Last 3 months headlines – Page 1523
-
News
Law firms and investors showing 'little appetite' for external funding
Lifting restrictions on external investment in law firms will not lead to a ‘big bang’ for the legal profession, ‘just a big whimper’, a leading private equity investor has predicted. His comments came as the Ministry of Justice confirmed that the new government is ‘fully ...
-
News
How legal services reforms will affect high street firms
A glimpse of the future can be found in unlikely places. Nigel Haddon, chairman of the Law Society’s Law Management Section (LMS), caught one in a local supermarket. And he heard it, too. Haddon was at his local Co-op when he was ‘surprised to hear advertising ...
-
News
Baha Mousa inquiry raises important human rights concerns
You can see why Sir Mike Jackson was Tony Blair’s favourite soldier. He looks – even with his manicured eye bags – like a general and he talks like a general. He is politically shrewd; he demanded the opinion on the legality of the Iraq war that has subsequently dogged ...
-
News
Split profession?
I read with interest that the Legal Services Board commissioned an ‘economic analysis’ which concluded there was no evidence that referral fees harm consumers.
-
News
Border agency has to get it right
I agree with C Selvarajah ‘Asylum tragedy’ (see letters, 27 May). Nobody likes uncertainty, which prevents them from pursuing a full life.
-
News
Why government's response to cost-capping victory could be disappointing
Many demands contained in the Law Society’s pre-election manifesto, the theme of which was curbing the increasing power of the state and safeguarding the freedom of the individual, have already been met by the coalition government. This is welcome, though the suspicion lingers that the new administration was able to ...
-
News
Regulation and will-writing
As long as there is an unregulated will-making sector, professional and ethical solicitors, and professional and ethical willwriters, should join forces with a common goal to provide professional and regulated will-writing services to consumers by whatever means the consumer chooses.
-
News
Solicitors who defend in the Youth Court should be specially trained
by Penelope Gibbsdirector of the Out of Trouble Programme at the Prison Reform Trust Thousands of 10 and 11-year-olds are prosecuted in our courts every year, yet it took one case of two children accused of raping an eight-year-old to enlighten the public about the absurdity ...
-
News
Claiming damages for a ruined holiday
Recent reports of clouds of volcanic ash and BA cabin crew strikes have highlighted the plight of holidaymakers who are either stranded abroad or unable to take their holiday. However, even those who manage to avoid disruption are often disappointed when their holiday falls short of their expectations.
-
News
Lawyer wins tribunal appeal over withdrawal of job offer
A woman lawyer has won her appeal against an employment tribunal ruling that disability discrimination did not lie behind a major law firm’s decision to withdraw a job offer.
-
News
Are some cases beyond the pale when it comes to legal aid?
After Roy Whiting’s sentence for the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne was reduced by the Court of Appeal, her mother criticised the availability of legal aid to fund the action and solicitors who advise prisoners to fight such cases.
-
News
Traditionalists v modernists: business dilemma for law firms
Last week, Chris Roebuck, in his interesting blog post on making change happen, stated that ‘legal firms face probably their toughest challenges for years’.
-
News
Courts report rise in personal injury claims
The number of personal injury claims filed in the High Court jumped 32% between 2006 and 2008, research has found. Claims relating to personal injury jumped 31.8% from 914 in 2006 to 1,205 in 2008, according to a study of the latest available figures by ...
-
News
Bar must step up competition with solicitors, chairman warns
The bar must embrace direct access to the public to compete in a system that has been ‘calibrated and designed to hand the entire legal aid pot to solicitors’, the Bar Council chairman said last week. Speaking at a symposium last week to discuss the paper ...
-
News
Lord Phillips defends Human Rights Act
The Human Rights Act 1998 is ‘a vital part of the foundation of our fight against terrorism’, the president of the Supreme Court asserted this week in an outspoken defence of the act. Setting out a series of recent cases in which government anti-terrorism measures ...
-
News
Take the fight to the retailers
One element of the QualitySolicitors launch that struck me was the move into shopping centre retail space. Considered alongside the recent research Shopping Around, by Jon Robins at Jures, that move might appear obvious for general practice firms. Legal services are highly profitable, with complex people businesses needing face-to-face ...
-
News
Joint pro bono clearing house to launch
A National Pro Bono Centre is to open this summer to act as a ‘hub’ for pro bono charities. The NPBC, which has been registered as a new legal charity, will bring together in one building LawWorks, the Bar Pro Bono Unit and the ILEX Pro ...
-
News
Asylum advice centre closes
Immigration advice charity Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) went into administration yesterday following cashflow problems which it said were due to late payments by the Legal Services Commission. Despite a high-profile campaign, with letters sent to the justice secretary and home secretary on RMJ’s behalf by ...
-
News
Mayer Brown picks up pro bono gong
US firm Mayer Brown International was recognised for its work with pro bono group LawWorks at the charity’s annual awards ceremony last night. The firm won the award for the best contribution by a law firm, for supporting numerous projects including providing pro bono assistance through ...
-
News
The secret world of GATS
There is a small body of rootless cosmopolitans who meet in windowless hotel rooms a few times a year to discuss the ins and outs of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as it affects lawyers: free trade agreements, most favoured nation status, mutual recognition, the whole shebang. ...