Last 3 months headlines – Page 1569
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Let our dialogue begin - the SRA seeks new partnership with the profession
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.
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Barings' global general counsel on dispelling myths and rising to the top
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 ...
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Secret profit
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.
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This year’s model
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 ...
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Competency test
While I accept the underlying premise of Christopher Digby-Bell’s argument regarding hourly charging, I fear he has missed one important point.
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Time-based charging cannot be abandoned entirely
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 ...
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Memory lane
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 ...
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Show girls
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 ...
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Order of merit
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 ...
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Foot loose
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 ...
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Court cost: Supreme Court IT system was overpriced and poorly procured
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.
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Fast-track extradition: the European Arrest Warrant is being routinely misused
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 ...
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Divorce process contradicts what mediation was designed to alleviate
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.
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Time is money
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 ...
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Child protection must come first
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.
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Marketing beats referral fees
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 ...
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Bahrain arbitration chamber to deal with major disputes
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 ...
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Wind farms, delivery acquisitions and traffic light replacements
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 ...
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London's development agency slashes legal panel spend
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 ...
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Vietnamese death sentence fear for magic circle lawyer
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 ...