Latest news – Page 874
-
News
Family law solicitors 'will gain' from fee changes
The legal aid minister has claimed that family law solicitors will benefit from fee changes that will see barristers' rates cut, in an interview with the Gazette.
-
News
Senior judge set to review costs system
The Master of the Rolls is to appoint a senior judge to conduct a root-and-branch review of the costs system, the Gazette has learned.
-
News
LawWorks chief awarded CBE
Paul Newdick, a partner at Clyde & Co and chairman of LawWorks, has received a CBE for services to pro bono legal services in the latest Queen's birthday honours.
-
News
Report reveals Society job cuts
The Law Society shed the equivalent of 51 full-time posts last year in its quest to become a 'lean, fit organisation', chief executive Des Hudson revealed this week.
-
News
Firms face £10,000 fine for unregistered foreign staff
EMPLOYMENT: only one legal practice signed up with agency
-
News
BSB complaints system streamlined
Barristers will be able to opt to have allegations of professional misconduct handled without a formal hearing under a new streamlined complaints system to be introduced by the Bar Standards Board (BSB). The move is just one of the changes to be made to the bar's complaints and ...
-
News
Marriage vetting plan criticised
British Muslim lawyers have criticised plans to vet marriages between UK nationals and overseas partners for signs of coercion as misguided and overly intrusive. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) claimed last week that more than 70% of marriages between UK citizens and nationals from the Asian sub-continent ...
-
News
Lawyers attack accounting exemption for foreign LLPs
TRADING: 'obvious unfairness' on financial statements Leading lawyers have criticised the government's decision not to force overseas limited liability ...
-
News
Deals of the week
Biotech: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised biotechnology company Vernalis on the sale of Apokyn, a treatment for Parkinson’s disease – and the sale of Vernalis’s US commercial operations – to French company Ipsen for $17.5 million (£9 million). Ipsen, advised by ...
-
News
Fittest for purpose
As a solicitor in the provinces, I have been interested to note a consistent theme emerging from various legal periodicals, to the effect that a significant number of high-street legal practices are - in the words of a famous army private - 'doomed' unless they change.
-
News
Appeals procedures
I do not agree with John Ford's claim that legal aid costs appeals are being unfairly undertaken (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 12). I would like to reassure Mr Ford that the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) South Tyneside (formerly Newcastle) office deals with each request ...
-
News
Damn statistics?
Derek Hill, director of the Criminal Defence Service at the LSC, trumpets the rise in criminal legal aid contracts and offices as evidence that practitioners still believe publicly funded work is 'profitable' (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 4).
-
News
Breeding confidence
I am the solicitor quoted in Peter Williamson's piece 'Doing the right thing' (see [2008] Gazette, 12 June, 15). I welcome the openness of his response, as chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), to the spate of criticisms of the ways in which the SRA sometimes conducts its investigation ...
-
News
Over the odds
A Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) case reported last week (see [2008] Gazette, 12 June, 29) sent a shiver down my spine. Forgive me, but no complaint was made and yet the SDT feels that the greater good is served by fining the partners of the firm in question £10,500 plus ...
-
News
Work ethics
I was interested to read Nicola Prior's letter 'Men's Club' (see [2008] Gazette, June 5, 11), particularly her comment that she has 'more work than I know what to do with'. If this is the case then presumably the answer is a) turn work away ...
-
News
Court napping
I have just seen the most amazing document. It is a Central London County Court order, dated 11 November 1993, following an application dated 10 November 1993. Contrast this with recent experience. In the same court, an application for a consent order was filed ...
-
News
Salary survey reveals
By Anita Rice Black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors earn 17% less than white solicitors, while women solicitors earn 7.6% ...
-
News
Regulator: solicitors flouting referral rules
By Jonathan Rayner Fresh evidence has emerged suggesting that solicitors, rather than claims management companies, are largely responsible for breaches ...
-
News
Applicants
The number of applicants for Queen's Counsel (QC) plummeted by more than a third this year to 247, down from 333 in the 2006 competition and 443 in 2005, according to figures released last week by the independent selection panel. ...
-
News
Turn cold calls into cash, solicitors told
Solicitors should make 'converting enquiries into business' their top priority, a leading marketing consultant advised this week. Speaking at the Law Society ?property section's spring conference, Ian Cooper, managing director of Cooper Communications, said there was no point spending money on marketing if firms failed to turn calls ...