Last 3 months headlines – Page 1494
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Forward to a Finnish future for UK lawyers?
I met the chief executives of the European Bar Associations (CEEBA) in Prague last week. The organisation has been in existence for 50 years this year. It has lost some of its more colourful traditions – such as the collective singing of an organisational song – but still clings to ...
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Surge in judges ordering parenting classes
The number of warring parents being ordered by judges to attend parenting classes has tripled to 3,000 in five months, the Gazette has learned. Figures from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) have shown a threefold rise in the number of separating ...
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Bar regulator proposes relaxing limits on barristers’ role
The Bar Standards Board has set out its stall to become a ‘specialist regulator’ for those providing advocacy and related services – and proposes allowing barristers to carry out work currently performed by solicitors. In a consultation published today, the bar’s regulator proposes that barristers should ...
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How can law firms find the value in their brand?
Intellectual property makes a significant contribution to businesses in almost every sector. The law is no exception. A law firm’s intellectual property, such as trademarks, reputation, copyright, websites and client relationships, can be considered individually or collectively as the brand. Law firm brands are highly valuable, serve many purposes and ...
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City Law School agrees internships
The City Law School has agreed a range of international commercial law internships for students on its Master of Laws (LLM) programmes. The school has renewed an international commercial law internship with US firm Sidley Austin for the fifth year running. The successful candidate will spend ...
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Legal quangos face cull
Nine legal-related bodies are among the 177 quangos set to be axed by the coalition government, according to a leaked report obtained by the Telegraph. The nine bodies are: the Legal Services Commission; the Legal Services Ombudsman; the Legal Deposit Advisory Committee; the Magistrates Court Rule ...
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Why the timidity around billing?
In the current economic environment, law firms, like other businesses, are keeping a close eye on cashflow. This is always a particular concern for professional firms, who are rarely paid up front for their services.
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Even judges are powerless in the face of family cuts
Like his predecessor Sir Mark Potter, Lord Justice Wall is not afraid to tell it like it is when it comes to problems in the family justice system.
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Law Society doubles Diversity Access Scheme places
A Law Society scheme that aims to improve social mobility in the legal profession is to double the number of candidates it takes on next year. The Diversity Access Scheme (DAS) supports entrants to the solicitors' profession who face exceptional social, educational, financial or personal obstacles ...
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LSC puts its case in family judicial review
On the second day of the Law Society’s judicial review of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for family legal aid work, counsel for the LSC today told the High Court that it should have been ‘obvious’ to solicitors that panel membership was going to be an important factor in the ...
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Immigration
Administrative decision-making – Armed forces – Character – Conduct R (on the application of Charly Ngouh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Foskett): 27 August 2010 ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, September 1970 View from the countryI will not easily forget the case of Milton v Shrewsbury. It never found its way into any law ...
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Sentencing
Criminology – Long-term prisoners – Rape – Release on licence R (on the application of Webb) v Secretary of State for Justice: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Pill, Wilson, Sullivan): 8 September 2010 ...
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Not right to reply
It’s fair to say that, what with the mayhem that is the civil legal aid tender and the recent debacle over late payments (to cite but two examples) the Legal Services Commission cops a fair amount of stick from the Gazette and its readers at times. It does seem reasonable ...
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Words of warning
On the subject of semantics, a group of international law experts has claimed that the use of ‘unclear language’ by lawyers and other professionals was to blame for the recent economic meltdown. Clarity, the association of lawyers, judges and lay people which promotes the use of plain legal language, said ...
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Grammar, we love you
Every year, when a fresh intake of students begin their law degrees, British legal academics quietly shake their heads and mutter to one another about the poor standard of written English of many of their new charges – and they are not talking about the foreigners. So it’s always comforting ...
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The Audit Commission and legal professional privilege
On 13 August 2010, communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles announced the Audit Commission’s forthcoming demise. He claimed that the commission had ‘lost its way’, moving from being a watchdog championing taxpayers’ interests to a ‘creature of the Whitehall state’.
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Corporate governance and coping with visits from the FSA
The telephone rings. It’s reception. Financial Services Authority investigators are downstairs with a search warrant. How prepared are you to respond to such a knock at the door? That question has been put high on the agenda of in-house lawyers as the regulatory and business crime regime becomes ever more ...