All News articles – Page 1293
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News
Society condemns ‘plain wrong’ criticism of legal aid stance
Amid growing anger among some criminal solicitors and a call for a special general meeting of the Law Society to vote on its proposed alternatives to the government’s legal aid reforms, the Law Society today hit back against claims that it has ‘sold out’ to the Ministry of Justice. ...
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LETR – jobs for the boys
Maybe I’m just a cynical old hack, but does anyone else think that the long-awaited, much-delayed final report of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) is focused more on safeguarding long-term jobs for the regulators than on improving the education and training of lawyers? Everywhere ...
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News
Lord Young shuns meeting with profession’s regulator
Lord Young of Graffham turned down an offer to meet with the solicitors’ regulator in advance of his report on health and safety and the ‘compensation culture’, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. The SRA said it had ‘offered to engage’ with Young during the research ...
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News
PEP breaks £1m mark at Stewarts Law
Average profit per equity partner at litigation firm Stewarts Law broke through the £1m mark last year, according to 2012/13 financial results released today. Revenue jumped 27% to £45.2m, with profit rising to £20.5m from £15.8m. PEP was £1.1m, up from around £800,000 the previous ...
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The SRA's catch-22
It doesn’t seem like a week can go by without the Solicitors Regulation Authority making a jaw-dropping revelation. First it was ‘You will have to sell the family silver to fund interventions’, then ‘You’ll have to find a bit more down the sofa to cover the ...
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News
Outstanding achievement award for legal aid battler Bhatt
Raju Bhatt, the founder of London civil liberties firm Bhatt Murphy, received the award for outstanding achievement at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards last night. Accepting the award on behalf of his firm and colleagues, and dedicating it to his clients’ continuing eligibility ...
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News
Grayling promises second consultation on legal aid – but sets red lines
The Ministry of Justice will publish a second ‘short’ consultation on its ‘finalised’ legal aid proposals in September before ‘pressing on’, the justice secretary announced this morning. Giving evidence to the House of Commons justice committee, Chris Grayling said: ‘We will move shortly to bring forward ...
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Public still sees lawyers as ‘arrogant’
Regulation of legal services is not working to promote public trust in the profession as lawyers continue to be perceived as accountable only to themselves, new research has suggested. Surveys carried out by the Legal Services Board found a perception that legal professionals are not answerable ...
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News
City firm Rohrer closed by SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has closed City firm Rohrer & Co following an intervention, citing ‘reason to suspect dishonesty’. The SRA said today that Rohrer, based in Finsbury Square, London, had failed to comply with the SRA Principles and Code of Conduct under the Administration of ...
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News
Solicitors warned over RTA Portal registration
Solicitors have been warned they risk running out of time if they delay registering for the extended online claims portal. From 31 July employers’ and public liability claims will be brought into the RTA Portal with fixed fees for practitioners in those areas. ...
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News
Lasting powers of attorney applications go on web
An online tool designed to eliminate errors in the application process for lasting powers of attorney (LPA) has gone live today. Currently, almost a fifth of applications received by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), which manages the LPA scheme, contain mistakes. ...
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News
Grayling's rethink highlights benefits of constructive feedback
by Richard Miller, head of legal aid, Law Society The lord chancellor’s serious and very welcome change of heart is only the beginning of extensive discussions around the future of criminal legal aid.
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News
Profits rise in ‘turbulent year’ for Field Fisher Waterhouse
Profits at City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse rose 8% to £18.3m for the ‘turbulent’ financial year 2012/13. Revenues dropped by 2.5% to £95m for the year to 5 April. Average profit per equity partner was also down, by 2% to £402,000. The ...
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News100 years old and still on the roll
Early birthday greetings to George EC Smith, admitted in 1927, and who next week celebrates his 100th birthday, still on the roll. According to his son Charles (also a solicitor), Smith practised law with his uncle, Henry Parfitt, who admitted him into partnership in 1948 at Minet May & Co ...
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News
Centre 70 volunteers
Some years ago the Gazette kindly printed a letter from me about Centre 70, which provides free advice on housing, benefits, debt and other issues, serving a wide area of south London. As a result we recruited someone to join our team of volunteer lawyers who provide free legal advice ...
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News
Anger as MoJ accused of deleting legal aid consultation responses
The Ministry of Justice has claimed that an ‘email glitch’ is to blame for many barristers and solicitors receiving a message telling them that their response to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation has been ‘deleted unread’. The Gazette, together with the Law Society, Bar Council and other practitioner groups, have ...
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News
City lawyers join fight against legal aid cuts – finally
City law firms have joined the attack on the government’s legal aid cuts, warning that they ‘pose a potentially irreversible risk to the standards and reputation of English justice’. In a letter to the Law Society, the chairman of the City of London Law Society Alasdair Douglas criticised the ‘grossly ...
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MASS calls for blanket inducements ban
The group representing RTA claimant solicitors has said it is ‘disappointed’ that inducements for claims will not be banned. Last week the Solicitors Regulation Authority stated there was no reason to outlaw cash or gift enticements to potential claimants. The Motor Accident Solicitors Society today entered the debate and called ...
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News
Psychic's libel battle ends in victory
Who? Graham Atkins, 46, founding partner of media specialists Atkins Thomson.Why is he in the news? Represented psychic Sally Morgan in her successful libel action against the publisher of the Daily Mail. The newspaper had accused her of using a hidden earpiece during a Dublin show to receive instructions from ...
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News
Birmingham Law Centre closes as cash runs out
Britain’s second city is without a law centre following the closure of Birmingham Law Centre last week. Cashflow problems and the anticipated fall in legal aid funding led the trustees to shut down the service, which is descended from bodies that have offered free legal advice for nearly a century. ...