Latest news – Page 811
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News
LSC in a parallel universe
I am now convinced that the Legal Services Commission is living in a parallel universe. My sense of foreboding about how they are going to destroy family legal aid firms, their work and the service they provide to vulnerable members of our society, in my mind, is now confirmed.
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What about the poor students?
I understand that banks are either reducing or stopping altogether the loans they have offered to students for the graduate conversion and Legal Practice Courses. There is no student loan funding available for this either. We would not discriminate against people from different racial backgrounds ...
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ARP: history repeats itself
Why does history always have to repeat itself? The comment of my professional colleague Dugald Sproull is very similar to the views I held about the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) and the position from which I challenged the SIF monopoly in the late 1990s.
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Freshfields reports fall in turnover
Magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer today reported an 11% fall in turnover as it became the final magic circle firm to unveil its annual financial results. Revenues at the firm fell to £1.14bn in 2009/10 from £1.29bn in 2008/09, while average profits per equity partner ...
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Clifford Chance regains status as biggest firm by revenues
Clifford Chance has retaken its place as the biggest law firm in the UK by revenues, pipping fellow magic circle firm Linklaters to the post. Clifford Chance also reported a strong resurgence in average profits per equity partner (PEP), which jumped by a quarter to £933,000 ...
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Government rules out appealing defence costs cap judgment
The Law Society has welcomed the government's decision not to appeal against Chancery Lane’s recent court victory in defeating the previous administration’s plans to make acquitted defendants pay most of the costs of their own defence. The Law Society challenged the policy introduced by the ...
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Bulgaria opens up to foreign law firms
Bulgaria is to amend its anti-competitive Bar Act and allow international law firms to practise within its borders following a two-year campaign by City firms and the Law Society. Bulgaria’s Bar Act, which will now be amended, prohibits international law firms from practising under their own ...
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Refugee and Migrant Justice clients lose High Court bid
The High Court has rejected a bid to allow collapsed immigration advice charity Refugee and Migrant Justice to carry on representing its clients until their cases are transferred to other firms. Eight clients of RMJ, which went into administration last month, had sought a judicial review ...
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Munby calls for more openness in family courts
Legislation intended to open up the family courts is a ‘lost opportunity’ that will fail to bring about the openness needed to improve confidence in family proceedings, a leading judge has said. Giving the 2010 Hershman-Levy memorial lecture last week, Lord Justice Munby called for ‘radical ...
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Linklaters reports fall in turnover
Linklaters, the biggest law firm in the UK by revenues, has reported falls in turnover and average profits per equity partner (PEP) as it became the second of the magic circle to unveil full-year financial results. Turnover at the firm fell by 8.8% to £1.18bn in ...
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Exclusive: surge in merger activity as firms seek strength in numbers
Merger activity at small and medium-sized firms climbed by a third in the first half of 2010, according to new research published by the Law Consultancy Network in association with the Gazette. Three-quarters of firms surveyed said they had actively considered the option.
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Family lawyers warn against dangers of cost cutting
Family solicitors have welcomed the government’s aim of encouraging alternatives to court in its review of the family justice system, but warned the focus must not only be cost cutting. The Ministry of Justice launched a ‘comprehensive review’ of the family justice system last week, ...
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New ombudsman service Is ‘good value for money’
The new legal ombudsman service set up to investigate and resolve complaints made by users of legal services will open on 6 October this year. Established by the Office for Legal Complaints and based in Birmingham, the service will replace the Law Society-run Legal Complaints Service ...
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Inexperienced firms seek help for mental health work
Legal aid cuts have forced firms with no mental health experience to bid for mental health contracts – and they are now urgently seeking to poach staff to enable them to do the work, recruiters have told the Gazette. Toby Williamson, director at national recruiters G2 ...
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Insolvency practitioners overpaid £15m a year
Insolvency practitioners are overpaid £15m a year because unsecured creditors are unable to rein in their fees, the Office of Fair Trading reported last week. In its study on the market for corporate insolvency, the OFT recommended that the government create an independent complaints-handling body to ...
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Satellites, lingerie, mobile phones and entertainment attractions
Satellite finance: City firm Herbert Smith advised Gazprom Space Systems, a subsidiary of energy company Gazprom, on guaranteeing the financing of two telecoms satellites, Yamal 401 and Yamal 402, due to be launched in 2011. Magic circle firm Linklaters advised a consortium of ...
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Rule of law ‘in disarray’ in Zimbabwe
Extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and torture continue unabated in Zimbabwe despite a 22-month power-sharing agreement between the country’s two main political parties, a delegation of legal bodies reported this week. The delegation's report, A Place in the Sun, looks at the state of the rule of ...
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Call for EU to tighten intellectual property protection
Pressure is mounting on EU lawmakers to improve protection for trade secrets and intellectual property (IP) rights, after two business lobbies called for stricter enforcement. A coalition of seven international corporations told the Gazette this week that it has called on the European Commission to afford ...
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Lord Lester demands 'urgent action' on CFA 'scandal'
Libel reformer Lord Lester has called on the government to take ‘urgent action’ on the ‘scandal’ of 100% success fees charged by lawyers working on conditional fee agreements (CFAs) in defamation actions. The barrister and Liberal Democrat peer asked justice minister Lord McNally last week ...
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Lawyers warn that court closures could threaten access to justice
Lawyers have warned that government proposals to close nearly a third of the courts in England and Wales could threaten access to justice and increase pressure on legal aid practitioners. In a consultation launched last week, the Courts Service proposed shutting 157 out of 530 ...