All News articles – Page 1377
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News
McKinnon solicitor is Legal Personality of the Year
Karen Todner, the London solicitor who represented ‘Pentagon hacker’ Gary McKinnon, received a standing ovation as she collected the Law Society Gazette’s Legal Personality of the Year award at last night’s Law Society Excellence awards ceremony. Todner (pictured) has been at the forefront of high-profile extradition ...
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Fund will assume risks of ABSs, says MoJ
The solicitors’ compensation fund will take on the risks of alternative business structures indefinitely following the shelving of plans for a separate fund, the ...
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Townsend admits light touch for new ABSs
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has made a conscious decision not to place too many conditions on new alternative business structures (ABSs), its leader has revealed. Chief executive Antony Townsend said the terms of the licence had deliberately been kept simple for the 33 entities that have ...
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Advancing the case for swift action
In January, the Gazette published an article by me about the Stop Delaying Justice initiative which was introduced that month. Responses were invited. Last month, the Gazette sent me about a dozen emails from defence solicitors. They all make good points. I am grateful, particularly to those who managed to ...
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Ale and hearty
Forget all those promotional pens and desktop toys, and never mind primetime TV: why not promote your firm’s name through a properly convivial medium? Somerset firm Amicus Law has done that by commissioning its own real ale – Amicus Ale – through the efforts of ...
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Bankruptcy tourism
Any English judge sitting regularly in the personal insolvency jurisdiction is likely, at one time or another, to have considered a debtor’s petition in which all the listed debts were incurred in a foreign country, in a foreign currency and, usually, to foreign creditors. The currency was probably the euro, ...
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Eversheds pioneers ‘big data’ for clients
National firm Eversheds says it is the first law firm to offer its clients ‘big data’ techniques to help them understand competitors’ business strategies and avoid major risks. Big data is an IT industry buzz phrase for the analysis of very large sets of data ...
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Just business
Once again the profession is tying itself in knots over pro bono work, in effect fiddling while Rome burns (‘Should pro bono be compulsory?’).
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Costs caps and multiple parties
In recent years, the Patents County Court (PCC), in particular through the efforts of Judge Colin Birss QC, has taken great strides to make IP litigation more affordable and accessible for smaller businesses. A key provision at its disposal is a cap on the costs which a party may be ...
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Poor nations need help now over climate change
Former Ireland president Mary Robinson is right to advocate helping those in need due to the very real effects of climate change.
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Roundtable: the changing role of corporate counsel
In-house lawyers in commerce and industry operate in a landscape that has changed hugely since the turn of the millennium. This new terrain has been shaped by across-the-board growth in the demands of regulators, investors and legislators worldwide, and by an increased sensitivity to litigation risks.
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Reality check
Do we have any sympathy with the comments of the solicitor judge whose name was withheld on request, bemoaning the changes to the pension regime for the judiciary? I think not.
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Top firms risk collapse, US economist warns
The very largest corporate law firms are wedded to an unsustainable business model designed around support for their own massive overheads, one of the US’s leading general counsel has warned, predicting more collapses like that of US firm Dewey LeBoeuf. Michael Trotter, now with US firm ...
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Degree of discipline at party conference
Party conferences are difficult things for the majority parliamentary party. You have to rouse the faithful but the course of government is already set. One moment of temptation – by applause or a headline – and some department is stuck with an initiative that went down a storm in ...
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Hudson warning over failure to modernise conveyancing
Failure to computerise the conveyancing process could damage the UK economy, the chief executive of the Law Society has told a United Nations conference. Speaking at a UN Economic Commission for Europe event on the role of land registration in economic recovery, Desmond Hudson (pictured) ...
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Study recommends shift in CPD provision
The annual requirement for 16 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) should not be extended and could even be lowered, according to a report commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The Nottingham Law School study also says law firms should have to contribute to the ...
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Are DBAs a viable option in personal injury?
As personal injury lawyers prepare to kiss goodbye to recoverability of after-the-event insurance premiums and success fees in conditional fee agreements from next April, so they will be waving hello to the new kid in town, the damages-based agreement. Will DBAs prove to be the hero of the hour, rescuing ...
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Osborne's employee plan is flawed
by Richard Fox, head of employment law at City firm Kingsley Napley and chair of the Employment Lawyers Association It was a complete surprise to most people when, at the beginning of last week, George Osborne announced to the Conservative party conference, a plan to introduce ...
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Litigant in person ‘not entitled to indulgence’
The Court of Appeal has told a self-represented litigant that his lack of legal understanding does not entitle him to ‘extra indulgence’. The finding will comfort solicitors facing a soaring number of self-represented opponents. Peter Elliott, who claims to be ...