All News articles – Page 1249
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News
Stobart director gains licence for solicitor ABS as ‘final piece in the jigsaw’
Trevor Howarth, legal director of Stobart Barristers, has been granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a company he set up with an employment barrister, he confirmed today. The SRA has licensed One Legal, a company set up by Howarth and employment barrister Tim Edge ...
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Liverpool pioneer Betty Behn dies at 95
A service will take place tomorrow to celebrate the life of Betty Behn, one of Liverpool’s first women solicitors, who has died at the age of 95. Betty Behn joined the firm John A.Behn, Twyford & Reece in 1935 where she served five years articles. She qualified as a solicitor ...
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60 lawyers to go at global giant
A US law firm with a significant presence in London has confirmed it is making 170 redundancies worldwide. Top 20 global firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges told staff in a mass email that 60 lawyers were being cut along with 110 support staff. A spokesman for the firm declined to ...
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MoJ contracts reviewed as G4S referred to SFO
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has asked the Serious Fraud Office to investigate contractor G4S after telling parliament that it and rival Serco had overcharged the government by ‘tens of millions of pounds’ for tagging criminals. Grayling said the firms had charged the government for tagging people who were in prison, ...
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Profits soar by 32% at TLT
Profits at national firm TLT soared by 32% to £7.4m in 2012 – on turnover up 11.6% to £49.6m, according to financial results released today. Profit per equity partner rose 7.5% to £274,00. Last year TLT merged with Scottish firm Anderson ...
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News
SRA’s 2013 diversity data collection system goes live
Firms can now report their workforce diversity data, including sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and gender, through a new online facility on mySRA, the Solicitors Regulation Authority announced today. Collection of this data is a Legal Services Board requirement to promote transparency and diversity in the legal services market, the SRA ...
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Portal extension rules published – with just 14 working days to go
The Ministry of Justice has finally published the rules that will frame the long-awaited extension of the online claims portal – just 14 working days before the new arrangements come in to force. The 65th update to the Civil Procedure Rules extends the low-value personal injury scheme for RTAs to ...
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Marching for Legal Pride
The legal profession came out in force to celebrate Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) diversity for Legal Pride 2013. Legal bodies marched in London under the banner ‘Equality under the Law’ to promote LGBT rights. Members of the Law Society, Bar Council, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Interlaw Diversity ...
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‘Spectacular’ threat to judges
The lord chief justice has warned that the ‘spectacular’ constitutional changes of the last government could pose future threats to judicial independence. In a speech at Mansion House, London, Lord Judge warned of the need for vigilance against ‘totally unintended little steps, which might, long term, serve to undermine the ...
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Simulated insecurity
A break-out session at last week’s SRA event on risk involved solicitors, consultants and the Gazette’s own reporter voting with Millionaire-style keypads on a series of options for the future of a hypothetical mid-sized firm. The group started out risk-averse, opting out of investing in a service advising on Scottish ...
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Free trade legal impact ‘will be small’
Free trade talks opening today between the EU and US are likely to end with agreements to open legal services – but lawyers in England and Wales will notice little difference in practice. Ambitions for a free trade agreement were announced at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland last month. ...
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Raising an eyebrow or two
At Obiter Towers we could barely bring ourselves to watch last week’s Apprentice, shorn as it was of Dynamo Legal founder ‘I’m from Wales’ Alex Mills. We’ll be especially disappointed by his absence from this week’s interview stage, if his final exchange with Lord Sugar was anything to go by. ...
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RTA claims plummet following fees cut
New RTA claims fell dramatically in the first month following the cut in solicitors’ fixed fees. Figures collected by Claims Portal Ltd show 53,895 claims notification forms opened during May. That was a fall of 31% from April and down almost 25% in comparison with the same month in 2012. ...
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Lawyers shocked by money laundering claim
Lawyers have reacted with concern to an inter-governmental report apparently suggesting that complicity in money laundering and terrorist financing is rife in the legal sector. Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Vulnerabilities of Legal Professionals, published by the Financial Action Task Force, a body set up by seven leading economies, presents ...
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PI firms warned off medical cases
Leading clinical negligence lawyers have warned of the risks arising from growing numbers of personal injury practitioners moving into their sector. Legal consultancy Zebra last week reported a tenfold increase in enquiries about setting up or expanding medical negligence cases since the beginning of the year. The majority of those ...
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News
Lawyer’s bank warning ‘ignored’
Lawyers at the Financial Services Authority ignored a finance lawyer’s written warnings over the alleged inappropriate sale of derivatives products to small and medium-sized businesses two years before accusations of widespread mis-selling amounting to billions were made public, a Gazette roundtable was told this week. Stuart Brothers, founder of SRB ...
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Turkish lawyers harassed, arrested and detained
Dozens of Turkish lawyers arrested 18 months ago have been subjected to ‘excessively punitive’ treatment by state authorities, with 15 of the 46 still detained in prison, an international delegation of lawyers reports. The trial of the 46 has been consistently delayed, with three-month gaps between one-day hearings, ‘causing extreme ...
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School leavers offered apprenticeship
School leavers seeking a route into the profession are being offered a legal services apprenticeship in a partnership between the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) and Manchester Metropolitan University Law School. The scheme will provide legal services apprenticeships at more than a dozen regional firms including Pannone, Weightmans and ...
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Appeal to ‘your majesty’ that paid off
Even in the midst of their fight against further cuts, legal aid lawyers allow themselves an evening to celebrate achievements. Yes, last week saw the 11th Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards – the legal aid equivalent of the Oscars, though with fewer tears. The glittering evening at Shakespeare’s ...