Last 3 months headlines – Page 1640

  • News

    More City firms wield the axe

    2009-04-30T00:00:00Z

    Two big City firms have today announced another raft of redundancies, with a combined total of up to 50 lawyers and up to 115 support staff facing the axe. Berwin Leighton Paisner will cut up to 30 lawyers and up to 55 support staff, while CMS ...

  • News

    Land Registry overhauls registration procedure

    2009-04-30T00:00:00Z

    The Land Registry is to apply a new ‘early completion’ practice from 3 August, to ensure that registration applications are completed as quickly as possible. The practice will apply to all situations where an application for a discharge of whole has been received with another ...

  • News

    Hunt to recommend pre-emptive role for the SRA

    2009-04-30T00:00:00Z

    The review of legal regulation commissioned by the Law Society is likely to recommend that the Solicitors Regulation Authority carry out more pre-emptive and advisory visits to firms, especially those deemed to be ‘at risk’, its author has revealed. Lord Hunt of Wirral , the man ...

  • News

    Hundreds of Colombian lawyers murdered but no one prosecuted, report reveals

    2009-04-30T00:00:00Z

    More than 400 Colombian lawyers have been murdered since 1991 but no one has been prosecuted for a single killing, a devastating report from 42 British lawyers who visited Colombia last year has revealed.

  • News

    Criminal law: defence costs orders and more

    2009-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Important provisions in relation to the taxation of defence costs orders, made in the magistrates’ court, came into effect on 13 October 2008. All such bills delivered after that date will now be taxed by the appropriate National Taxing Team rather than by the court itself.

  • News

    Minority Lawyers Conference

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    The Minority Lawyers Conference was held last weekend. For many students and young solicitors, and indeed myself, it was inspiring to see and hear successful BME speakers...

  • News

    US education provider in for BPP law school

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    BPP Holdings, which owns BPP Law School, announced today that it has received a buyout-approach from US education provider Apollo Global. BPP told the stock exchange that it has received a preliminary approach to purchase the company at 620p per share in cash, a 70% premium ...

  • News

    Green paper proposes role for local community in selecting judges

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    Aspiring district judges could have to win the endorsement of local community figures to secure appointment, under new proposals unveiled by the government today (29 April). The Ministry of Justice wants communities to work with the Judicial Appointments Commission in the ‘selection and deployment’ of district ...

  • News

    Pastoral care: support is out there in tough economic times

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    The impact of the recession on the legal market is unprecedented, but there is plenty of support available for those affected. On Monday, Jasmine Walker (not her real name) was talking to the partners in her conveyancing practice about ways to bring in new business. On ...

  • News

    Time out for Mansfield

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    After 42 years righting wrongs on behalf of clients such as the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four, barrister Michael Mansfield says he is taking a break from court work. Don’t expect him to disappear from the headlines. The head of chambers at criminal and ...

  • News

    Regulator probes 10 firms over misleading debt claims

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating 10 firms for accepting business from claims management companies that have misled consumers about the prospects of getting debts written off. The regulator renewed an earlier warning about doing business with such introducers, following what it described as a ‘rash ...

  • News

    Sweet charity

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    There’s a buzz in the air at bee’s knees hive of activity Hampshire law firm Coffin Mew. Obiter won’t try your patience any further with puns around Apis mellifera. Suffice it to say the firm has just signed up for another three years’ sponsorship of national charity Honeypot. It’s a ...

  • News

    Magnificent seven

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    After reading Richard Biggs’ claim to be the fastest lawyer in the land (see [2009] Gazette, 17 April, 31), David Jeffery, an associate at Guernsey firm Collas Day, got in touch to claim the title. Jeffery tells us that he accepted instructions from a client on 5 February, following a ...

  • News

    Passing fancy

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    There is more to rugby, Obiter has learned, than Neanderthal foreheads, cauliflower ears and a taste for communal bathing. The game for hooligans played by gentlemen also has a charitable side. Three rugby-playing solicitors are to help raise £100,000 for leukaemia research in memory of lifelong friend and all-round sportsman, ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society's first national advertising campaign as well as a committee discussing legal measures to prevent unlawful seizure of aircraft. The Law Society’s Gazette, 26 April 1999 ...

  • News

    Criminal law: witness anonymity, ­automatic deportation

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    In R v Davis [2008] UKHL 36, the House of Lords held that the use of anonymous witnesses whose evidence was critical to the conviction, rendered a trial unfair without a statutory scheme being in force.

  • News

    Probate law: equitable election, proprietary estoppel

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    In Frears v Frears [2008] EWCA Civ 1320, the Court of Appeal had to consider the equitable doctrine of election.

  • News

    Employment

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    Health and safety at work - Casual workers - Compensation - Contracts of employment R (on the application of Health and Safety Executive) v Shah Nawaz Pola: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Moses, Judge Hedley, Judge Russell, Recorder of ...

  • News

    Hopes for tech and media bonanza unfounded, research shows

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    Hopes that a boom in technology, media and telecoms (TMT) activity could offset the slump in financial services and property may be unrealistic, new research has suggested. A survey published last week predicts a downturn in the TMT sector because of funding problems faced by businesses. ...

  • News

    Commission keeps it simple on legal aid contracts

    2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Commission will allow only one model of consortium in the civil bid round for 2010 legal aid contracts, it has announced. The civil contracts tender process will not begin before September, but the LSC said it wanted to provide clarification and explanation of ...