Latest news – Page 884
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Worldwide deals, acquisitions and power stations
Warsaw bonds: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised the city of Warsaw (pictured) on a €1.3bn (£1.2bn) debt issuance programme, which will allow the city to issue bonds for the first time since the Second World War. ...
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Slaughter and May becomes latest magic circle firm to freeze pay
Slaughter and May has become the fourth member of the magic circle to freeze pay for all staff. The firm’s announcement today (2 April) comes three days after Clifford Chance announced it will freeze pay. Fellow magic circle firms Allen & Overy and Freshfields announced pay freezes earlier this year. ...
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First legal executive appointed partner
The Institute of Legal Executives announced that for the first time a legal executive has been appointed a partner in a legal disciplinary partnership. Nick Hanning (pictured), a legal executive with Poole law firm RWPS, took up his new status on 31 March, when LDPs came ...
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Straw announces date and details of family court openings
Family court hearings in county courts and the High Court will be opened to the media from Monday 27 April, subject to parliamentary approval, justice secretary Jack Straw announced today. Media representatives who wish to attend family courts will need to be holders of the UK ...
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Magic circle firms defer partner promotions
Magic circle firms Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance will defer announcing their partnership promotions for 2009 pending completion of their restructuring programmes. The two firms are the only magic circle firms still to announce partner promotions this year. Yesterday (6 April), Linklaters announced it will promote 18 to its ...
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Family barristers attack legal aid fixed-fee scheme
Family barristers have attacked plans for the payment of fixed advocacy fees in legal aid cases from 2010. The Family Law Bar Association (FLBA), which represents 2,300 barristers, alleges that the proposals take a ‘breathtaking risk with the most vulnerable in society, namely families and children at risk of serious ...
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UK has more lifers than rest of Europe combined
England and Wales sentence more prisoners to life than all 46 other Council of Europe member states combined, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform. Figures released this week show that 12,090 men, women and children in England and Wales are serving life sentences, ...
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Society seeks urgent talks after Abbey cuts panel
The Law Society is to hold urgent talk with retail bank Abbey next week after reports that the bank has removed many firms from its approved panel of solicitors without notice. This has affected new start-ups, sole practices and firms not instructed by Abbey for ...
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Family legal aid fees will leave solicitors worse off
The proposed fixed fees for family legal aid work will leave solicitors worse off, according to a Law Society survey published today.
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Allen & Overy hosts launch of pioneering share index
The world’s first stockmarket index for professional services firms was launched this week at the City of London headquarters of magic circle firm Allen & Overy. A key aim of the initiative is to educate analysts and institutional investors about the potential benefits of investing ...
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Abbey strikes thousands from conveyancing panel
Hundreds of solicitors across England and Wales reacted with shock and dismay last week after mortgage provider Abbey halved the size of its panel for residential conveyancing. Some 6,050 law firm offices have been removed from the 12,000-strong panel as part of a rationalisation ...
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LSB consults on regulatory independence
The Legal Services Board has today (25 March) launched a consultation on regulatory independence. A new document sets out proposals for rules that would require the separation of regulatory work from any representative work at eight approved regulators, including the Law Society. It also deals with rules necessary to approve ...
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Bring on equality
I read with some disbelief Jack Straw’s remarks. On what planet is this man living, or more frighteningly, what planet are those who advise him living on?
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Pay for our offices
I am very encouraged by Jack Straw’s announcement that he thinks it entirely proper that lawyers are paid decent rates and his assertion that we should not expect to be paid more than public sector employees.
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Future perfect?
Your otherwise excellent article on the impact of the recession on the north-west legal scene (see [2009] Gazette, 19 March, 14) was marred by an error regarding the alleged lack of legal training providers in the heart of the city.
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Corporate firms need regulatory group, says Smedley
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is not up to the job of regulating corporate law firms and needs to be fundamentally restructured to equip it for the task. That is the key conclusion of Nick Smedley, the former senior civil servant commissioned by the Law Society to ...
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Council legal departments face budget crunch
Local authorities face gaps in the availability of legal advice in key areas as council legal departments struggle to cope with rising demand and diminishing resources, according to exclusive research for the Gazette. A survey of 124 heads of legal found respondents predicting a rise in ...
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Solicitors’ defence union back under discussion
Solicitors facing disciplinary hearings or complaints procedures could receive formal representation under a defence scheme being considered by the Law Society. The Society says it is studying the idea of setting up a legal defence union as a voluntary or compulsory scheme. The Society’s Membership ...
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No more automatic secrecy for disciplined judges
The names of judges removed from office following disciplinary proceedings will no longer be kept secret, justice secretary Jack Straw (pictured) announced last week. Launching the second annual report of the Office of Judicial Complaints (OJC), he said there would now be a presumption that ...
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Biggest ever survey of women solicitors
The biggest ever survey of women’s status and role within the profession may contradict recent suggestions that the recession is having less impact on female workers than on men, the new chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) said last week.