Last 3 months headlines – Page 1465
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The ins and outs of obtaining information relating to debtors
It is a well-known scriptural principle that ‘unto every one that hath shall be given… but from him that hath not shall be taken away’. Extracting assets from the hath-nots, however, is not always easy, as the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Broomleigh Housing Association Ltd v ...
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Solicitors must stand together to face daunting challenges ahead
During the first six months of my presidency of the Law Society I have travelled overseas and across England and Wales to speak to lawyers from sectors such as the City, small high street practitioners, sole practitioners, in-house solicitors, private practice and solicitors working in publicly funded roles. This includes ...
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Remembering Lord Goddard
I have always enjoyed articles in the Gazette by James Morton, including a recent item about judges. I first saw Lord Goddard in the late 50s, while an articled clerk in London. I often dropped in to the Royal Courts of Justice for a bit ...
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Providing right for acccess to justice for all - 1970s solution
During the early 1970s, conveyancing work was the lifeblood of most high street firms. The litigation solicitor was the ‘poor relation’ of the practice. It was commonplace to hear the comment that the litigators were heavily subsidised by the conveyancers. This situation even survived for many years after the abolition ...
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Deciding who gets a training contract
In her letter of 18 November, Judy Solomon suggested that there should be a restriction on those entering the LPC, relating to A-level grades, to ensure that ‘only the best are allowed to practise as solicitors’.
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Supporting the Law Society to fight for access to justice
Your lead letter of 16 December was misleading to those who are unaware of current discussions in the Law Society Council, of which the writer is a member, to develop policy on the government green paper affecting access to justice.
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Older partners - deciding when it's time to go
James Davies makes a number of good points in his discussion of retirement ages for partners. Certainly firms should consider the implications carefully before either retaining or abolishing a retirement age, not least because of the messages it sends out about the firm. As we have seen in other areas ...
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Corporate governance proposals ‘will dilute UK rules’, warns GC100 chair
A torrent of EU initiatives aimed at tightening up corporate governance risks ‘diluting’ robust UK rules and will be a major concern for senior in-house lawyers in 2011, the head of an influential group of general counsel has told the Gazette. John Davidson (pictured), chair of ...
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‘Big fall’ in number of conveyancing practices expected
Property specialists are predicting a ‘significant’ fall in the number of conveyancing firms in 2011, as regulatory pressures on the profession rise and transaction volumes drop. Eddie Goldsmith, chair of the Conveyancing Association and a partner at London firm Goldsmith Williams, predicted that two-thirds of firms ...
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Managing partners predict merger-packed 2011
Managing partners expect a bout of consolidation in the legal market in the coming year, according to an authoritative benchmarking survey seen exclusively by the Gazette. However, the research shows that most law firm leaders believe their firm to be on a solid enough financial footing ...
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New Year honour for LSC chief
The chief executive of the Legal Services Commission and the pro bono leader at City firm Hogan Lovells were among those recognised by the Queen in the New Year’s honours list. Hogan Lovells pro bono manager Yasmin Waljee received an OBE for services to the Muslim ...
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RSPCA victory in disputed will
The RSPCA has won an appeal in a dispute over a testator’s intentions where he left assets ‘up to the inheritance tax threshold’. George Mason, who died in June 2007, had written a will leaving ‘the maximum’ that could be free of IHT to his ...
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Law firms' middle-class bias risks excluding a diversity of talent
by Dr Louise Ashley, research fellow at the Centre for Professional Service Firms, Cass Business School, part of City University London It may come as no surprise that the legal sector has a bias towards middle-class candidates. A range of research has attributed this situation to ...
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Prominent legal figures give their predictions for 2011
No one from whom the Gazette sought a prediction sees the year ahead as dull – 2011, according to lawyers, people who provide services to the legal profession, a government minister, and the profession’s leaders, will be a year in which the economic context will remain extremely challenging. Firms’ finances ...
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Virtual courts – increasing the cost of delivering justice
The government’s non-committal response to a detailed report evaluating the year-long virtual courts pilot is disappointing. Though occasionally lapsing into mandarin-esque understatement and equivocation, the study is clear enough. Conceived as a straightforward way to save money, the scheme actually increased the cost of delivering criminal justice compared to the ...
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Important lessons from the new process for low-value RTA claims
Beset by problems such as delays in providing registration log-ins, several insurers not being registered on the system and countless technical hitches involving the online portal, many have described the new streamlined low value road traffic claims process as a shambles. With the Ministry of Justice introducing the new electronic ...
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Chancery Lane warns against publication of complaints
Reporting the names of lawyers and law firms who have been the subject of complaints by the public will disproportionately affect sole practitioners and black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers, according to the Law Society. Responding to the Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO) consultation on whether its decisions ...
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Employment
Remuneration - Holidays with pay Russell and others v Transocean International Resources Ltd and others: Supreme Court (Lords Hope DP, Brown, Mance, Kerr and Wilson SCJJ): 7 December 2011 The ...
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Students lured by City-style work
Prospective lawyers are most interested in pursuing careers in City-style law, figures from legal careers website All About Law seen exclusively by the Gazette have suggested. An analysis of the advice pages viewed by the 10,000 students registered on the site indicates a preference for corporate ...
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My predictions for 2011
This time last year I wrote a blog for the Gazette that predicted a major change in 2010. I suggested that solicitors firms and new legal service providers would be divided into two broad groups – those that used web-based systems to deliver services to clients and those that didn’t. ...