Latest news – Page 800
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News
Akzo Nobel ruling a ‘missed opportunity’ say lawyers
Lawyers expressed dismay this week at a European Court of Justice ruling 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, the ECJ said that in-house lawyers were not independent ...
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Solicitor charged with theft
A Lincolnshire solicitor has been charged with stealing over a quarter of a million pounds from her former clients. Jacquelina Laverick, who practised under the name Jacqui Johns, appeared at Grantham Magistrates’ Court last week charged with 11 offences of theft totalling more than £250,000, and ...
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Law firms fear school panel axe
Seventeen law firms signed up to advise local authorities on the Labour government’s lucrative school building project will soon learn whether or not their legal panel is to be scrapped. The Department for Education (DfE)’s £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project was abolished ...
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Lord Bingham – lawyers pay tribute
Tributes have been paid to Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the ‘most respected, distinguished and admired judge of our times’, who died at his home in Wales on 11 September, aged 76.
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Mobile phones, bonds and healthcare
End of the line: Magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised mobile phone group Vodafone on selling its $6.6bn (£4.3bn) stake in China Mobile. Freshfields also advised the board of Anglo Irish Bank on its break-up at the behest of the Irish government, ...
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Client protection
I read with interest, and a degree of optimism, Charles Fuchter’s article entitled The SRA must amend the Code of Conduct or law firms will close on the Gazette website. Mr Fuchter’s comment that ‘mortgage lenders would be required, in effect, to contribute to the ...
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Positive process
In response to John Ford Solicitors’ letter, we have not reduced volume as part of our recent tender for low volume category legal services. New matter start volumes are consistent with those delivered from September 2008 to August 2009. Also, matter starts are ...
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Religious freedom
One way the government could reduce spending, while promoting its ideal of the freedom of the individual, would be to abolish chancel repair liability. If more applications are made by parochial church councils (PCCs) for registration of notices against lay rectors’ titles, leading up to the registration deadline of 12 ...
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Paralegal forces removal of posting from solicitorsfromhell website
A London paralegal has forced the removal of a ‘malicious and inaccurate’ posting on the solicitorsfromhell.co.uk website after issuing a claim for defamation against the owner, the Gazette has learned. Max Campbell, a paralegal at McCormacks, spotted the posting on 1 September, which related to his ...
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Law firms reduce carbon footprint
Legal services is among the UK’s most successful business sector for reducing carbon emissions, a report released today reveals. The report, from HRH the Prince of Wales’ Mayday Network, a group of 2,862 companies working towards a sustainable future, found that network constituents had together reduced ...
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National Accident Helpline launches charter for panel firms
National Accident Helpline (NAH) has launched a customer charter for the solicitor firms on its panel, which it said will ‘offer new guarantees of the highest service standards to consumers accessing justice for personal injuries’. NAH, which refers personal injury claims to a panel of 105 ...
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New human rights body must be independent, says Law Society
The Law Society has welcomed foreign secretary William Hague’s decision to create an advisory body of independent human rights experts that will not be influenced by other policy considerations. Hague’s group will draw on the advice of key NGOs, independent experts and others. The aim is ...
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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.