Latest news – Page 845
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News
Lawyers attack government plans to extend family reporting
Family lawyers have attacked government plans to extend the media’s right to report family cases, warning that they will clog the courts with preliminary hearings and lead to miscarriages of justice. The media have been allowed to report on the process of family cases since April, ...
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Law Society unlikely to introduce fellowship scheme
The Law Society appears likely to rule out introducing a fellowship scheme in the near future, but may consider extending membership in light of the introduction of alternative business structures. Introducing a fellowship scheme for solicitors ‘who reach an agreed professional standard’ was one of the ...
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Bar eyes contract push with new procurement vehicles
Solicitors could find themselves approaching barristers for work as the bar takes advantage of new freedoms approved last month, the incoming chairman of the Bar Council told the Gazette this week. Nicholas Green QC said there would be a reversal of the ‘normal order of things’ ...
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Bar Council claims ‘privileged’ perception is ‘outdated’
The Bar Council has claimed that the perception of the bar as a profession for the privileged is ‘outdated’ – but it is unable to say what percentage of barristers attended state school. It published a report last week showing a range of initiatives taken to ...
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MPs lobby to exclude solicitors from asbestos compensation scheme
MPs are lobbying prime minister Gordon Brown to exclude solicitors from any government-run scheme to compensate workers for asbestos-related pleural plaques. A group of Labour MPs closely involved with a parliamentary bill on the matter have held ‘frequent’ private meetings with Brown and senior ministers. Jim ...
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Criminal legal aid firms threaten boycott of BVT pilot
More than 120 criminal legal aid firms will refuse to take part in Legal Services Commission plans to pilot best value tendering (BVT) unless they are indemnified against transfer of undertaking, protection of employment (TUPE) actions arising from it, the Gazette has learned. The commission wants ...
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Law Society threatens legal action over complaints staff
The Law Society has threatened the government and the new solicitor complaints handling body with legal action following their decision not to automatically reassign staff from the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) to the new Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). The functions of the LCS are to ...
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Law Society Charity donates £369,000 to good causes
The Law Society Charity donated £369,000 to good causes over the past year despite the recession, it announced today. Its accounts for the 2008/09 financial year showed a 3.4% drop in grants made compared to the previous year. The charity supports organisations ...
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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.
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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 ...
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Demoralised lawyers chasing their tails
I read about Lord Bach’s apparent apparent support for compulsory pro bono.
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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.
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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.
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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, ...