Last 3 months headlines – Page 1616
-
News
All’s hair in love and war
It’s been a tough day at work. The phone has been ringing off the hook, you’ve just hung up on your number-one client mid-sentence, and your new e-billing system has just exploded. A colleague suggests a quick drink to unwind before going home. Stop! Do you have children? Are you ...
-
News
Mobile prone
It’s fair to say that lawyers are not known for their love of technology. While most (but possibly not all) have moved on from quill and parchment, some may say they are still several decades behind the more trendy sectors when it comes to technological advances. The humble mobile phone ...
-
News
Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 12 July 1989 Project 1992 – doing nothing could prove costlySolicitors are getting the message that 1992 [the year the single European market becomes ...
-
News
Local government law: age discrimination
How LIFO (last in, first out on redundancy) fares under ageism laws is a subject with far-reaching impact for local government lawyers.
-
News
Graduated fee scheme will ‘better reflect complexity’
Caroline Little claims that membership of the Law Society Children Panel is in jeopardy owing to proposed family legal aid reforms (see [2009] Gazette, 25 June, 9).
-
News
‘US in stronger position than UK’ to weather downturn
Top US law firms are better placed to weather the downturn than the biggest UK firms, and will be in a better position when the demand for legal services picks up, the head of the world’s biggest firm claimed this week. Eric Friedman (pictured), executive partner ...
-
News
Anger management
I write to draw the attention of professionals in the Yorkshire area to the invaluable service I have been receiving from an organisation called S.T.O.P.
-
News
Clients ‘bled dry’
The research into employment lawyers by Cardiff Law School is partly corroborated by our own clients’ experiences of the practices of other law firms (see [2009] Gazette, 2 July, 3). Many clients are bled dry early on in the litigation process by hourly rate solicitors. They approach us to take ...
-
News
No more ‘fat cats’
While clearing out my rather dated and messy office today, I came across the Green Book from October 2000. Still being at university then and labouring under the misconception that my path was to be paved with gold, I flicked through it curious to know what fixed costs were allowable ...
-
News
More power for FSA’s chief enforcer
The Financial Services Authority’s chief enforcer is to be given greater power to fine individuals and companies as she moves to head an enhanced enforcement division at the City watchdog. The FSA wants to treble some fines for mis-selling and market abusers after it merges its ...
-
News
US eyes Bahrain project, shampoo maker listing, and Plymouth Argyle Football Club stake
Powerful project: US firm Shearman & Sterling advised more than 20 lenders, including the US Government, on arranging $2.1bn (£1.3bn) of financing for Bahrain’s Al Dur water and power production project, which is expected to yield 1,230 megawatts of energy. A mix of ...
-
News
Questioning the gender divide
So women solicitors are still earning nearly a third less than men, according to Law Society research. Shocking, yes. Surprising, no – we know there is a long way to go. After all, women tend to be newer entrants to the profession with fewer years’ ...
-
News
Aspiring sole practitioners need to understand their responsibilities
One of the most persistent myths in the legal profession is that sole practitioner numbers are declining. In fact, there was an increase from just under 3,000 in 1987 to 4,130 at the end of 2008. And, despite the difficult trading conditions of 2009, the number of sole practitioners has ...
-
News
Whitehall fee regulation ‘political’
Government plans to crack down on the use of contingency fees in employment and other tribunals are politically motivated, it has been alleged. The Ministry of Justice last week published a consultation paper on regulating contingency fees, having inserted a provision in the Coroners and Justice ...
-
News
Commercial attorney threat
Lawyers in England and Wales could soon face competition from commercial attorneys, a group of legal representatives operating mainly in the field of construction law whose origins lie in Scotland. The Association of Commercial Attorneys recently won a near 20-year battle for rights of audience ...
-
News
Head of family division calls for ‘urgent action’ over guardians
Hundreds of children are currently at risk of being taken into care without a guardian to represent them, a leading children’s lawyer said this week. The warning came as the president of the family division, Sir Mark Potter (pictured), announced an interim ‘stop-gap’ scheme to deal ...
-
News
PC fee increase ‘looks likely’
Solicitors could face an increase in the practising certificate (PC) fee, which is to be discussed later this month, the Gazette understands. Following inquiries from the Gazette, the Law Society confirmed that an increase ‘looks likely’. However, chief executive Des Hudson stressed that any increase ...