Latest news – Page 830
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The bigger picture
In his critique of the career of Lord Hoffmann (‘Judging the Judges’, 23 April), Joshua Rozenberg presents an incomplete picture of his role in the Pinochet litigation.
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Inns of Court president withdraws letter on solicitor-advocates
The Law Society has forced the bar onto the defensive in the increasingly charged debate about the role and performance of solicitor higher-court advocates (HCAs). Lady Justice Smith, president of the Council of the Inns of Court, has taken the unusual step of withdrawing ...
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Jack Straw announces crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ employment lawyers
Justice secretary Jack Straw has announced a crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ employment lawyers who he says are exploiting vulnerable clients by taking a large proportion of the damages they win in ‘excessive legal fees’. The move to curb the use of contingency fee agreements in tribunals – ...
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Trebling of compensation fund levy on SRA agenda
The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority will decide today whether to recommend a 313% increase in compensation fund contributions in 2009/10. SRA officers have proposed that solicitors holding clients’ money contribute £470, up from £150 last year. Last month, the regulator predicted that practitioners ...
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Solicitors doubt judges’ impartiality in advocate appraisals
Solicitor-advocates have issued a warning that declining faith in judges’ impartiality in respect of different arms of the profession may imperil plans to assess publicly funded defence advocates. The Legal Services Commission is testing a process to ‘quality assure’ all publicly funded criminal defence advocates, both ...
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France to press ahead with Clementi-style reforms
Clementi-style reforms of France’s legal landscape are to go ahead next year despite a retreat on a major element, the reforms’ architect said this week. Jean-Michel Darrois, a company law specialist and head of Paris firm Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier, headed a commission of academics, ...
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Jackson hints on ending recoverability of success fees
Lord Justice Jackson has given his clearest hint yet that he is minded to end the recoverability of success fees when he makes his final recommendations to reform civil litigation costs. Speaking at the Sweet & Maxwell conditional fee agreement conference last week, Jackson asked ...
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Law Society calls for halt to best value tendering scheme
The Law Society has urged the Legal Services Commission to stop its plans to roll out best value tendering for police station work and urged firms in the pilot areas to think carefully before taking part. In an outspoken address to a conference, ‘Sixty years of ...
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Virtual court ‘puts solicitors at risk’
Defence solicitors taking part in pilots of ‘virtual courts’ could be at risk of injury from their clients, practitioners have warned. The concern has arisen because the video equipment to be used in the pilot requires solicitors to sit alongside their client in a modified ...
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Drive to put lawyers on governing board of every school
International law firms will no longer be able to pump new lawyers into booming practice areas and expanding international offices, even after the recession ends, according to the head of one of the world’s biggest firms. ‘You will see less of the crazy, untamed growth ...
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The 2009 London Legal Sponsored Walk
The 2009 London Legal Sponsored Walk raised a record £380,000 to support law centres across the country. Among 4,000 walkers were 50 judges, 12 City firm senior partners, the lord chief justice, master of the rolls, attorney general and shadow attorney general, and the director of public prosecutions. Lord Justice ...
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Drive to put lawyers on governing board of every school
Lawyers could take a seat on every school governing board under a project aimed at encouraging children from a wider range of backgrounds to enter the legal profession. The Law Society-backed project, ALLIES, will help lawyers to apply to become governors, and bring together ...
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Law society calls for government to act on HIP fees
The Law Society has called on the government to regulate the home information pack (HIP) industry to protect home buyers from secret referral fees paid to estate agents. Following a claim by a Channel 4 News investigation that pack prices could be inflated by more than ...
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Universities ask City to plug gaps in law faculty funding
Top university law faculties have begun talks with City law firms asking for fresh injections of cash to plug funding gaps, the Gazette has learned. It is understood that law faculties are making special requests for donations beyond firms’ usual contributions.
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Bribery bill will involve no shock tactics, law commissioner says
British companies should not be subjected to ‘extreme’ rules when carrying out business overseas, a Law Commission commissioner told MPs and peers during a two-hour parliamentary hearing on the draft bribery bill. Professor Jeremy Horder told a joint committee charged with scrutinising the bill that ...
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Rock films, floating companies and treatment centres
Juke box Dury: City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse advised debt fund Aegis on financing Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, a film about the life of pop singer Ian Dury (pictured). Aegis intends to commit $50m (£33m) to film funding in total. Cheltenham firm Wiggin advised the film’s ...
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SRA rethinks compensation fund levy for 2009/10
The Solicitors Regulation Authority board has asked officials to rethink this year’s proposed compensation fund contributions. As the Gazette reports today, a paper considered by the board at its monthly public meeting, in Birmingham, recommended that solicitors holding client money contribute £470 in 2009/10, up ...
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Profits fall at CMS Cameron McKenna
City firm CMS Cameron McKenna reported a 14% fall in profits as it became the first big commercial law firm to release its financial results this year. The decline in profits, from £84m in 2007/08 to £72m for the year to 30 April 2008/09, came as ...
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Law Society looks to strengthen legal ties with Indian firms
Opportunities for Indian and UK firms to work together will increase as a result of the Indian elections, the Law Society has said ahead of it UK-India legal practice conference. The event, which takes place from 1-5 June, will link up visiting Indian law ...
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Law Society condemns best-value tendering pilot
Des Hudson, the Law Society’s chief executive, has added his voice to criticism of plans by the Legal Services Commission to award contracts for legal aid work in police stations by a process of best-value tendering (BVT). In a speech to the Criminal Law Solicitors ...