Last 3 months headlines – Page 1706
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Diverting mentally ill from criminal justice pays dividends
Diverting the mentally ill away from the criminal justice system and towards health services could save £20,000 per case, a report has claimed. The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health report, Diversion: A better way for criminal justice and mental health, compared the costs of criminal ...
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EC intervenes in Bulgarian opening
The European Commission has intervened on behalf of a coalition of law firms attempting to set up practices in Bulgaria. DLA Piper and CMS Cameron McKenna, along with Austrian practices Wolf Theiss, CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz and Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati complained to the commission in November, accusing the Bulgarian government ...
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Allen & Overy to cut 282 lawyers worldwide
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy will cut up to 282 lawyers worldwide as part of the largest recession-triggered redundancy consultation to date. The firm’s announcement last week means that around 630 lawyers are in line to be axed by the top 10 UK law firms – around 3% of ...
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IT systems, fundraising, acquisitions and refinancing
Resourceful integrator: south-west firm Osborne Clarke advised two AIM-quoted natural resources clients, iodine producer Iofina and hydrocarbon producer Nighthawk Energy, on fundraisings worth £5m and £7m respectively. The firm also advised Marks & Spencer on an IT systems integration contract with IBM. IT ...
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Hammonds to cut up to 20 partners
National firm Hammonds is the latest big name to announce a round of recession-linked redundancies, with up to 20 partners across the country set to go. The firm’s new redundancy consultation, covering almost 10% of its partnership, has already led to the departure of a handful ...
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Commissioner sets new complaints targets
The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner has urged Chancery Lane to make complaints-handling a priority during the transition to the new structure introduced by the Legal Services Act. The new independent Office for Legal Complaints becomes fully operational in 2011.
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Shelter chief appointed legal complaints ombudsman
The embryonic Office for Legal Complaints has announced that its first chief ombudsman will be Adam Sampson (pictured), currently chief executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter. Elizabeth France, OLC chair, said: ‘The chief ombudsman will play a critical role in building the new disputeresolution system ...
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Chancery Lane unveils client care package
The Law Society and the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner have announced a range of measures costing £275,000 aimed at improving client care by solicitors. Last June the commissioner, Zahida Manzoor, announced she would be imposing a £275,000 fine on the Society following her decision ...
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Media law – offers of amends
Warren v Random House Group Ltd (Nos 1-3) (CA) [2008] EWCA Civ 834; Tesco Stores Ltd v Guardian News & Media Ltd and Rusbridger [2008] EWCH (QB)
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Human rights
Byelaws – Campers – Demonstrations – Freedom of association – Freedom of expression Tabernacle v Secretary of State for Defence: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Laws, Wall, Stanley Burnton): 5 February 2009 ...
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Human rights are too important to be left to party politics
Dominic Raab is a Tory rising star. He is currently chief of staff for Dominic Grieve MP. He has served David Davis in the same capacity and he will doubtless go far. In his recent book, The Assault on Liberty: what went wrong with rights (Fourth Estate), Raab flies a ...
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Probate lawyers face tough challenges ahead
Probate lawyers may find themselves in the line of fire as plunging stocks and shares devastate the value of estates, prompting beneficiaries to take a hard look at their role in protecting those assets. Beneficiaries are increasingly prepared to take their battles to court – last ...
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Conveyancing solicitors need to control their own destiny
So, there we have it. Not only do we have to endure the president of the Law Society telling we conveyancers ‘don’t panic’ in the teeth of the worst recession for two generations (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, 1), we now have the unedifying spectacle of the Gazette as a ...
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We are out of touch and self-serving
Your anonymous correspondent who bemoans the present state of conveyancing hankers for an age that is fast disappearing and rightly so (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 9).
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Give us the tools
I refer to Peter Williamson’s comments on the Solicitors Regulation Authority board’s decision not to ban referral fees (see [2009] Gazette, 12 February, 9).
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Women’s work
Grania Langdon-Down’s interview with the first female president of the Association of District Judges, Edwina Millward, made interesting reading (see [2009] Gazette, 12 February, 14).
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Age-old problem
In revisiting its equality and diversity strategy, the Solicitors Regulation Authority ought to take a look at the question of age discrimination in the provision of training contracts. There has been publicity about partners in their 50s being forced out, but the implications of a retirement ...
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Food for thought
Despite its reputation as a profession of bon vivants, the legal world figures only lightly in the Cabinet Office’s ‘trough list’ of hospitality enjoyed (or endured) by senior civil servants. In contrast to their counterparts in IT and consultancy businesses – not to mention the arms trade – legal firms ...
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Wallace collection
Obiter got quite excited by an email headed ‘Matthew Pryke’s Kilimanjaro climb for Honeypot’. Was this someone more dedicated to the pursuit of honey than Winnie the Pooh?
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The Law Society’s Gazette, February 1959
Notes of the month by The Editor: The Electronic Lawyer: A recent issue of Punch contains an article entitled ‘The Electronic Lawyer’ by Mr Rupert Townshend-Rose. The article in ...