Last 3 months headlines – Page 1583
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SRA moves to scrap assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will recommend abolishing the assigned risks pool in a consultation to be launched today. The regulator also wants to make it easier for struggling law firms to be taken over rather than shut down.
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Bar Standards Board opens door to joint practices
Barristers and solicitors will be able to go into practice together as a first step on the post-Clementi road, following a historic meeting of the Bar Standards Board last night. The board met to consider recommendations from its working group on alternative business structures to determine ...
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Legal ethics – past and present
In the first of three articles for lawgazette.co.uk tracing the history of ethics and the legal profession, Mark Humphries describes the origins of legal ethics and how medieval regulation addressed the same issues that arise in modern-day practice
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Professional indemnity costs rise by £15m
Solicitors paid £15m more to insurers for professional indemnity insurance this year, Solicitors Regulation Authority figures have revealed. The cost of insuring the profession rose from £226m in the 2008/09 indemnity year, to £241m in 2009/10, a rise of 7%. Between them, ...
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Lawyers praise ‘brave new world’ for mental health
Mental health lawyers have welcomed the publication of a government plan to support people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system. The government published its five-year delivery plan last week for implementing the Bradley Report’s 82 recommendations for improving the way people with mental ...
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The DNA of a good rainmaker, and does gender count? (Part two)
In my last blog I looked at ‘amount of time spent’ – the first of several attributes of a good rainmaker as identified in The Women Attorneys and Business Development Study.
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Legal Services Board issues proposals on ABS regulation
The Legal Services Board has published a consultation paper outlining the core principles it expects all licensing authorities (LAs) to use in regulating alternative business structures, as it moves towards the next stage in liberalising the delivery of legal services. The paper proposes removing restrictions that ...
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Justice comes at a price, you know
The Ministry of Justice, legal aid minister Lord Bach in particular, have made much over recent months of the importance of ensuring that vulnerable people affected by the recession have access to the legal advice and assistance they require.
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The EU and criminal law: less or more?
How far, and to what extent, should the EU involve itself in criminal law developments? The answer to this will depend on your attitude to the EU itself. We have heard the arguments raging in the media over the last week or two. For those who answer ‘less, less!’...
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Law firms face hefty fines for data losses
Law firms could face a £500,000 fine if they lose unencrypted laptops or data sticks containing personal information, under new proposals. A government consultation sets out new powers for the information commissioner to levy hefty fines on organisations that breach the Data Protection Act 1998. ...
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Junior lawyers commended for pro bono work
Four young lawyers were honoured for their services to pro bono work at the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) Pro Bono Awards last week. The annual awards, presented by Lord Phillips of Sudbury in a ceremony at Chancery Lane last Thursday, celebrate outstanding pro bono work done ...
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Rise in recruitment of junior lawyers
Recruitment of assistant solicitors has seen its first sustained increase since 2007, research has revealed, in a sign that the jobs market is improving. A study by legal recruiters Hughes-Castell showed that the number of vacancies for assistants rose over the second and third quarters of ...
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Trainees lawyers should serve some time in IT, too
I was amused by one of the reader comments on my last blog – that there is nothing wrong with carrying a second phone, as a ‘belt and braces’ approach to IT is a good thing. I have since been busy adding a second PC to each of my users ...
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Coroners reforms receive royal assent
The Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have today welcomed changes made to the Coroners and Justice Bill, which received royal assent yesterday. The Ministry of Justice said the act will provide better protection for victims and witnesses during criminal investigations, more consistency in ...
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Lovells results show static revenues
Half-year revenues at City firm Lovells remained roughly static for the first half of the financial year, the firm reported today. Revenues stood at £259m for the six months to 31 October this year, down slightly from £260m for the same period in 2008/09. ...
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Dispute resolution: enforcing against a judgment debtor
All prudent dispute resolution lawyers are well aware that, despite having obtained a judgment in favour of a client, enforcing that judgment against a judgment debtor could potentially cause great problems.
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Civil procedure
Banking and finance – Costs - Disclosure Timothy Duncan Earles v Barclays Bank plc: QBD (Birmingham) (Judge Simon Brown QC): 8 October 2009 The claimant (E) claimed damages in respect ...
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Criminal procedure
Road traffic – Notices of intended prosecution – Postal service – Time limits Gidden v Chief Constable of Humberside: DC (Lord Justice Elias, Mr Justice Openshaw): 29 October 2009 The ...
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Yahoo! Europe’s general counsel Grainne Brankin
At a gathering of corporate counsel in Geneva earlier this year, Grainne Brankin gave a talk on ‘how to communicate in a crisis.’ This was probably because the general counsel at Yahoo! Europe’s new Swiss headquarters has experienced crisis first-hand.
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Why third-party interventions in the judicial process benefit democracy
by Roger Smithis director of law reform and human rights organisation JusticeAmnesty International did it in the Pinochet cases – with a somewhat unexpected result. The United Synagogue did it in the Jewish Free School case. Secretaries of state do it regularly; the attorney general occasionally. Justice does it about ...