All News articles – Page 1296
-
News
Coats gets key role at new Legal Aid Agency
Matthew Coats, chief executive of the Legal Services Commission, has been appointed to a key role at the new agency that will bring legal aid under the wing of the Ministry of Justice, the lord chancellor has announced.
-
News
Up against it
Conspiracy theorists may want to take a seat for this one. The Association of British Insurers hosts its annual motor conference next month, with some eye-catching people on the agenda. Chair of the event is Susanna Reid, co-presenter of BBC Breakfast. No doubt she will recuse ...
-
News
Another PI firm goes into administration
Personal injury firm Calibre Solicitors has been placed into administration resulting in 14 people being made redundant.
-
News
MP accuses QCs on tax avoidance
MPs have turned their attention to lawyers who advise promoters of tax avoidance schemes. In a report examining marketed tax avoidance schemes, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) identifies ‘leading lawyers’, along with banks and accountancy firms, as supporting and advising on tax avoidance ...
-
News
Lawyer jailed for £20m sham marriage scam
A London solicitor has been jailed for 10 years for running a £20m sham marriage scam. Tevfick Souleiman (pictured), partner at north London firm Souleiman GA Solicitors, and immigration advisers Cenk Guclu and Furrah Kosimov, were found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of conspiracy to ...
-
News
Plantagenet poltergeist?
Spooky tales from Leicester firm Denham Foxon & Watchorn. Its offices are famous for strange sightings and mysterious noises, and on wintry evenings solicitor Christl Hughes says her waste paper basket has been known to move of its own accord. Mice? Possibly. But Obiter is intrigued by another suggestion. ...
-
News
Wales says no to separation – for now
Wales will not have a separate legal jurisdiction for at least a decade, the country’s first minister confirmed today. Carwyn Jones (pictured) said the estimated £1.2bn cost of devolving the entire criminal justice system would put too much pressure on the Welsh budget. ...
-
News
Welsh law-making powers
by Theo Huckle QC, counsel general for Wales An event of considerable constitutional significance took place in the Supreme Court recently. It may have passed largely unnoticed outside Wales (and, to some extent, within Wales), but its implications for the law in Wales and England, as ...
-
News
Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 20 February 2003Fixed fees fights Solicitors could find themselves embroiled in a new wave of hostility and test litigation over costs if there is no progress on extending fixed fees to post-issue. The warning comes as the government begins work on introducing ...
-
News
Neuberger speaks out on judicial review
The president of the Supreme Court has expressed concern about the government’s plans to limit the number of judicial reviews. Giving evidence to the House of Lords constitution committee last week, Lord Neuberger said: ‘Any attack on judicial review, or any attempt to limit it, ...
-
News
Impact of wellbeing on performance
Two phenomena are affecting the legal world; productivity and talent retention. The Gazette has widely reported on increasing cost-pressures for high street firms (practising certificate price rises, cuts to public funding for legal aid), as well as talent retention (both lawyers and support staff) in firms both large and small.
-
News
Lawyers slam Theresa May’s ‘populism’ on immigration
Immigration lawyers have rejected Theresa May’s ‘populist’ assertion that judges are misinterpreting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and wrongfully allowing overseas offenders to escape deportation. The home secretary (pictured) has claimed that the courts are wilfully going against parliament’s wishes by refusing to ...
-
News
Freedom of information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) does not just require public authorities to disclose information they hold but also information that is held on their behalf (section 3(2)). Local authorities are increasingly outsourcing management of services to the private sector. Such arrangements are often scrutinised by interested parties making ...
-
News
Firms warming to outcomes-focused regulation, says the SRA
Firms believe outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) ‘costs too much money and takes too much time’ – but they are warming to it, the Solicitors Regulation Authority reports today. A survey of 1,000 firms on the impact of the first year of OFR shows that half of respondents ...
-
News
No mean feet
The high-end firms and corporate counsel who rely on slices of Barclays’ £100m annual legal spend will be poring over the bank’s strategic review, published last week. Obiter’s message is: put down the 103-page report, cast your eyes away from the PowerPoint graphs and read the code with us. ...
-
News
Fears grow for missing Syrian lawyer
Fears are mounting for Syrian human rights lawyer Khalil Matouk, who has been held incommunicado at an unknown location since his arrest last October, an independent human rights organisation has told the Gazette.
-
News
LETR report not expected until May
Publication of the final Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) report, originally due at the end of last year, is now not expected until May, the Gazette has learned. The LETR report, commissioned by the Bar Standards Board, ILEX Professional Standards and the Solicitors Regulation ...
-
News
Find-A-Lawyer, EU-style
The European budget discussions which ended just over a week ago might have left you puzzled as to whether EU funds impact lawyers. Do you benefit, and if so how? Here is a little insight into how a tiny part of the cash has been used to help the legal ...