All News articles – Page 1355
-
News
Dispute numbers decline as crash impact fades
New research shows that the number of commercial and civil disputes resolved in the UK through arbitration, mediation and adjudication fell sharply as the impact of the 2008 crash abated. The total fell from 27,110 in 2009 to 21,260 in 2011, according to figures contained ...
-
News
RTA Portal software may not be ready for deadline
The company running the expanded claims portal today admitted a significant setback in meeting the government’s April deadline for handling new types of claims. In a statement, RTA Portal Co revealed it will have to build the software for the extended system on the basis of ...
-
News
New model pioneers win ABS status
Two of the highest-profile flagbearers for new models of legal service ownership have won approval as alternative business structures. Knights Solicitors, owned by James Caan’s private equity vehicle Hamilton Bradshaw, and stock exchange-listed personal injury company Quindell Portfolio were both confirmed as ABSs by the Solicitors ...
-
News
What connects us: can the answer be human rights?
A rising tide of prosperity that floats all boats is no longer the glue that can hold our society together. Whatever the consensus was in the boom years around the greater good that could be derived from economic growth driven by personal atavism, to make the same argument at the ...
-
News
Hunting in the dock
The latest friends of the prime minister to have found themselves in the criminal dock are members of the Heythrop Hunt. This is Cameron’s local hunt in Oxfordshire, with which he rode half a dozen times before the Hunting Act in February 2005 made hunting with dogs unlawful. ...
-
News
Trainee retention figures hold up
Leading firms in England and Wales retained 79% of their trainees once they had qualified in 2012, new figures reveal. The Chambers Student guide surveyed 123 mostly commercial firms and found that 2,074 out of 2,620 trainees remained at their first firm. ...
-
News
SRA admits disappointment at COLP and COFA figures
Several hundred firms face having their authorisation revoked for failing to appoint acceptable compliance officers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today. In its first formal statement of disappointment at the profession’s response to the requirement to appoint compliance officers for legal practice and for finance ...
-
News
Global approach to family law
The reform of family law is a constant source of debate in the UK, and in France it is very much the same situation. For example, a French parliamentary vote expected in January on proposals to open up the institution of marriage to gay couples mirrors the current debate in ...
-
News
Create constitutional rights, not a new bill – Law Society
The Law Society has added its voice to those opposing the creation of a UK bill of rights. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, the Society’s president proposed instead that 'constitutional rights' be added to existing laws. In a statement published after the government’s Commission on a Bill of Rights ...
-
News
High threshold for offensive social media prosecutions
Crown Prosecution Service guidelines proposed today for the prosecution of cases involving communications sent via social media sites such as Twitter will give more latitude to offensive and satirical comment, the director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer QC said. The guidelines require prosecutors to distinguish ...
-
News
Commission: ‘strong argument in favour of a UK bill of rights’
The commission that has spent 21 months and £700,000 investigating the creation of a UK bill of rights has come out in favour of a bill that would ‘incorporate and build on all of the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)’. However, ...
-
News
Consolidation in the legal sector
Recent times have given us two interesting announcements in relation to current merger trends. First, Norton Rose said that it will merge with the US firm, Fulbright & Jaworski. This is set to make the merged firm join the top 10 law firms globally, both by revenue and number of ...
-
News
Yielding the greatest return?
I had a meeting with a potential client last week and, rightly so, the partners asked me to quantify the expected return on investment to them on costs of a particular marketing activity.
-
News
Law firms defy City gloom with 20,000 new hires
Employment at City law firms has grown by 20,000 in the space of a year, according to a new report. The annual health check on the UK’s financial and professional services industry by City cheerleader TheCityUK reveals that 339,700 people are now employed in legal services, ...
-
News
Stress tops lawyers’ concerns in 2012
Stress was the main reason lawyers called legal helpline LawCare in 2012, the charity’s statistics for the year revealed today. LawCare opened 378 case files last year, slightly down on the 392 opened in 2011. Stress continued to be the most common issue reported, cited by ...
-
News
2012 ‘record year for mergers’
More than a quarter of top-100 firms were involved in a merger in 2012, in what has been described as a record year for deals. Research by Jomati Consultants has found that 26 deals were announced by top-100 firms during the past 12 months. ...
-
News
PC renewals ‘relatively trouble free’ but 4,500 short
The deadline for solicitors to renew their practising certificates has passed with an estimated 4,500 applications still outstanding, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said today.
-
News
Working with deafness: access and ethics
Advances in attitudes towards the promotion of rights and equality for vulnerable and disabled populations have resulted in an increase in vulnerable client groups presenting to lawyers. When working with such populations, reasonable adjustments must be made to ensure that services are accessible and meet the individual needs of the ...
-
News
Can accountants change the legal sector?
The re-entry of the global accounting firms into the legal sector is one of the more eye-catching predictions in professor Richard Susskind’s latest book, published today, ‘Tomorrow’s Lawyers: an introduction to your future’.