Latest news – Page 885
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Tories ponder ways to alleviate legal aid ‘crisis’
A contingency legal aid fund and private sector investment are among proposals being considered by the Conservatives to overhaul a legal aid system ‘in crisis’, shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve QC told the Gazette in an interview published today on our website.
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Social welfare boost
A quarter of a million more people will qualify for help with social welfare problems following a 5% rise in the cut-off threshold for civil legal aid, the Ministry of Justice announced last week. Lord Bach, legal aid minister, told the Advice Services Alliance conference in ...
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Fire forces move of tribunal hearings
Tribunal hearings at Field House, off Chancery Lane, will move to Taylor House, Rosebery Avenue for a ‘considerable time’ following a major fire last week. Some 75 firefighters and 15 appliances fought the blaze at the building, which houses asylum and immigration tribunals and the patents court. None of the ...
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Database survey warns of legal risks
People who take the government to the European Court of Human Rights for mishandling personal data should not have to risk paying the state’s costs if they lose, a landmark survey of government IT programmes said this week. Database State, published by the Joseph Rowntree ...
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BSB to revamp barristers’ code
The Bar Standards Board is to overhaul the barristers’ code of conduct to bring it into line with other regulatory instruments and create a set of ‘clear and user friendly’ professional rules. It will be the first structural change to the code since its introduction in 1981.
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Professional services get their own share index
The world’s first stockmarket index for professional services firms was launched this week at the City 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 in ...
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Sports sponsors, media moves and fashion sales
Bigger splash: British Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, announced a £15m sponsoring partnership with British Gas. In-house teams advised British Gas and British Swimming, while English governing body ASA was separately advised by Leicester firm BHW. Swim Wales was advised by Swansea ...
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Abbey panel consolidation – update
Abbey has declined to reinstate 542 law firm offices removed from its conveyancing panel but will be writing today (27 March) to all those affected by the consolidation exercise. All will have an opportunity to reapply to join a panel consolidating Abbey’s panel members with those of Alliance & Leicester, ...
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MoJ announces new wave of domestic violence courts
Eighteen specialist courts are to open to help victims of domestic violence, the Ministry of Justice has announced. The new courts, in eastern England, East Midlands, London, the north-east, north-west, south-west, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside will take the total of specialist domestic violence courts to 122. ...
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Pro bono winners urged to apply for costs
The former attorney general has urged pro bono lawyers to use new legislation to apply for costs when they win a case, to support wider access to justice. Lord Goldsmith told City Law School’s pro bono fair that lawyers doing pro bono cases can apply for costs orders under section ...
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Chancery Lane dismisses NHS ‘cash cow’ claim
The Law Society has taken issue with a Sunday Times report alleging that fee-hungry lawyers use the NHS as a ‘£100m cash cow’ in making compensation claims. Chief executive Des Hudson (pictured) said the best way for the NHS Litigation Authority to pare legal costs ...
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Clifford Chance freezes pay
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance today (31 March) announced a pay freeze for all lawyers and business services staff worldwide. Around 3,800 lawyers will be affected, across the firm’s 30 global offices. In a statement, Clifford Chance said it will hold salaries ...
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LDPs go live
The revolution in legal services provision heralded by the 2007 Legal Services Act officially gets under way this week with the advent of legal disciplinary practices. For the first time, law firms can be owned by different types of lawyers, and a proportion of non-lawyers. ...
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[April spoof] Bankers to be fast-tracked into law
[1 April 2009 spoof story] city law firms have welcomed government plans to fast-track redundant investment bankers into the solicitors’ profession. Under what the Ministry of Justice is calling ‘Fast Track to Success’, former bankers are to undergo a month’s intensive legal tuition before sitting examinations ...
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Solicitors more trusted than barristers
Solicitors are the most trusted of the white-collar professions, according to a survey carried out for the Bar Standards Board (BSB).
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FSA proposes greater client account protection
Client money held in solicitors’ bank accounts could be given far greater protection in the event of a bank collapse, under changes proposed by the Financial Services Authority. The FSA is suggesting increasing the upper limit of compensation for ‘temporary high balances’, which includes money held ...
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Baker & McKenzie to cut staff in London
US firm Baker & McKenzie is to axe up to 85 staff in London, including between 20 and 30 lawyers, as part of a new redundancy consultation. The firm is also anticipating a pay freeze and scrapping its all-staff bonus. Gary Senior, London managing partner, ...
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Don't overreact to downturn, says professional services group
Law firms operating in the UK will fall behind firms in foreign markets unless specific regulatory burdens are lifted, according to government officials and law firm chiefs. In its first report, submitted to Chancellor Alistair Darling this week, the Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group (PSGC) ...
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Chancery Lane seeks tax concession
The Law Society has warned that taxing law firms on work they have yet to be paid for could result in small practices getting into financial trouble. President Paul Marsh has written to HM Revenue & Customs asking the authority to suspend the UITF 40 ...
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Stifling information damages democracy
Sarah Webb is wrong to say there is no problem with costs in publication proceedings (see [2009] Gazette, 5 March, 10).