Last 3 months headlines – Page 1541
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, April 1980 Letter to the editorWe have rather an eccentric client who recently failed to ...
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Bringing lawyers to life
They say image isn’t everything, but whoever ‘they’ are, they clearly have no idea about what it takes to succeed as a modern law firm. Why else would so many firms feel moved to rebrand or relaunch? The latest to jump on the bandwagon is London firm Fisher Meredith. It ...
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Royal mint?
Everyone knows the Queen never carries cash. And nor, it seems, do other members of the aristocracy. According to a report by the Press Association, London firm Davenport Lyons has apparently issued proceedings against the Duchess of York, claiming that Sarah Ferguson has failed to stump up the readies for ...
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Beer window
When the tantalising tendrils of summer sun start warming this green and pleasant land, Obiter’s thoughts naturally turn to one thing: the silky chill of a hard-earned, post-work hop-based beverage. This becomes somewhat more than a yearning should one ever visit the offices of brewers SABMiller on a warm day.
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Belly good show
Think of belly dancing and what image comes to mind? To poetic Obiter, it is a scene of lissome ladies shimmering to exotic music while a handsome sheik, mesmerised, looks on. Outside, the desert wind whispers in the palm trees, plucks at the canvas of the tent and ripples the ...
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Libel lawyers should disclose outcomes of their CFA-funded cases
by Gillian Phillips, director of editorial legal services at Guardian News & Media Ltd Steven Heffer can’t resist the temptation to overstate his case (see [2010] Gazette, 9 April, 6). It is simply not the case that the press has ‘chosen not to report the ...
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Keep the Scottish legal profession united?
‘It's never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine,’ quipped PG Wodehouse. And it’s fair to say that a great many Scots – or Scottish solicitors at any rate – have a grievance pertaining to the nation’s embrace of ‘Tesco law’.
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Power in a union
I was dismayed to read the remarks about trade unions attributed to the president of the Law Society when he wrote to the shadow justice secretary inviting a future Conservative government to repeal immediately the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations.
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Recipe for fraud
The Law Society’s insert in the 25 March Gazette highlighted the issue of fraud in relation to money laundering and mortgages. To my mind it beggars belief that, in the same issue, it is reported that the Land Registry is consulting (again) on electronic signatures and ...
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New housing association, retail acquisitions and manufacturer deals
Going Dutch: National firm DLA Piper advised a consortium of lenders on providing debt financing for Dutch retail group Maxeda, enabling it to pay €462.5m (£408m) of debt owed to Citibank. Maxeda and its shareholders were advised by ...
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Most City firms would welcome AIR regulation
Most City firms would welcome a new type of self-regulation being introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, but two ‘major City firms’ have said they would probably shun the new system, research seen exclusively by the Gazette has found. Authorised Internal Regulation (AIR) was proposed by ...
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In-house upgrade at SABMiller
One of the UK’s biggest listed companies is conducting a major upgrade of its in-house legal capabilities because it believes that the legal pressures on business have escalated, its general counsel said this week. John Davidson (pictured), general counsel and group company secretary at brewer SABMiller, ...
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Civil Mediation Council to consult on training standards
The Civil Mediation Council (CMC) is to consult on the introduction of minimum training standards for mediators to combat ‘cowboy operations’. Paul Randolph, chair of the CMC communications committee, said the board is initially ‘leaning towards’ a minimum of 40 hours’ training before individuals can be ...
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Bribery offences create advisory work for law firms
The new corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery will provide a lucrative seam of work for lawyers as companies seek to ensure their anti-corruption compliance systems are fit for purpose, experts have predicted. The offence is one of a raft of measures introduced in the ...
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Media reporting bill ‘threat’ to vulnerable children
Measures rushed through parliament at the ‘eleventh hour’ to allow greater media reporting of the family courts will put vulnerable children at risk, lawyers have warned. Despite being opposed by lawyers’ and children’s groups, the provisions in the Children Schools and Families Bill were passed last ...
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IFA commissions clampdown welcomed
The organisation pushing for closer relations between solicitors and independent financial advisers (IFAs) this week welcomed the Financial Services Authority’s decision to clamp down on commissions paid to IFAs. The FSA will ban IFAs from taking commissions from finance companies for recommending the company’s investment products. ...
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Publicity provokes firm into file-sharing rethink
Fear of adverse publicity has prompted a law firm to stop taking on cases against individuals for alleged copyright infringement through illegal downloading of material.
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Barristers starting to take advantage of reforms
Barristers have started to make use of changes to their practice rules that allow them to operate in new business models.On 1 April the Legal Services Board approved changes to the bar’s code of conduct to enable barristers to practise together in partnership or to become partners in legal disciplinary ...
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SRA rules out practising certificate fee appeals
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided against providing a general appeals process for firms that end up paying significantly higher practising certificate fees under the new PC fee regime from 2011, it emerged last week. SRA board chair Charles Plant (pictured) told the Gazette that there ...
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Immigration legal aid contracts further delayed
The announcement of the outcome of the tender process for immigration legal aid work has been further delayed, the Legal Services Commission said last week. Firms were due to be notified last Friday whether they had been awarded new contracts to provide publicly funded work, ...