Last 3 months headlines – Page 1483

  • News

    Blonde ambition

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Another chance for Gazette readers to win tickets to Obiter’s favourite legal-themed West End show, Legally Blonde: the Musical. For anyone unfamiliar with the plot, college sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods (played by Sheridan Smith) ‘doesn’t take no for an answer’. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, November 1960 United Law Debating Society – Institutional AdvertisingOn October 3 the Society debated the motion: ‘This House believes that it would be desirable if the restriction on advertising by the ...

  • News

    Proactive firms are setting the pace for change

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Membership of a respected profession once conferred a much greater equivalence of proficiency and status than it does today. Consider the almost comical horror with which many lawyers formerly greeted the notion that solicitors should be allowed to differentiate themselves...

  • News

    Radmacher judgment will boost demand for pre-nups – but issues remain

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    by Alison Bull, team leader associate at Mills & Reeve Publicity surrounding the Supreme Court’s judgment in Radmacher (rather than the outcome of the case) is likely to be the single most important factor in increasing demand for pre-marital agreements.

  • News

    Vulnerable people 'not consumers'

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    In the interview with Jonathan Djanogly it is interesting to note that, while not wanting to discuss the legal aid budget, the minister is quoted as saying: ‘Our priority is not about what lawyers do or the number of lawyers there are doing things. Our priority is legal representation ...

  • News

    Slur on my firm's services

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    I can only applaud the action taken by Hertfordshire firm Judkins and its partner Paul Judkins. My own firm has recently had its appeal concerning removal from the Santander panel, for Abbey, denied. I regard this as an act in restraint of trade and a slur on my firm’s services. ...

  • News

    Solicitors are still having difficulty with service of proceedings

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) are generally seen as being a success. True, they have not brought down the cost of litigation, but they have given a degree of certainty as to procedure. The fact that solicitors are still falling foul of the CPR when it comes to service by ...

  • News

    Tax

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Accountants – Legal professional privilege – Tax avoidance R (on the application of (1) Prudential Plc (2) Prudential (Gibraltar) Ltd (appellants) v (1) Special Commissioner of Income Tax (2) Philip Pandolfo (inspector of taxes) (respondents) & (1) Institute of ...

  • News

    Future LPC students need to be better informed about career prospects

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    In your article ‘LPC aptitude test risks "clones"’, you quote Kevin Poulter of the Junior Lawyers Division as stating that ‘there are between 10,000 and 20,000 LPC graduates currently looking for training contracts’. This almost certainly overestimates alarmingly the oversupply of LPC graduates. No one knows how many LPC graduates ...

  • News

    Civil procedure

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Committal for contempt – Suspended committal orders – Judgment debtor’s failure to attend court Broomleigh Housing Association Ltd v Emeka Okonkwo: CA (Civ Div): 13 October 2010 The appellant (O) ...

  • News

    Relevance of happiness to the legal profession

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    There is something for everyone in Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder’s book The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law. Levit and Linder are law professors at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and what they say about the US is relevant to the English legal profession. ...

  • News

    Local authority publicity and housing possessions

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    That the government shop is under new management is clear. It has a radical new look and feel – and an impatient determination to slim the entire operation and to reshape fundamentally the focus of policy. These impressions were reinforced on 29 September when Communities and Local Government issued its ...

  • News

    Where will the legal aid lawyers of the future come from?

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    As uncertainty over the future of legal aid contracts deters firms from taking on the expense and commitment of traineeships, one wonders who is going to train the next generation. Two weeks ago, I attended the Legal Aid Practitioners Group annual gathering in Leeds. Given the ...

  • News

    Freeman tops ranking of high-profile solicitors

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Defence lawyer Nick Freeman topped the rankings for the solicitor most frequently mentioned in the national press over the last year, according to figures compiled by Sweet & Maxwell. Freeman (pictured), founder of Manchester firm Freeman & Co and known as ‘Mr Loophole’, was the most ...

  • News

    Who's afraid of computer generation?

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Significant parts of Richard Susskind's The End of Lawyers? focus on the role of technology and automation in the production of legal documents. In particular he looks at the use of software that enables the client, with the use of what is basically a decision tree, to generate employment contracts ...

  • News

    Abolish single PII renewal date and review conveyancing, says report

    2010-10-28T00:00:00Z

    The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped, and there should be an investigation into whether more regulation is needed in the conveyancing process, according to a ‘root and branch’ review of client financial protection commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

  • News

    Unregulated will-writers and building case studies

    2010-10-26T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has asked members to inform it of any problems their clients may have experienced with unregulated will-writers.

  • News

    Regulators consult on tougher rules for law degrees

    2010-10-26T00:00:00Z

    A joint committee of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board has released two consultations on the future of the undergraduate law degree. The first Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) paper asks for views on whether students who have failed a single foundation subject within ...

  • News

    Immigration lawyers issue warning over appeals fee

    2010-10-26T00:00:00Z

    Immigration lawyers have warned that immigrants could be ‘penalised’ as a result of government plans to introduce fees in certain immigration and asylum appeals. Court fees of up to £250 could be charged for immigration and asylum tribunal appeals. No fees are currently charged.

  • News

    Lord chief justice calls for reform of family system

    2010-10-26T00:00:00Z

    The adversarial court system is not appropriate for settling parental disputes over the custody of children, the lord chief justice said today. Giving evidence to the House of Commons’ justice committee, Lord Judge (pictured) said he has ‘real concerns’ that the adversarial system ‘leaves a ...