Last 3 months headlines – Page 1498
-
News
What the landmark Akzo Nobel ruling means for in-house lawyers
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) this week ruled in the Akzo Nobel and Akcros Chemicals appeals that, under EU law, legal professional privilege does not extend to employed in-house lawyers, thereby confirming existing case law. In 2003, the European Commission and the Office of Fair ...
-
News
Lawyers must argue from the moral high ground if they are to be heard
The TUC conference has achieved limited traction with the media since Margaret Thatcher cowed organised labour by defeating the miners a quarter of a century ago. Not so this year. In approving a coordinated campaign of political and industrial action, the TUC has signalled that the coalition is – after ...
-
News
Client protection
I read with interest, and a degree of optimism, Charles Fuchter’s article entitled The SRA must amend the Code of Conduct or law firms will close on the Gazette website. Mr Fuchter’s comment that ‘mortgage lenders would be required, in effect, to contribute to the ...
-
News
Positive process
In response to John Ford Solicitors’ letter, we have not reduced volume as part of our recent tender for low volume category legal services. New matter start volumes are consistent with those delivered from September 2008 to August 2009. Also, matter starts are ...
-
News
Religious freedom
One way the government could reduce spending, while promoting its ideal of the freedom of the individual, would be to abolish chancel repair liability. If more applications are made by parochial church councils (PCCs) for registration of notices against lay rectors’ titles, leading up to the registration deadline of 12 ...
-
News
Civil Procedure Rules 2010 – latest amendments
With one exception the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2010, and related amendments to the CPR practice directions (PDs) in the 53rd update, come into force on 1 October 2010. Perhaps the most important changes are those which implement three recommendations in Lord Justice Jackson’s (pictured) report on ...
-
News
Paralegal forces removal of posting from solicitorsfromhell website
A London paralegal has forced the removal of a ‘malicious and inaccurate’ posting on the solicitorsfromhell.co.uk website after issuing a claim for defamation against the owner, the Gazette has learned. Max Campbell, a paralegal at McCormacks, spotted the posting on 1 September, which related to his ...
-
News
Should lawyers get out more?
On any weekday, in reception areas from the high street to Herbert Smith, clients are giving their name, then waiting to see their solicitor. Depending on the firm, they might wait looking at a Howard Hodgkin poster in a clip frame, or wait looking at the genuine article – whatever ...
-
News
Law firms reduce carbon footprint
Legal services is among the UK’s most successful business sector for reducing carbon emissions, a report released today reveals. The report, from HRH the Prince of Wales’ Mayday Network, a group of 2,862 companies working towards a sustainable future, found that network constituents had together reduced ...
-
News
National Accident Helpline launches charter for panel firms
National Accident Helpline (NAH) has launched a customer charter for the solicitor firms on its panel, which it said will ‘offer new guarantees of the highest service standards to consumers accessing justice for personal injuries’. NAH, which refers personal injury claims to a panel of 105 ...
-
News
Is the Gazette stuck in a PC straitjacket?
A thought-provoking phone call this week from a solicitor (who wished to remain nameless, of which more below) about the Gazette leader column’s bullish stance on legal aid. It came in the context of this week’s events at the TUC, which is gearing up for a concerted battle over the ...
-
News
New human rights body must be independent, says Law Society
The Law Society has welcomed foreign secretary William Hague’s decision to create an advisory body of independent human rights experts that will not be influenced by other policy considerations. Hague’s group will draw on the advice of key NGOs, independent experts and others. The aim is ...
-
News
Young legal aid lawyers call for quality
The Young Legal Aid Lawyers group has called on the government to put quality of service at the heart of any new legal aid scheme to safeguard the rule of law. In a briefing paper to the Ministry of Justice, which is carrying out a review ...
-
News
Why doesn’t everyone get a will?
Intimations of mortality, to adapt a phrase from William Wordsworth, concentrate the mind wonderfully on the need to prepare a will.
-
News
Competition law and contractual interpretation
One of the more routine tasks of a competition lawyer is to review commercial agreements, or parts of agreements, in order to determine whether they unlawfully restrict competition. The Court of Justice in Commission v Anic Partecipazioni [1999] ECR I-4125 confirmed that the concept of agreements, decisions by associations or ...
-
News
MoJ consults on bribery prevention procedures
The Ministry of Justice has published draft guidance to companies on procedures to prevent bribery. The guidance is published under section 9 of the Bribery Act, which is due to come into force next April. The Bribery Act creates a new corporate offence of failure to ...
-
News
Akzo ruling against in-house privilege in competition matters
The European Court of Justice has ruled that legal professional privilege does not apply to legal advice given by in-house lawyers in EU competition law investigations. Ruling in the Akzo Nobel case today, the ECJ said that an in-house lawyer, regardless of their membership of a ...
-
News
Free publicity for legal services
Marketing legal services can be difficult and expensive, so wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy way to get some priceless publicity for free?
-
News
Happy 50th birthday to the CCBE
Fifty years ago last week, some lawyers participating in a conference of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) in Basle, Switzerland, took a boat trip along the Rhine. On that trip, they fell to talking about how best to look after the interests of lawyers in the new Europe that ...
-
News
Recruitment on the rise for private practice
Corporate and private client firms are stepping up their recruitment, experts said today, as public sector bodies seek to reduce their headcount. Recruiters said large firms have returned to their previous practice of sending lengthy ‘vacancy lists’ to recruiters, in a sign of a strengthening of ...