Latest news – Page 840
-
News
MoJ announces new wave of domestic violence courts
Eighteen specialist courts are to open to help victims of domestic violence, the Ministry of Justice has announced. The new courts, in eastern England, East Midlands, London, the north-east, north-west, south-west, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside will take the total of specialist domestic violence courts to 122. ...
-
News
Pro bono winners urged to apply for costs
The former attorney general has urged pro bono lawyers to use new legislation to apply for costs when they win a case, to support wider access to justice. Lord Goldsmith told City Law School’s pro bono fair that lawyers doing pro bono cases can apply for costs orders under section ...
-
News
Chancery Lane dismisses NHS ‘cash cow’ claim
The Law Society has taken issue with a Sunday Times report alleging that fee-hungry lawyers use the NHS as a ‘£100m cash cow’ in making compensation claims. Chief executive Des Hudson (pictured) said the best way for the NHS Litigation Authority to pare legal costs ...
-
News
Clifford Chance freezes pay
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance today (31 March) announced a pay freeze for all lawyers and business services staff worldwide. Around 3,800 lawyers will be affected, across the firm’s 30 global offices. In a statement, Clifford Chance said it will hold salaries ...
-
News
LDPs go live
The revolution in legal services provision heralded by the 2007 Legal Services Act officially gets under way this week with the advent of legal disciplinary practices. For the first time, law firms can be owned by different types of lawyers, and a proportion of non-lawyers. ...
-
News
[April spoof] Bankers to be fast-tracked into law
[1 April 2009 spoof story] city law firms have welcomed government plans to fast-track redundant investment bankers into the solicitors’ profession. Under what the Ministry of Justice is calling ‘Fast Track to Success’, former bankers are to undergo a month’s intensive legal tuition before sitting examinations ...
-
News
Solicitors more trusted than barristers
Solicitors are the most trusted of the white-collar professions, according to a survey carried out for the Bar Standards Board (BSB).
-
News
FSA proposes greater client account protection
Client money held in solicitors’ bank accounts could be given far greater protection in the event of a bank collapse, under changes proposed by the Financial Services Authority. The FSA is suggesting increasing the upper limit of compensation for ‘temporary high balances’, which includes money held ...
-
News
Baker & McKenzie to cut staff in London
US firm Baker & McKenzie is to axe up to 85 staff in London, including between 20 and 30 lawyers, as part of a new redundancy consultation. The firm is also anticipating a pay freeze and scrapping its all-staff bonus. Gary Senior, London managing partner, ...
-
News
Don't overreact to downturn, says professional services group
Law firms operating in the UK will fall behind firms in foreign markets unless specific regulatory burdens are lifted, according to government officials and law firm chiefs. In its first report, submitted to Chancellor Alistair Darling this week, the Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group (PSGC) ...
-
News
Chancery Lane seeks tax concession
The Law Society has warned that taxing law firms on work they have yet to be paid for could result in small practices getting into financial trouble. President Paul Marsh has written to HM Revenue & Customs asking the authority to suspend the UITF 40 ...
-
News
Stifling information damages democracy
Sarah Webb is wrong to say there is no problem with costs in publication proceedings (see [2009] Gazette, 5 March, 10).
-
News
Jack Straw and legal aid
Let us be grateful to the lord chancellor at least for his frank warning that lawyers dependent on state funding would be ‘wise to reconsider’ their expectations of earnings (see [2009] Gazette, 12 March, 1).
-
News
Constructive dialogue
I write in response to the comments made by Richard Charlton about the fixed fees that apply to legally aided mental health work (see [2009] Gazette, 5 March, 14-15).
-
News
Fixed fees fall-out
The current proposals from the Legal Services Commission in relation to fixed fees for family cases are likely to have an adverse effect on children, families and the administration of justice.
-
News
Upholding decency
I read with much emotion and ever-increasing indignation the brave and intimate feature by Jonathan Rayner concerning the serial failure of the ‘system’ to deal humanely or in any way appropriately with his son ‘Patrick’, particularly once the latter was introduced into the criminal process (see [2009] Gazette, 5 March, ...
-
News
Age-old concern
Joyce Glasser’s letter about students and newly qualifieds in their late-30s or 40s and 50s, captured the situation in a nutshell (see [2009] Gazette, 19 February, 11). I am a newly qualified solicitor who was also made redundant on qualification due to organisational structure changes.
-
News
Trading blows
On 26 February you carried a special In Business report, ‘Marketing – the next generation’ (see [2009] Gazette, 26 February, 12-14). Significantly, both articles were written by marketeers and predict the demise of solicitors, when large corporate businesses are expected to enter the solicitors’ market.
-
News
Legislation planned to bar solicitors convicted of fraud from practice
Plea negotiations are to be introduced and Crown Court powers will be extended to make fraud prosecutions more effective, Attorney General Baroness Scotland (pictured) announced today (18 March). Legislation is also planned to allow the Crown Court to bar convicted fraudsters from practising in certain key professions, including as a ...
-
News
Quality before price
Ian McLachlan’s view (see [2009] Gazette, 19 February, 11) is worrying from a professional indemnity and risk management point of view.