Latest news – Page 838
-
News
Tories will halt roll out of best value tendering, says Grieve
A Conservative government would suspend the national rollout of best value tendering (BVT) to enable a proper evaluation of the controversial new scheme, the shadow justice secretary announced last week. Dominic Grieve QC said that pilots due to begin in Greater Manchester and Avon and ...
-
News
Solicitors alarmed at links between Bereavement Advice Centre and probate firm
Financial links between a not-for-profit advice organisation and a probate services company have come under fire from solicitors. The Bereavement Advice Centre publishes a website with the subtitle ‘What to do when someone dies’. Solicitors say that the organisation’s leaflets publicising a helpline promoting BAC’s commercial ...
-
News
Client-matching website takes aim at claims handling firms
A solicitor has launched a website to bring together prospective clients and solicitors who will take on their cases in an attempt to drive claims handlers out of the process. The Law Bazaar, set up by Costas Andrea (pictured), who practised as an international litigator for ...
-
News
Kent local authority legal teams join forces
Three mid-Kent local authorities are to join forces in a shared legal services project that aims to save more than £250,000 a year. Under the new model, legal staff at Swale, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells borough councils will remain based at their authorities but support ...
-
News
Birmingham courts pilot Jackson review’s cost management model
Judges in two of Birmingham’s business courts have begun trialling Lord Justice Jackson’s concept of ‘costs management’. The pilot in the Mercantile and Technology and Construction Courts aims to test whether judges can actively control costs throughout a case. In his ...
-
News
Law Society plans new branding campaign
The Law Society is building upon last year’s £450,000 advertising and public relations programme with a new campaign to promote the brand of solicitor to the public. Last year’s campaign, which ran from early May to late June 2008, carried the strapline ‘Your solicitor, qualified ...
-
News
Pro bono lawyers celebrate awards
City firm Taylor Wessing won the award for best contribution by a law firm at LawWorks’ annual pro bono awards. The firm was recognised for its ‘commitment and enthusiasm to investing in the community’, particularly through its work organising and staffing a weekly legal advice ...
-
News
Online database identifies serial employment tribunal litigants
Serial litigants whose employment tribunal claims are costing employers and taxpayers millions of pounds in defence costs and court time are to be targeted through a new database. Solicitor Gordon Turner of Partners Employment Lawyers and barrister Damian McCarthy of Cloisters chambers have set up ...
-
News
Judicial hurdles hamper recovery of looted assets, says transparency group
International efforts to block the looting of poor countries by corrupt governments are hampered by the lack of a single body to combat money laundering in the UK, according to a government-sponsored study. Combating money laundering and recovering looted gains, by Transparency International, calls on the government to fund asset-recovery ...
-
News
Private equity firms target legal sector
Private equity firms are in ‘advanced negotiations’ over taking short-term stakes in leading law firms once they are allowed to do so, according to the peer in charge of reviewing legal regulation on behalf of the Law Society. ‘The figures they are talking about are astronomical,’ said Lord Hunt of ...
-
News
Bank shares, education and property management deals
Barclays disposal: The London office of US firm Shearman & Sterling advised the Abu Dhabi government-owned International Petroleum Investment Company on disposing of 1.3 billion shares in Barclays bank – around 13.5% of Barclays’ share capital. Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised Barclays.
-
News
Solicitor loses appeal against insider trading jail sentence
A solicitor jailed after the Financial Services Authority’s first criminal prosecution for insider dealing lost his appeal against sentence last week. Christopher McQuoid, 40, former general counsel at TTP Communications, and his father-in-law, James Melbourne, 74, were both found guilty of one count of insider dealing ...
-
News
Income rises but profits fall at Field Fisher Waterhouse
City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse today reported an 8% increase in revenues, but predicted that profits would be down on last year. The firm’s turnover increased from £88m in 2007/08 to £95m for the year ended 30 April 2009. The firm did not release a figure ...
-
News
ECJ trademark ruling deals blow to ‘lookalike’ products
The European Court of Justice has extended protection for trademarks in the EU in a judgment in L’Oréal v Bellure today. The claimants, cosmetics manufacturers L’Oréal, Lancôme, and Laboratoire Garnier, accused the defendants, Bellure, Malaika Investments and Starion International, of ...
-
News
Some court costs to rise in civil fee reform
Changes to 30 types of civil court fee will come into effect on 13 July. The Ministry of Justice said the changes are aimed at targeting taxpayers’ money more effectively while helping those in financial difficulty. Several fees will rise. For example, the fee for sending a bailiff to collect ...
-
News
Solicitors and barristers unite to fight BVT ‘reverse auction’
The Law Society and Bar Council have joined forces to warn that access to justice will be reduced if the government ‘ploughs on with its reckless approach’ to best value tendering (BVT). The two bodies, together with the Criminal Bar Association, issued a joint statement as ...
-
News
Cuts, freezes and sabbaticals mooted at top-100 firms
Top law firms are re-evaluating their staffing policies by introducing more flexible working to avoid making redundancies, according to research by Sweet & Maxwell. The legal information provider found firms are introducing more flexibility, offering sabbaticals, retraining and part-time working to their employees.
-
News
Charles Plant named as SRA’s next chair
Charles Plant has been appointed chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board. The Herbert Smith consultant will take up his post on 1 January 2010, taking over from Peter Williamson. The appointment was made by a panel of five, chaired by Elizabeth Filkin, the former parliamentary commissioner for standards. ...
-
News
Norton Rose looks east with Australia merger
City firm Norton Rose is to merge with Australian firm Deacons to create the 1800-lawyer Norton Rose Group, the firms announced today. Once the merger comes into force on 1 January 2010, the new firm will have an estimated combined turnover of £420m, with 29 offices ...
-
News
Slaughter and May slammed over £22m bill
Magic circle firm Slaughter and May was accused of running up an ‘astronomical bill’ to the Treasury by a Liberal Democrat peer today. The firm received £22m in legal fees for work relating to ‘financial stability’ in the financial year 2008-09, according to Liberal Democrat research. ...