Latest news – Page 800
-
News
Generation gap
It came as a breath of fresh air to read in last week’s leader how as a profession we complain that we are no longer respected, while, on the facing page, a letter from Peter S Hughes confirmed his rugged independence and refusal to enter into referral fee arrangements.
-
News
What is the point of being a solicitor?
Can someone tell me what is the point of being a solicitor? To get a practising certificate, years of study and financial hardship must be endured. Those who survive struggle to get a training contract. Those that eventually get the coveted practising certificate then join one of the most stressful ...
-
News
Demoralised lawyers chasing their tails
I read about Lord Bach’s apparent apparent support for compulsory pro bono.
-
News
Maintaining our integrity
I write to comment on Michael R Moore’s letter about referral fees. I qualified in 1976 and can relate to and empathise with all that he recounts – with the exception of his final paragraph.
-
News
Chinese float, Islamic financing, and Brawn GP Formula 1 team
Chinese float: Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised on two Hong Kong Stock Exchange flotations that raised $6.1bn (£3.7bn) in total. The firm advised China Minsheng Bank on its $3.9bn (£2.37bn) flotation and China Longyuan Power on its $2.2bn (£1.34bn) listing.
-
News
Assembly probes spending by mayor’s economic development agency
The cost of work done by law firms advising the Mayor of London’s economic development agency is to be scrutinised by the London Assembly, the Gazette has learned. The news emerged after Boris Johnson answered questions on the amount that the London Development Agency (LDA) paid ...
-
News
High-profile City firms reduce carbon footprint
More than a third of Legal Sector Alliance (LSA) firms have reduced their carbon footprint over the last year, according to a report by the climate change action group. Some 35% of the 138 firms in the alliance, including a raft of high-profile City firms, have ...
-
News
Government legal aid spending cuts called into question
Figures showing a fall in the cost of criminal defence work have called into question the government’s drive to introduce more spending cuts. Statistics obtained from the Legal Services Commission by More4 News showed that the amount spent nationally on criminal defence services has fallen over ...
-
News
Drop in suspicious activity reports by solicitors
The number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) made by solicitors has fallen by more than a quarter over the last year, according to figures published by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). SOCA’s third annual report showed that solicitors filed 4,772 SARs between October 2008 and ...
-
News
Lawyers in UK and Ireland hit hardest by problems in property market
Only Ireland has suffered more job losses within its legal profession than the UK, the director general of the Law Society of Ireland said last week. Ken Murphy told delegates at a Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) meeting in Brussels that ...
-
News
Tory housing minister reignites HIP debate
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps’ recent confirmation that he would scrap home information packs (HIPs) has re-ignited the debate over what should replace them. Shapps said last week that removal of the controversial sellers’ packs would be his first task if the Conservatives win the next ...
-
News
Banks could be first to face US-style ‘opt-out’ class actions
Banks and other financial institutions could be the first to face US-style ‘opt-out’ class actions, the chancellor confirmed this week. During the Financial Services Bill’s second reading in parliament, Alistair Darling said that though he does not want to see ‘the widespread development’ of class actions, ...
-
News
Vulnerable defendants not helped in understanding court proceedings
Defendants with learning disabilities are routinely deprived of help with understanding criminal court proceedings, a report from the Prison Reform Trust has revealed. The report, published this week, found there was no systematic procedure for identifying adults with learning disabilities. Some defendants did not know why ...
-
News
Woolf calls for arbitration overhaul as he launches new guidance
International arbitration has ‘lost its way’, the former lord chief justice Lord Woolf (pictured) told the Gazette this week, as he launched a set of guidelines which will build mediation into the arbitration process. Woolf co-chaired an international commission for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution ...
-
News
Quarter of firms expected to walk away from legal aid in next five years
More than a quarter of firms expect to walk away from legal aid work in the next five years, a report slamming the Legal Services Commission’s poor administration has revealed. The report by public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) showed that one in six ...
-
News
Guidance notes and rule changes
I am interested in the recent exchange of letters between Messrs Hopper and Treverton-Jones and Antony Townsend, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s chief executive, about changes to the guidance notes to rule 9 of the Code of Conduct made on 13 November 2009.
-
News
Legal groups publish ‘manifesto for justice’
An eight-strong coalition of legal, consumer and campaigning groups today published their ‘manifesto for justice’ as part of a political campaign intended to strengthen justice and the rule of law. AdviceUK, the Bar Council, the Institute of Legal Executives, Justice, the Law Centres Federation, the Legal ...
-
News
Paying referral fees is not a crime
What a relief to read Michael Moore’s recent letter in the Gazette (‘Don’t tie our hands’) as I had begun to think that I was the only solicitor left who didn’t regard the paying of referral fees as akin to some kind of criminal activity.
-
News
Chinese bar strengthens UK links
China’s Tianjin Bar Association (TBA) will visit the UK next week in a bid to strengthen ties with UK lawyers. The TBA delegation will visit London and Bristol on Monday and Tuesday next week, in a move that the Law Society said will provide business opportunities ...
-
News
SRA boosts the diversity of adjudicators
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed the appointments of a panel of 23 external adjudicators, who will make decisions on regulatory matters.