Latest news – Page 755
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News
Young legal aid lawyers call for quality
The Young Legal Aid Lawyers group has called on the government to put quality of service at the heart of any new legal aid scheme to safeguard the rule of law. In a briefing paper to the Ministry of Justice, which is carrying out a review ...
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MoJ consults on bribery prevention procedures
The Ministry of Justice has published draft guidance to companies on procedures to prevent bribery. The guidance is published under section 9 of the Bribery Act, which is due to come into force next April. The Bribery Act creates a new corporate offence of failure to ...
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Akzo ruling against in-house privilege in competition matters
The European Court of Justice has ruled that legal professional privilege does not apply to legal advice given by in-house lawyers in EU competition law investigations. Ruling in the Akzo Nobel case today, the ECJ said that an in-house lawyer, regardless of their membership of a ...
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Recruitment on the rise for private practice
Corporate and private client firms are stepping up their recruitment, experts said today, as public sector bodies seek to reduce their headcount. Recruiters said large firms have returned to their previous practice of sending lengthy ‘vacancy lists’ to recruiters, in a sign of a strengthening of ...
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Tributes paid following death of Lord Bingham
Tributes have been paid to Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the former lord chief justice and one of the pre-eminent judges of his generation, following his death on Saturday. He had been suffering from cancer and died at his home in Wales aged 76. ...
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Downing Street backing for Djanogly over Telegraph claims
Downing Street has expressed ‘full confidence’ in justice minister Jonathan Djanogly, who is in charge of legal aid, following claims in the Telegraphtoday that the minister hired private detectives to find out what his colleagues thought of him. The newspaper reported that Djanogly paid a private ...
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Guidance on ABS discussions may be amended
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to review its current guidance on what arrangements firms may enter into with other businesses when alternative business structures come into force in October 2011. However, the SRA board was emphatic that ‘those in control of law firms must be under ...
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LSC reverses contract decision following judge's warning
The Legal Services Commission has averted one legal challenge to its tender process by awarding a social welfare contract to a Birmingham firm which sought a judicial review of the LSC’s initial decision not to make an award.
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Welfare law work and exclusion
I was pleased to read the comments of Mr Justice Collins, in connection with the ‘irrational’ approach of the Legal Services Commission regarding the social welfare law tender process. Unhappily, this is consistent with the experiences of my own firm.
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Colombia and human rights
Further to the article ‘UK lawyer delegation suffers Colombia rights rebuff’, I would like to inform you that the government and embassy of Colombia provided the delegation with assistance in arranging and confirming governmental meetings during their visit to my country in August.
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The record of the Legal Complaints Service
I read with interest your interview with LeO chief ombudsman Adam Sampson . As chair of the board of the Legal Complaints Service, I have worked closely with Legal Complaints Service chief executive Deborah Evans and her team to ensure that LeO gets off to the ...
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Football, home fixtures and hotels
Net returns: North-west firm Brabners Chaffe Street advised Liverpool Football Club on appointing Roy Hodgson, formerly of Fulham Football Club and advised by London firm Michael Simkins, as team manager. It also advised Manchester United on acquiring striker Javier Hernández (pictured) from Mexican ...
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Council first for LawWorks pro bono project
Lawyers at Sutton Council are to become the first local authority legal team to volunteer their services to the LawWorks pro bono project. The 14 solicitors and three barristers in Sutton’s legal team are signing up to the charity, which provides free legal help to ...
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SRA pays out over £9m to former clients of Wolstenholmes
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far paid out more than £9m to former clients of Cheshire firm Wolstenholmes. The SRA closed down the firm, which had offices in Cheadle and Birmingham, last year, on the grounds of suspected dishonesty and breaches of the solicitors’ accountancy ...
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Lib Dem peer attacks partners over tax avoidance
Some partners at certain magic circle law firms are still not paying their fair share of tax, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman claimed this week, after first raising the issue back in June. Lord Oakeshott said in the House of Lords then that, according to ‘a ...
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Manchester CLAS will ‘eclipse’ small practices
The Law Society has warned that Manchester’s new community legal advice service (CLAS) will drive small legal aid firms out of the market, and make conflicts of interest hard to avoid. Following a tender process that overran by nearly two months, the Legal Services Commission and ...
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SRA ‘unlikely’ to relax ABS restrictions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...
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Pro bono panel for 2012 Olympics
The Law Society and Bar Council are to establish a joint pro bono panel of advisers for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Although City firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the official legal adviser to the London Olympics, the games’ organising committee has asked the two representative ...
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Top law firms reject conflict rules change
Top City law firms have rejected ‘foolhardy’ proposals to change the conflict of interest rules put forward by the profession’s regulator, warning it against making ‘rushed changes’.
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Hundreds of Quinn firms yet to seek PII
More than half of the 1,900 sole practitioners who currently have professional indemnity insurance (PII) with Quinn Insurance have so far failed to apply to the broker attempting to find them alternative cover. The news comes after Danish insurer Alpha Insurance last week said that it ...