Last 3 months headlines – Page 1569

  • News

    Let our dialogue begin - the SRA seeks new partnership with the profession

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    As the new chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute a regular column to the Gazette. There are many challenges ahead, which I will discuss fully in subsequent editions.

  • News

    Barings' global general counsel on dispelling myths and rising to the top

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Sandie Okoro, global general counsel at Barings, grew up in Balham, south-west London, and by the age of nine she knew she wanted to be a lawyer. ‘I watched Crown Court on television,’ she says, referring to the ITV courtroom drama that ran from 1972 to 1984 and starred John ...

  • News

    Secret profit

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    I would once have been astonished to read that we are now allowed to add a mark-up to counsel’s fees (see [2009] Gazette, 17 December, 2). Sadly, it is a sign of the times. This appears to be yet another example of professional standards being undermined by commercial expediency.

  • News

    This year’s model

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Adam Makepeace of Duncan Lewis & Co makes some pertinent points with regard to the large-scale provision of civil legal aid work (see [2009] Gazette, 10 December, 12). However, his conclusion that the choice of a model other than that used by his firm for the provision of civil legal ...

  • News

    Competency test

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    While I accept the underlying premise of Christopher Digby-Bell’s argument regarding hourly charging, I fear he has missed one important point.

  • News

    Time-based charging cannot be abandoned entirely

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    I agree that lawyers are going to have to find better ways to operate than the traditional and arguably anachronistic method of charging their clients with reference to six-minute units of time. It is not the case, however, that ‘either the lawyers are experts who know what they are doing ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    The notion that writers cherish the idea that anyone pays much attention to what they write is a little far fetched. Law firm's learn their profits are below the national average. The joy of after dinner speeches. The ...

  • News

    Show girls

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Obiter always likes to hear from satisfied customers, so we were delighted to receive this picture from Katie Jones, winner of our competition to win two tickets to Legally Blonde, the musical. Not only did Katie say she had a jolly old time ...

  • News

    Order of merit

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Obiter is pleased to announce the five lucky winners of last week’s competition for a free copy of the first series of Law & Order: UK, by completing the sentence, ‘I think I should star in my own TV legal drama because…’. The ...

  • News

    Foot loose

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Readers with filing cabinets are advised to check behind them, pronto. It’s amazing what you can find. A Bic biro circa 1978; a ball of decaying rubber bands; a Bay City Rollers LP bought in a moment of madness and then shamefacedly hidden from colleagues. Or perhaps a series of ...

  • News

    Court cost: Supreme Court IT system was overpriced and poorly procured

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    It would take an imaginative New Labour apologist to argue that this government’s IT procurement record has been impressive. From the botched National Programme for IT in the NHS to a cancelled system for processing benefits commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, the headlines have been unremittingly negative.

  • News

    Fast-track extradition: the European Arrest Warrant is being routinely misused

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    by Jago Russella chief executive of Fair Trials International In 2002 the EU created the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), a fast-track system for extraditing people from one EU country to another. It was rushed in as part of Europe’s response to the terrorist threat, and was ...

  • News

    Divorce process contradicts what mediation was designed to alleviate

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors have adopted novel ways to help divorcing clients, providing mediation and collaborative law training, online advice and now divorce ‘vouchers’. But the process itself appears increasingly outmoded, with one party still required to ‘blame’ the other unless both are prepared to wait two years.

  • News

    Time is money

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Christopher Digby-Bell (Letters, 7 January) clearly does not live in the real world when he claims that ‘it is only lawyers who are paid more if the work takes longer than expected’. Anyone with experience of builders knows that more often than not, problems arise as the work progresses, which ...

  • News

    Child protection must come first

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    It is disappointing to see James Carter (Letters, 17 December 2009) jumping to the defence of the government in wanting press reporting of children’s cases without any proper research into how this will affect children.

  • News

    Marketing beats referral fees

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    I couldn’t disagree more with Shamil Purohit’s comments concerning the need for referral fees to form an essential part of practice strategy (Letters, 7 January). Solicitors managed well enough before the existence of claims management companies and can continue to do so if they set up and implement a comprehensive ...

  • News

    Bahrain arbitration chamber to deal with major disputes

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Major disputes between national and international companies operating in Bahrain are to be dealt with by the kingdom’s new arbitration chamber rather than its courts. The move will present lawyers from UK and other non-Bahraini firms with rights of audience in Bahrain – something that Bahraini ...

  • News

    Wind farms, delivery acquisitions and traffic light replacements

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Gone with the wind: City and national firm Eversheds advised a number of energy companies, including six in the Forewind Consortium, on securing £50bn worth of contracts to build offshore wind farms under a government leasing programme. City firm Norton Rose advised the ...

  • News

    London's development agency slashes legal panel spend

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    The Mayor of London’s economic development agency has slashed millions of pounds from its spend on panel law firms since 2007, according to recently released figures. The London Development Agency (LDA) spent more than £8.53m on advice from panel firms in the 2007/08 financial year, but ...

  • News

    Vietnamese death sentence fear for magic circle lawyer

    2010-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Vietnamese authorities have charged a lawyer working for a magic circle firm with offences that carry the death sentence. Le Cong Dinh, a commercial and arbitration lawyer, acts as a consultant for a major UK firm that has asked not to be named. Dinh also defends democracy, human rights and ...