Latest news – Page 849
-
News
Gazette reporter wins Bar Council award
Gazette reporter Jonathan Rayner has won the print category of this year’s Bar Council awards for outstanding legal reporting. He received the accolade for a piece published on 5 March that addressed his son’s mental illness and journey through the health and justice ...
-
News
Denton Wilde Sapte reports increase in fee income
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte has emerged as the top performer among firms that have reported half-year financial results so far, as the only firm to increase its fee income. Revenues at the firm for the six months to October rose 3.5% to £87.7m, up from ...
-
News
Unpaid volunteers not covered by discrimination legislation
Volunteers who give their time unpaid to charities are not covered by domestic or European equal treatment legislation designed to protect employees, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled. The ruling arose from a claim brought by a citizens advice bureau volunteer who alleged she had ...
-
News
‘Dire need’ for solicitors to undertake pro bono work
There is a ‘dire need’ for solicitors to undertake pro bono work, legal aid minister Lord Bach admitted this week. Addressing Monday’s joint national pro bono conference in London, which kicked off National Pro Bono Week, Bach suggested there should be a ‘professional expectation’ ...
-
News
Flint Bishop finds marketing success with affiliate partnerships
A Midlands firm has come up with an innovative way to market online legal services ahead of the more competitive environment heralded by the Legal Services Act 2007. Flint Bishop has set up what it calls an ‘affiliate partnership’ distribution channel, whereby it targets organisations with ...
-
News
Scrapping single renewal date for PII 'improbable', claims SRA
A move to scrap the single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) in 2010 is ‘improbable,’ the Solicitors Regulation Authority said this week. The SRA also warned that any shift to staggered renewals ‘will not in itself significantly alter the overall dynamics of the market’. ...
-
News
Law Society Council considers 'useful' Hunt review
Law Society president Robert Heslett last week praised Lord Hunt’s ‘very useful’ review of legal services regulation, welcoming the Tory peer’s core proposal for self-governance for firms that meet robust levels of internal compliance.
-
News
Call for better career information for law students
The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) called for law students to be given better information about their career prospects to avoid disappointment as the number of people choosing a law degree hit a new high. Provisional figures from UCAS, the organisation that runs the university and college ...
-
News
LCS braced for deluge of Scottish equal pay cases
A deluge of impending complaints over Scottish equal pay cases handled by the UK’s most prolific equal pay lawyer could swamp the Legal Complaints Service if they are sent across the border to England, the Gazette has learned.The complaints relate to compensation agreements drawn up by a law firm run ...
-
News
Mid-tier corporate firms see profits plummet
Partner profits have plummeted by more than a quarter among a large swath of corporate firms as ‘acute pricing pressure’ and a fall in work take their toll on the bottom line, according to research by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers published today. The PwC annual law firm benchmarking ...
-
News
Legal Services Board launches consumer panel
The Legal Services Board has unveiled its eight-strong consumer panel to represent the interests of individual and business consumers in England and Wales. The LSB said that the independent panel will help it develop a ‘sharper focus’ on consumers’ interests across the legal services sector, and enhance access to justice.
-
News
Call for change to libel laws
English libel law imposes unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on free speech, sending a ‘chilling’ effect through the publishing and journalism sectors in the UK, according to an inquiry into libel law by two free speech charities. As a result of their findings, published today, Index on ...
-
News
CPS rolls out national telephone charging service
The Crown Prosecution Service and Association of Chief Police Officers today announced the nationwide roll-out of a telephone charging advice service for police. From January, the existing CPS Direct service, which provides advice to police when charging suspects out of hours, will be expanded across ...
-
News
LSB consumer panel to examine referral fees
The Legal Services Board’s new consumer panel will examine referral fees as the very first item on its agenda when it meets for the first time later this month, the Gazette has learned. The news comes after the Law Society’s council last week voted overwhelmingly in ...
-
News
Eversheds reports fall in turnover
National firm Eversheds today reported a 6% fall in half-year turnover but said it is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that its performance will improve. Revenues for the six months to October 31 stood at £178m, down from £188m for the same period in 2007/08. ...
-
News
Fee income falls at Simmons
Fee income at City firm Simmons & Simmons fell by 16% in the first half of the financial year, the firm reported today. The drop, to £120.3m in the six months to 31 October, from £143.5m over the same period in 2008/09, was blamed on the ...
-
News
Rise in number of intellectual property disputes
Intellectual property (IP) disputes in the High Court jumped by a third last year, according to recently released judicial statistics. At 562, the number of IP disputes in 2008 represents a significant increase over the 422 in 2007, and around two and a half times the ...
-
News
Revenues down at Allen & Overy
Half-year revenues at magic circle firm Allen & Overy fell by 7% as the City giant became the first to announce its financial performance results over the past six months. Revenues fell from £548m to £511m during the six months to 31 October. More than half ...
-
News
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte increases turnover
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte grew turnover 3.5% over the half-year, and said that it has met its revenue forecast. Revenue for the first half of the 2009/10 financial year was £87.7m, compared with £84.7m over the first half of the 2008/09 year. ...
-
News
Prosecutors should explain sentences to victims, says attorney general
The attorney general has said prosecutors should explain sentences to victims and has issued revised guidelines on plea and sentencing. Speaking to a conference of Crown Prosecution Service Crown advocates – qualified CPS lawyers in the Crown court - as their superintending minister, Lady Scotland (pictured) ...