Last 3 months headlines – Page 1688
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Two men in a boat
Charles Russell solicitor Charlie Marlow has launched his bid to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 8) by winning a race in the stormy waters off Plymouth. Marlow and friend Matthew Mackaness are to row alternate two-hour shifts for the ...
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Run, corporate restructuring specialists, run
John Potts, Claire Javelea, Paul Williams, Rebecca Warner, Andy Stoneman, Nicola Harnor and Jason Godefroy are some of the staff and clients of corporate restructuring specialists MCR who will be sweating buckets by running – or walking – the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. ...
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Taking stock after 30 years
Recession may be looming, but Manchester firm Harold Stock & Co knows how to throw a party. To celebrate its thirtieth birthday the generous firm took 41 of its employees on a no-expense-spared weekend trip to Barcelona. Mark Ryan, senior partner, said: ‘Thirty years in business is a real milestone ...
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Review of regulation
A separate compliance regime for big City corporate firms is to be considered as part of a profession-wide review of regulation, the Gazette can reveal. The development comes amid indications that some of the UK’s biggest practices are considering alternatives to the existing system of ...
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Firm breaks new ground by sending PI work to South Africa
Personal injury cases are to be outsourced to South Africa this week in the first trial of its kind, the Gazette has learned. Hertfordshire firm Underwoods has signed a deal with an unnamed practice to test whether road traffic accident (RTA) cases that fall under the ...
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New advice for detainees branded 'illegal' in report
Suspects’ rights to consult a solicitor of their choice have been undermined by potentially illegal reforms to the legal aid process, leading academics said this week. Professors Lee Bridges and Ed Cape, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, accused ...
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Wall Street task force
The American Bar Association (ABA) is to establish a high-level task force on financial services regulation in response to the crisis on Wall Street. In an exclusive interview with the Gazette, President Tommy Wells said the initiative is partly aimed at defending the principle of ...
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First year of OPG dogged by delays and disruption
A damning report into the first 12 months of the body charged with protecting people lacking mental capacity to make decisions for themselves has revealed a track record of delays, inaccurate information and inefficiency. The body, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), came into being ...
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Online complaints plan on hold
Controversial plans to publish complaints against solicitors online have been shelved. In a long-awaited decision, the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) this week said it still favours the idea – but passed responsibility for any scheme to its successor body, which comes into being in 2010.
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Legal aid a 'cottage industry'
Government policies are creating a ‘cottage industry’ of legal aid provision, with large firms being driven out of the market, solicitors warned this week as a major firm shed its bulk criminal legal aid practice. Hickman & Rose, whose managing partner Jane Hickman is a ...
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Blue collar
District judges sported their new Betty Jackson-designed robes as they processed from Westminster Abbey to the judges’ breakfast in the Palace of Westminster to mark the opening of the legal year last week. To fit in with their judicial colleagues they wore barristers’ wigs for the occasion, but these will ...
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Legal aid leads Europe
England and Wales has fewer courts per head of population than Belgium, Ireland or the Russian Federation, but spends at least four times more on legal aid than any other Council of Europe jurisdiction, an official survey reveals this week. The Council’s European Commission for the ...
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Call for ban over HIPs
An investigation that exposed home information packs (HIPs) as flawed has prompted calls for insurance-backed personal searches to be banned. Birmingham Trading Standards inspected HIPs at 15 estate agents, randomly selecting six packs for scrutiny. Five contained false or misleading search information. ...
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Banks silent over client money
Confused solicitors have called on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to clarify what would happen if a bank’s collapse wiped out pooled client money. At the end of September, the FSCS told the Gazette that, as long as solicitors told their bank they were depositing ...
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Litigation cash woe
Increased demand for litigation funding amid the current financial crisis may not be met because backers are taking on more lucrative work, an expert has warned. Hedge funds and private equity houses – which were providing more and more cash to the emerging third-party funding market ...
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Franchising, construction, acquisitions and investments
Toy story: City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse advised toy retailer Hamleys on a franchising deal that will allow it to open up to 20 stores in India. The franchise will be run and operated by a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private ...
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The case for the defence
As Graham Zellick steps down as chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, he tells of his fears that budget cuts could seriously impede the body’s work. ‘I do not think we feature very much on the radar,’ says Professor Graham Zellick, retiring chairman of the ...
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American perspective: we interview the head of the ABA
Paul Rogerson speaks to Tommy Wells, president of the 400,000-strong American Bar Association, about Wall Street, the White House – and Guantanamo. PR: Perhaps we should start with ...
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Ritu Sethi's inspiring journey to success
Criminal lawyer, fitness instructor, motivational speaker and television chat show host. Award-winning polymath Ritu Sethi talks about her ‘learning curve’. Ritu Sethi isn’t the only female managing and senior partner within the legal profession, but she is probably the first with a dual qualification ...
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The international dimension
Globalisation is the defining characteristic of the profession and must not be obstructed by protectionist impulses, which may re-emerge as the economy declines.