Latest news – Page 765
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Gazette survey: work-based discrimination still rife, say women solicitors
A Gazette survey has highlighted the extent to which women solicitors feel unable to progress within the profession. The research also shows that a significant percentage of women believe they have personally been discriminated against during their legal career. The survey, completed ...
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Legal Services Commission cuts 100 jobs
The Legal Services Commission has made around 100 of its 1,500 staff, including some senior figures, redundant in a bid to cut costs, the ...
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Firms ignoring ABS impact are 'sticking their heads in sand'
Most solicitors will ‘survive and prosper’ in the revolutionised legal services market, but those who ignore the likely impact of alternative business structures (ABSs) are ‘sticking their heads in the sand’. That was the stark warning from David Taylor, chair of the Law Society’s membership ...
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High Court challenge to court closures
The High Court is set to hear the first of four legal challenges to magistrates’ courts closures, the Gazette has learned. A challenge to the closure of Sittingbourne Magistrates’ Court has been listed in May, and the High Court in Wales will list a hearing for ...
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Future uncertain for Community Legal Advice Centres
The closure of Portsmouth Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) could signal the end of the one-stop-shop model once hailed as the ‘key’ to civil legal aid, solicitors have suggested. Portsmouth CLAC closed on 31 March, at the end of its three-year contract. The Legal Services Commission ...
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MPs oppose legal aid cuts
Members of parliament have voiced opposition to the government’s proposed legal aid cuts, and warned that the cuts could lead to the closure of many legal advice centres. Fifty-one MPs responded to a survey conducted by consultancy DG Legal for campaign group Justice for All, including ...
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Growth remains 'anaemic' in top 50 law firms
The UK’s biggest law firms did not snap into sustained recovery over the past 12 months, experts told the Gazette, as the 2010/11 financial year drew to a close last week. On average, top-50 firms will report flat revenues and profits when they publish their 2010/11 ...
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Eversheds and DLA Piper lose employment tribunal cases
Two national firms have separately lost appeals in the employment tribunal over their redundancy selection procedures. Eversheds and DLA Piper lost cases at the Employment Appeals Tribunal this month. The EAT upheld an earlier ruling that Eversheds had sexually discriminated against ...
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Clifford Chance advises on Arsenal deal, General Electric aquisition and more
Chance on goal: Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised US businessman Stan Kroenke on acquiring Arsenal Football Club, valued at £730m, advised by magic circle firm Slaughter and May. Kroenke’s financial adviser, Deutsche Bank, was advised by City ...
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APIL warns of ‘dumbed down’ lawyers post-ABS
The new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) today warned of the emergence of a new breed of 'dumbed-down, legal-lite' lawyer following the introduction of alternative business structures. Addressing APIL's annual conference, David Bott (pictured) predicted that 'potentially massive' new entrants to ...
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New round of district judge appointments
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is to recruit 56 district judges over the next two to three years. This is the first time in more than two years that any district judge (civil) positions have been available. It is unlikely there will be another opportunity to ...
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Law Commission proposes new ‘Consumer Act’
Consumers are finding it too hard to win compensation for misleading and aggressive trading practices and the law must be reviewed, the Law Commission said today. Opening a consultation on the matter, the commission said that routes to redress for ripped-off consumers are 'difficult’ and ‘far ...
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Society announces election of deputy vice-president
Solicitor Nick Fluck will become Law Society deputy vice-president in July, and will become president in 2013, Chancery Lane announced today. Fluck, partner at Lincolnshire firm Stapleton & Son and a council member since 2005, will serve one year as deputy vice-president from July, followed by ...
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Big-hitters join Society’s Human Rights Committee
Seven new members have joined the Law Society's Human Rights Committee to help highlight, challenge and condemn human rights abuses across the world. They are: Immigration solicitor Shanti Faiia of City firm Laura Devine. Faiia was previously with the United Nations development programme and the Sri ...
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Legal Services Board reveals high level of ABS interest
The Legal Services Board has seen a high level of interest from banks and private equity houses in the run-up to the introduction of alternative business structures, its chair David Edmonds told the Gazette in an interview last week. Edmonds, who was reappointed for a further ...
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ASA rejects complaint about QualitySolicitors TV advert
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has rejected a complaint made by a Yorkshire firm about a television advert for law firm network QualitySolicitors. Williamsons in Hull had challenged the content of the advert, claiming that it was misleading. The advert showed an ...
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APIL’s new president pledges to campaign for rights of injured
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) will campaign with other claimant organisations against government plans to make injured people pay for legal fees out of their own compensation, the association’s new president will tell delegates at the APIL annual conference later this week. Bott & ...
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QualitySolicitors in WHSmith tie-up
QualitySolicitors has signed a deal with WHSmith enabling it to place a QS member of staff in 150 branches of the high street books and stationery giant, the Gazette can reveal. The deal will see QS open a ‘legal access point’ staffed by a local QS ...
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Employment lawyers see surge in disputes
Employment solicitors have seen a surge in clients seeking advice on work-related disputes, according to figures seen by the ...
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Dominic Grieve set for Minority Lawyers Conference
Attorney general Dominic Grieve and influential Islamic thinker Tariq Ramadan will join a line-up of high-profile speakers at tomorrow’s Minority Lawyers Conference at the Law Society in London. The biennial conference, organised jointly by the Law Society, Bar Council and Institute of Legal Executives, celebrates ...