Latest news – Page 860
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News
Battle to save Iceland-funded lender: latest
Talks to provide a lifeline to a specialist solicitors’ lending arm of collapsed Icelandic bank Landsbanki were under way as the Gazette went to press. Key Business Finance (KBF) chiefs were in crunch takeover talks with a number of banks to secure the company’s future. KBF ...
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Chancery Lane paves the way for new 'affiliate' category
The Law Society has moved closer to opening its doors to non-solicitors after 63% of council members voted in favour of creating a new ‘affiliate’ category. The introduction of ‘affiliate’ status is part of the Society’s plan to become a more commercially minded outfit. ...
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Redundancy help for lawyers
Solicitors faced with redundancy – together with the 700 already made jobless since the financial crisis began – are to receive urgent help from the Law Society. The Society has prepared guidance to help practitioners with advice on negotiating redundancy packages, working notice periods, continuing professional ...
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Conveyancing warning
Conveyancing solicitors risk undermining their status as the ‘lynchpin of the property market’ if they overreact to the current banking crisis and stop giving undertakings, Chancery Lane has warned. Law Society President Paul Marsh said solicitors should act with caution, but unless they had a reason ...
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Solicitors hit back over Iceland
Local government solicitors hit back at accusations that councils acted recklessly by investing in Icelandic banks. Suzanne Bond, chairwoman of Solicitors in Local Government, said: ‘We work to government guidance, which has been followed. If it had been a couple of bodies it could be reckless, ...
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Market chaos leaves firms trading without insurance
Solicitors have been trading without professional indemnity insurance (PII) amid the market meltdown, while the number of law firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) has increased six-fold, the Gazette has been told. Shortly after the 1 October deadline, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said 150 firms ...
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PI cases up for grabs to the highest bidders
An auction website where solicitors who make the highest bid win the right to take on a case is already generating business, the Gazette has learned. The backers of Legalbid.co.uk said their model is no worse – and, in some cases, better – than other referral arrangements in the market. ...
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Lord Hunt to head regulation review
A former cabinet minister, Lord Hunt of Wirral (the solicitor David Hunt), is to head the Law Society’s review of professional regulation. Lord Hunt, who was senior partner at Beachcroft between 1996 and 2005, is chairman of Beachcroft’s financial services division. Between 1979 and 1995 ...
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Solicitors assured over criminal costs
Barristers will not gain at the expense of solicitors in the stand-off over very high cost criminal cases, the new legal aid minister assured practitioners this week. In his first engagement as minister, Lord Bach said there is ‘no question’ of funding any increase in advocacy ...
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Merger rise predicted as law firms struggle
Merger activity in the legal world is ‘rampant’, with more deals predicted in the next year than in the past 25, a leading consultant predicted last week. Chris Frederiksen, chairman of the 2020 Innovation Group, said that mergers are happening because the profession’s three main underpinnings ...
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Fair trial plea in Colombia
A last-ditch attempt to defend a bereaved father from ‘trumped-up’ terrorism charges in Colombia has been made by human rights lawyer Yenly Mendez. Mendez was in London this week to drum up international support for community leader Miguel Angelo Gonzales, whose son earlier this year became ...
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Fraud chief in prevention pledge
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is planning to clamp down on fraudulent activity before cases reach the courts, its director Richard Alderman said this week. In one of his first public speeches since taking the reins of the office earlier this year, Alderman said the SFO ...
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Litigation claims 'wishful thinking'
Widespread expectations of a litigation frenzy following the financial markets meltdown are ‘wishful thinking and unrealistic’, according to the head of litigation practice Bivonas. Tony Brown, chief executive of the London firm, said that while increases in fraud, corporate restructuring and insolvency work could be expected, ...
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Acquisitions, sales, energy projects and land purchases
Green fingers: Ipswich firm Birketts advised Notcutts, a Woodbridge-based garden centre operator, on its £14.5m acquisition of six garden centres in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Cheshire from AIM-listed distribution company NWF Group. North-west firm Brabners advised NWF.
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Missing water features
Legal professionals must not overlook plumbing systems when producing home information packs. Home information packs (HIPs) have been with us for a number of months. We at the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors have noticed a number of errors in the practices of some ...
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Tories ready for HIP replacement
I have just read your news item speculating that the Conservative Party may abandon its pledge to scrap home information packs (HIPs) (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 2). This is not true. At the party conference, shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: ‘The government is in ...
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Access to justice
It would be a shame if readers obtained a misleading impression as a result of the headline in your recent news item about our views on the Legal Services Commission’s (LSC) fixed fees (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 1).
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Claimants are being short-changed
I write in response to your recent news item headlined ‘lawyers blamed for negligence fees rise’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 2).
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Legal aid despair
As a solicitor still doing some legal aid work while trying to get out of legal aid entirely, I read your Opinion in last week’s Gazette with interest (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 8).
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Review of regulation
A separate compliance regime for big City corporate firms is to be considered as part of a profession-wide review of regulation, the Gazette can reveal. The development comes amid indications that some of the UK’s biggest practices are considering alternatives to the existing system of ...