Last 3 months headlines – Page 1654
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Hello, new world
Starting a new blog is always tense – it’s a bit like jumping off a high board at the swimming pool, in that you know it’ll get easier afterwards, but you also know that if you get it wrong, it will hurt, and probably quite a lot.
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Lawyers won't play ball on audit caps
In promoting the benefits of deregulation and global free trade, this week’s report from the Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group sounds a discordant note.
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Employment law: accrual of annual leave and sickness absence
For the modern solicitor it has become essential to develop the ability not only to be all things to all people, but also to be in many different places at the same time.
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Straw's bogus panaceas hide a failure to invest
Gazette readers have reacted furiously to Jack Straw’s provocative assertions about the future of legal aid, as my postbag attests.
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Consumer law
Bank charges – EC law – Fairness – Unfair contract terms Abbey National Plc & seven ors v Office of Fair Trading: CA (Civ Div) (Sir Anthony Clarke, Master of the Rolls, Lords Justice Waller (vice-president), Lloyd): 26 February ...
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Landlord/tenant
Contracts – Consent to assignment – Leaseholds – Sale by auction Landlord Protect Ltd v St Anselm Development Co Ltd: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Waller, Wilson, Stanley Burnton): 20 February 2009 ...
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Sports law is now an established practice area
The ties between the solicitors’ profession and sport are long and deep, predating the influx of money that has finally made sport a practice area taken seriously by the largest law firms. It was a solicitor, Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who had the idea to form an ...
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Southern comfort
The City of London’s boundaries have remained inviolate through invasion, civil war, blitz and the 1972 Local Government Act. Now, says the Law Society, it’s time for change. Obiter hears that the Society is considering extending its City of London constituency to take in outlying firms, including some situated – ...
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Norman conquest
Following the news that conveyancing and probate solicitor Geoff Gafford plans to take 10 weeks off work to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats, Elizabeth Norman of north London firm CLC, tells us she’s planning the same journey at a faster pace. Norman is an immigration practitioner who has ...
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Stig changes gear
On first glance at this photograph, Obiter presumed that the tradition of burning solicitors at the stake might be still alive in the London borough of Harrow. However, on closer inspection, under the fireproof gear and helmet is Hugh Peart, the council’s director of legal and governance services, dubbed ‘the ...
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Memory lane
Poor Persons ProcedureIt remains only for the Council once again to urge every member of the Society to come forward and share in the conduct of poor persons' cases. All may rest assured that the greatest possible care is taken by the Committees ...
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Forgotten victims
I write to comment on the item ‘Abuse victims shun law’ (see [2009] Gazette, 12 February, 4). I work in the area of domestic abuse and have done so for eight years. I agree that this is an area that requires a specialist service. ...
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Ignorance no excuse
Why is it that solicitors seem to think that they are above the law and that it is not necessary to practise what they preach? As an eight-year-qualified solicitor who was employed as an associate partner specialising in commercial and residential property, and employment law, ...
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Britain’s electoral registration system faces overhaul
Great Britain is to become a democracy – but not quite yet. That’s the message that emerged from a ‘historic’ but little-reported late-night announcement by the justice minister last week.
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Compliance must not be ignored when tackling the recession
The severity of the recession poses challenges not only to solicitors’ firms but also the SRA. We expect many firms, in their efforts to remain viable, to adopt a much more aggressive outlook, particularly in relation to marketing and the containment of costs. If not managed carefully and ethically, this ...
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Should have gone to Lexsavers
The justice secretary has seen the future – with a little help from Specsavers – but will it work? It would have been better had Mr Straw’s remarks not been predicated on a patently false premise: that increases in the £2bn legal aid budget are ‘unsustainable’. ...
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Law firms must take a rigorous approach to IT security
Losing data is a business or government’s worst nightmare. From stolen laptops to files that go missing in the post, recent high-profile cases have made us all well aware of the damaging repercussions this can have. For a law firm, information is critical for everything it does – knowledge, advice ...
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LPAs to become cheaper following overhaul
Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) forms are to be overhauled to make them simpler to complete and cheaper to register, Public Guardian Martin John said today (11 March). The overhaul follows a public consultation on key aspects of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Forms will now ...
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Straw’s pay warning to legal aid lawyers
Lawyers and law firms dependent on state funding would be ‘wise to reconsider’ their expectations of earnings, the Lord Chancellor has warned. In a stark vision of the future, underlining the government’s determination to press ahead with controversial legal aid reforms, Jack Straw said last ...