All News articles – Page 1312
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News
Women trailing at magic circle elite
The magic circle’s commitment to diversity will again be called into question after the proportion of women making partner in 2013 fell below 20%. The quintet of UK-based firms appointed just 13 women worldwide out of a total of 73. In last year’s round, ...
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The dilemma of small claims
The struggle over the financial limits for small claims is an issue which is traditionally difficult for lawyer policymakers, because of the apparent conflict between public and private interests. The raising of personal injury claim levels in the UK has caused a fuss, and now the topic has appeared on ...
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Support for deaf clients
With Deaf Awareness Week taking place this week, the spotlight is being shone on those consumers who are Deaf and how legal advice can best be provided to them. In this context, research by the Royal Association for Deaf People’s (RAD) Deaf Law Centre (DLC) has revealed statistics that show ...
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Guidance for law firms collecting diversity data
The Law Society has published a guidance note to help firms collect and publish diversity data about their workforces. This year is the first that firms have been required to make their own arrangements. Last year the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) sent out an online questionnaire ...
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Contempt of court
Committal – Breach of injunction – Claimants publishing photographs on Facebook and Twitter in breach of injunction Attorney general v Harkins; Attorney general v Liddle: Queen's Bench Division: 26 April 2013 ...
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PI shake-up continues with two new takeovers
Contraction in the personal injury market has continued with the announcement of two new takeovers. North-west firm Antony Hodari has completed the purchase of litigation specialist Tandem Law through its AVH Legal trading arm. The acquisition was agreed with Tandem Law’s administrators ...
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Most criminal firms to snub PCT contracts
Only two of the 25 top-earning criminal legal aid firms will bid for a contract if the government’s current scheme for price-competitive tendering (PCT) is introduced – and more than half would support a boycott, a poll by the Gazette can exclusively reveal. The Gazette this ...
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E-learning and CPD
With cost, time, relevance and location identified as the major barriers to effective CPD, practitioners are increasingly looking to flexible online delivery to meet their professional development needs. But what are the pros and cons of training via webinars and e-learning, and how do you identify the best offerings in ...
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PCT plans risk creating a system of state-sponsored miscarriages of justice
by Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, shadow lord chancellor and justice secretary In these straitened economic times, savings must be found across the whole criminal justice system. But with the dust barely settled on the advice deserts created by the government’s brutal cuts to civil legal ...
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Grayling to face crime lawyers
The Law Society has secured two face-to-face meetings between criminal legal aid practitioners and justice secretary Chris Grayling to discuss government proposals for price-competitive tendering (PCT) and other contentious issues - the first such meetings of this kind. As the Gazette reported on Monday, most leading ...
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Deadline looming to stay on the roll, SRA warns
Solicitors without a practising certificate who wish to remain on the roll have six weeks left in which to apply online, the Solicitors Regulation Authority reminded the profession today. The deadline for applications is 18 June. According to the regulator, 26% of the estimated total of ...
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Insurance defendant firms to merge
Two national firms are merging to create a £90m defendant insurance litigation business with more than 1,200 staff. Dispute resolution firm Greenwoods is to join insurance firm Plexus Law under the umbrella of the £150m Parabis Law group. The two firms have already signed heads of ...
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Immigration, rehabilitation and deregulation reforms in Queen’s speech
As widely trailed, immigration and crime form key planks of the government’s legislative programme outlined in the Queen’s speech today.
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PCT: dumbing down
The Ministry of Justice wishes to remove the right of defendants to instruct the solicitor of their choice on the basis that ‘the removal of choice may reduce the extent to which firms offer services above (my emphasis) acceptable levels’. See paragraph 23 of the criminal litigation price competition impact ...
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Sweet dreams are made of this
Ever wondered why the legal profession is so productive? Research suggests that it is in part because lawyers daydream so much. A survey (sponsored, for some reason, by hotel firm Travelodge) reveals that lawyers top the list of daydreaming professionals. The research suggests that daydreaming improves ...
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Progress on gender equality remains glacial
Helen Grant MP is minister both for justice, and women and equalities. Who better then to have a word with the magic circle about their latest partner round. As we report today, only 13 of 73 appointments are women, less than 20%, an even smaller proportion than last time. Even ...
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Facebook and flexible friends
It’s been a time of contrast for the fortunes of women in the workforce. On the one hand, we had Nicola Mendelsohn. Who she? She’s the business high-flyer who is the antithesis of presenteeism. She’s flexible working personified. She is, to put it alliteratively, the three-day ...
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No minister, as quango sparks fly
A lovely spat is developing in Westminster as the government tries desperately to add another quango to its bonfire. The dispute started with the Ministry of Justice declaring it wanted rid of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, which monitors legal tribunals and ombudsman rulings, to ...
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Grayling’s JR reforms met with widespread opposition
Judicial review is a way of making sure that public officials, including ministers, keep within the law. So there must be cause for concern when we hear a minister announce reforms to judicial review that will ‘target the weak, frivolous and unmeritorious cases which congest the courts and cause delay’ ...
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Referral guidance
by Sukhbir Bassra and Amarveer Bassra The referral ban is now in force and there are hundreds of firms of solicitors looking for a way forward.