Latest blog – Page 198
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Opinion
London legal pre-eminence is not set in stone
Honeyed words from Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, in-house head of legal at the multi-billion-pound international Hinduja Group. ‘There is a global respect for English law and London lawyers are the most experienced in the world,’ he told delegates at the Law Society’s International Marketplace Conference last week. Yet the global market is ...
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NewsJudicial satire is deadly serious
Price-competitive tendering for judges. That is the subject of a spoof essay of application for the job of lord chief justice, penned by Court of Appeal judge Sir Alan Moses (‘aged 67½’), demonstrating the absurdity of the government’s planned legal aid reforms. The sitting judge read his work ‘What I ...
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NewsA song and dance over Europe
I preferred to be a wall-flower last week rather than join in the wild and shameless hokey cokey led by the government over the decision both to opt out and then opt back in to various EU criminal law measures. We will opt out of 135 and opt back in ...
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OpinionWhy the Magna Carta still has relevance today
What shall we be doing in the summer of 2015? A general election is scheduled for 7 May. If Theresa May gets her way, we shall be voting on whether to denounce a list of rights and liberties that will have been binding on our rulers for little more than ...
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OpinionTactics emerge in costs budgeting
Some interesting points emerged in relation to costs budgeting at IBC Legal’s Impact of Jackson conference last week. By now, many litigators will have had to knuckle down and complete Precedent H – the form through which they must provide the opposing party with an estimate of their costs in ...
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OpinionDefendant firms are turkeys protecting Christmas
This may surprise you, but not all my correspondence is adoring fanmail. Indeed, on some occasions people tell me rather forcefully that I’m wrong, and often in the kind of language that gives our email filter system nightmares. The majority of angry responses come from defendant firms who take issue ...
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OpinionCounting the cost of interventions
The cost of law firm failures is being felt across the solicitors’ profession. The Gazette reported recently that the unprecedented bill for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) intervening in failing firms means that we will all have to pay an extra £23 each towards the compensation fund in the coming ...
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Opinion
Open justice? Open court listings would be a start
A century ago, in Scott v Scott (1913), the House of Lords affirmed the common law rule that courts must administer justice in public. Just last week, Lord Justice Kay cited the ruling when rejecting a request by a Saudi prince for litigation to be heard in private. He ruled: ...
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OpinionThe jury’s out on the European Public Prosecutor
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the case of United Kingdom vs the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
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Opinion
Leader: Restitution would favour those who deliver growth in our economy
As the government limbers up to sell its stake in some of our largest banks
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OpinionThe best of summer holiday reading
It’s the time of year when every respectable journal tells you what reading to pack for the beach, and so here goes. Crime The fiction list for lawyers has not been strong this year. A late contender is the publication in the last few days of the Financial Action Task ...
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OpinionVulnerable people are most at risk from PCT
The legal profession has been up in arms over the proposed introduction of price-competitive tendering. But no one should be more concerned than individuals living with learning difficulties and disabilities such as autism, because they are the ones most at risk as a result of the changes. Criminal defence specialists ...
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Opinion
Leader: Legal Education and Training Review does not set the pulse racing
When the legal professions’ regulators published the terms of reference for the Legal Education and Training Review...
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News
I have seen the future and it didn't work
In autumn 2005, on a visit to the Home Office’s shiny new headquarters near Millbank, I enjoyed a demonstration of an all-singing, all-dancing joined-up criminal justice IT system. The ‘walk through’ was to show off a £2bn programme to join up police forces, prosecutors, the courts and prison and probation ...
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Opinion
Legal walks have come to exemplify all that is best about the profession
In our exclusive interview with the justice secretary last week, Chris Grayling stressed that he would never use the term ‘fat-cat lawyer’.
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OpinionWorkplace giving could help your firm demonstrate its CSR credentials
Charitable giving can be a very personal thing, and at a time when we all have our hands on the purse strings charities need extra support now more than ever.
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OpinionEU withdrawal would be dire for profession
Withdrawal from the EU is staring us in the face. It is a good time to spell out what the consequences might be for lawyers.
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OpinionThe NHS blame game and legal accountability
In the House of Commons, in media studios, in the pages of national newspapers and on Twitter the NHS and its regulator are the subject of a fairly fierce blame game, still spilling over from last week. In summary, did the Care Quality Commission (CQC) cover up hospital failings, did ...