Last 3 months headlines – Page 1595
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Helping solicitors in the ARP
Reading the latest article describing the huge number of firms in the ARP my immediate reaction was one of sympathy. Last year, to my huge shock, I found myself in the ARP. I have moved on and life is good, but at the time it was a dreadful feeling.
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PII – problems and solutions
Having read the ‘Solution to the insurance crisis’ letter (1 October) it occurs to me that, if those solicitors who actually meet their conveyancing clients (and there are still many of us), forwarded the copy passport and driving licence or other ID ...
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Law Society responds to PII concerns
I want to take the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Law Society to some of the comments that have been made in response to recent articles in the Gazette about PII, and to clarify our position. I want to do so to rebut some of the more fanciful ...
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Media reaction to the Purdy aftermath highlights a wider ignorance
Has Keir Starmer QC really made it possible for relatives to help loved ones to die without fear of prosecution, as the Times reported? Did the director of public prosecutions issue ‘tick-box guidelines’, as the Telegraph believed?
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Human rights are above politics - they are our greatest ethical challenge
by Sir Geoffrey Bindmana consultant with Bindmans and chair of the British Institute of Human Rights The recent symposium organised by the Law Society’s International Human Rights Committee in conjunction with the Essex University Human Rights Centre marked a huge advance in the Society’s engagement with ...
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Hunt endorses 'thrust' of Smedley as peace breaks out between SRA and City
For a man in his late 60s, the Conservative peer and Beachcroft veteran Lord Hunt of Wirral is a veritable Stakhanovite. Not for him the retirement being enjoyed by many who once sat round Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet table. Hunt’s much-heralded report on regulation is a ...
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UK corporate firms face growing threat from ‘zealous’ prosecutors
The financial crisis provides a ‘golden opportunity for zealous prosecutors’ in the UK to bring proceedings across a broader range of activities, according to a leading criminal silk. Speaking at the International Association of Defence Counsel’s conference in Paris, Richard Lissack QC of London’s Outer Temple ...
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SRA to set up new London office to help regulate City
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided against establishing a semi-autonomous regulatory arm for big City and other large corporate law firms, a key recommendation of the landmark Smedley report. The regulator said this is ‘unnecessary’ because of its developing work programme, which includes opening a London office and joint working ...
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Offloading toxic debts and drug sales
Toxic debt: Magic circle firm Slaughter and May and US firm Sullivan & Cromwell advised Barclays on offloading £7.5bn of toxic debt to offshore hedge fund Protium Finance. Protium’s management company C12, composed of former Barclays bankers, will be paid £240m in fees ...
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American Bar Association president scrutinises UK reforms
The US legal profession is scrutinising the UK’s legal services ‘big bang’ as part of a worldwide review that could lead to its own legal services revolution, the Gazette has learned. In her first UK interview since taking office, Carolyn Lamm, president of the 400,000-strong American ...
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Law Society warning on legal aid cuts for vulnerable
The Law Society has warned that vulnerable people could be left with no access to the courts under ‘misleading’ plans put forward by the Ministry of Justice. An MoJ consultation proposed removing legal aid from clients who do ‘not reside’ in the UK. At a meeting ...
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Law firm wins injunction against departing solicitor
Law firms can obtain a ‘springboard’ injunction to prevent solicitors from taking clients with them if they leave suddenly, a High Court decision has indicated – even if their employment contract does not expressly forbid taking clients.
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Family lawyer fears over guardians’ ‘dangerous’ caseloads
Leading family lawyer Christina Blacklaws has hit out at the ‘dangerous’ workload of employed guardians at the Children and Family Court Advisory Service (Cafcass). Her broadside came as the government prepared to announce a further £1.6m in funding for Cafcass’s London region this week, on condition ...
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Sole practitioners removed from Co-Op panel as no deal reached
Sole practitioners in England and Wales have been removed from the conveyancing panel of the merged Britannia Building Society and Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) after negotiations with the Law Society failed to reach agreement. However, their colleagues in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been granted an ...
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Law firms should be able to ‘self govern’, says Hunt report
By Paul RogersonA wide-ranging review of solicitors’ regulation commissioned last year by the Law Society and conducted by Lord Hunt of Wirral was published on Monday. Among the Tory peer’s 88 ?recommendations is a proposal for what he describes as ‘authorised internal regulation’, a new system of self-governance available ...
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Office for Legal Complaints to be based in Birmingham
The Office for Legal Complaints, the new body created by the Legal Services Act 2007 to handle complaints about solicitors, is to be based in Birmingham. The OLC, which has been allocated set-up costs of around £15m and annual running costs of £19.9m, will replace the ...
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SRA considers reducing premium in assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority held a meeting this week to consider whether or not to reduce assigned risks pool (ARP) insurance premiums after a record number of firms were forced to join the pool.
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City law firms to lose out to regions
Regional law firms look set to benefit at the expense of their City rivals in the coming year, research seen by the Gazette has indicated. A survey by research agency Acritas of 500 senior in-house counsel at large and mid-sized organisations showed that 29% were planning ...
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Black cap for judges’ pensions
Earlier this year I blogged that judges’ generous pension entitlements would end up squarely in the line of fire following fiscal meltdown. And lo, it has come to pass, as the two main parties try to out-macho each other in respect of how severely they can punish public servants who ...
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Lovells ‘in US merger talks’
City firm Lovells and US firm Hogan & Hartson are discussing a merger to create a firm with combined revenues of more than £1bn, according to reports. The firm would comprise 2,500 lawyers and would be among the 10 largest in the world if the tie-up ...