering the competition
Magic circle firm Slaughter & May is taking the defence of its Standard Chartered Great City Race title very seriously. The firm, which won the 5km corporate challenge in London last year, has entered a staggering 124 staff for the 2011 event, taking place on ...
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Memory Lane
Law Society’s Gazette, June 1971 ‘House Style’ for a Law Office by A. G. McBain and Jean Field Notes for those taking up ...
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Loadsa law
Judges often complain about the number of new laws being churned out these days, and figures compiled by legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell show why. In 2010, 14 new laws were passed for every working day, more than in any other year. ...
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Profession must fight to the end to block unprecedented and shocking cuts to legal aid
by Patrick Allen, senior partner of Hodge Jones & Allen LLP, a firm which has dealt with legal aid cases for 33 years As we go to press, we await the delayed publication of the government’s plan for legal aid cuts.
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Is lining the pockets of intermediaries the best way to safeguard access to justice?
What’s the difference between a bribe and a referral fee? Those solicitors who are the most vitriolic critics of referral fees fail to draw a distinction, as the Gazette’s postbag consistently testifies. One can see where they are coming from. ...
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SRA approves scheme requiring advocates to be assessed by judges
The solicitors’ regulator has agreed to back proposals for a Quality Assurance Scheme despite some fears about how solicitors will be assessed. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) yesterday endorsed plans to accredit advocates working in criminal cases. The scheme, ...
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Work-based learning without training contract dubbed ‘success’ by SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has given a thumbs up to ‘work-based learning’ as a route to qualification without the need to secure a training contract after analysing the results of a two-year pilot scheme. A report on the pilot results, produced by Middlesex University, concluded ...
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Use of a limited liability partnership as a fund vehicle
Recently clients asked me to consider using an LLP as an onshore vehicle for pooling funds for investment purposes. Perhaps I missed some research but I was unable to find any sensible writings on the use of an LLP for such a purpose. ...
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Law firms maintain staff bonus levels
Some 91% of law firm bonus schemes have remained unchanged over the last 12 months, but personal injury firms are expected to buck this trend by reducing bonuses next year, a survey of 400 regional law firms by recruitment consultancy BCL Legal has found. Other key ...
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Personal injury claims costs to rise despite reforms
Costs faced by the personal injury insurance industry are likely to rise despite government reforms of the system, according to a report by market analysts Datamonitor. The report found that insurers have little faith that litigation changes will see solicitors lower their fees. ...
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Firms without CQS quality mark ‘risk being left behind’ - Society
As firms begin thinking about renewing their professional indemnity insurance, the Law Society has warned conveyancing solicitors to ignore its new Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) ‘at their risk’. Since the application process launched in January, almost 1000 firms have applied and 202 have ...
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Claimants will miss out through CFA reforms, research suggests
Campaign groups have pleaded with the government to climb down over ‘no fee, no fee’ changes after publishing new research. A survey of recent claimants using the conditional fee arrangement (CFA) found that more half of respondents had an income below the national average of £25,000. ...
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Law Society to intervene in Prudential privilege appeal
The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend legal professional privilege (LPP) to accountants and others. LPP currently only applies to certain communications between lawyers and their clients, conferring absolute confidentiality so ...
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The revolution behind the recent ECJ decision on notaries
The Law Society Gazette reported a few days ago that the European Court of Justice decided to open up the continental notaries’ profession to all nationalities. That is a big change. But it does not represent the real revolution behind ...