All News articles – Page 1390

  • News

    SRA opts for national minimum wage for trainees

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Regulators have voted to partially deregulate the trainee solicitor minimum wage 30 years after it was introduced. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority made the decision to change the terms of the salary immediately at its meeting today. The tailored solicitor minimum salary will be ...

  • News

    Trainee minimum wage to go

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Regulators have voted to scrap the trainee solicitor minimum wage 30 years after it was first introduced. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority made the decision to deregulate the salary immediately at its meeting today. The decision comes after a five-month ...

  • News

    Is economics useless?

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Is economics any use? That sounds like the start of a rant/ a joke/ or a quip in an after-dinner speech (all the easier to make as many economies, presumably advised by fine economic minds, struggle to recover and grow). So let me be more ...

  • News

    Wasted costs order over e-disclosure failures

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    When assessing litigation costs, the expense of collecting, analysing and reviewing information is a key consideration. Only by ensuring that these processes are completed accurately and efficiently can the cost of e-disclosure be effectively managed.

  • News

    HSBC deal ends conveyancing panel dispute

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Hundreds more firms will be able to work for HSBC mortgage clients and the bank after the lender agreed this week to expand its conveyancing panel to include all firms with the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) mark. The deal, announced today, follows a four-month campaign by the Law ...

  • News

    VAT breaks and nepotism on menu as French lawyers seek reform

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    The newly elected president of France could scrap VAT on legal fees for certain consumers and abolish a ‘nepotistic’ decree passed by the previous administration, the president of the Paris bar has told the Gazette. Christiane Feral-Schuhl, in London to visit the Law Society, also told ...

  • News

    Trainee minimum to stay, SRA board rules

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Regulators have voted to retain the trainee solicitor minimum wage 30 years after it was first introduced. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority made the decision to ignore calls for deregulation at its meeting today. The decision comes after a five-month consultation with the profession ...

  • News

    SRA sells out aspiring trainees

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Forget all the corporate blather about ‘partial deregulation’ - today the Solicitors Regulation Authority board chose to dump the minimum salary for trainee solicitors. It was a gutless, thoughtless and morally reprehensible decision, taken on flimsy grounds and with little or no debate. In passing on ...

  • News

    Trainee minimum to be abolished in two years

    2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

    Regulators have voted to scrap the trainee solicitor minimum wage 30 years after it was first introduced. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority made the decision to deregulate the salary at its meeting today. Full deregulation will be deferred for two years to minimise the ...

  • News

    Members of the legal profession should support Occupy

    2012-05-15T00:00:00Z

    by Melanie Strickland, a solicitor and Occupy Law UK We are all aware that our economic system brings misery, exploitation and death to a large number of people and other living beings.

  • News

    SRA in new compliance deadline setback

    2012-05-15T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to push back the date for approving compliance officers by two months. The SRA Board will vote tomorrow on extending the grace period for approving the new appointments to 31 December. As recently as last weekend, SRA chief executive Antony ...

  • News

    Complying with AML rules ‘upholds the profession’, symposium told

    2012-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Transactional lawyers were reminded of the importance of complying with anti-money laundering regulations in order to ‘uphold the profession’.

  • News

    Pecking at lawyers

    2012-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Displacement activity takes place when animals or humans are faced with a crisis and don’t know how to react. Apparently, birds peck at grass when uncertain whether to attack or flee from an opponent. So it is with governments, too. Confronted by an unprecedented crisis, they haven’t a clue what ...

  • News

    Fees on way back down to earth

    2012-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers’ annual conference last week, the master of the rolls Lord Neuberger expressed great confidence that a combination of the Jackson reforms, alternative business structures and client demand for fixed fees will mean that lawyer’s fees are almost certain to come down.

  • News

    HSBC campaign targets bank’s AGM

    2012-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors with HSBC shares have indicated that they will attend the bank’s annual general meeting next week to voice concerns over its conveyancing panel policy. The Law Society has set up an email address for solicitors considering attending so that they can be kept up to date with the Society’s ...

  • News

    Prepare for 50% fee cuts, says ‘end of lawyers’ professor

    2012-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Rapid change in the legal profession threatens everyone from in-house lawyers to large City firms, according to IT consultant Professor Richard Susskind. The former IT adviser to the lord chief justice told the Law Society Management Conference last week that the economic climate will force clients to seek out these ...

  • News

    Twitter twits

    2012-05-11T00:00:00Z

    Just why don’t lawyers get Twitter? This is a website with more than 300 million registered users worldwide, a figure that is growing all the time. It has extraordinary reach, allowing members to spread their own message or listen into what others are saying. It is, ...

  • News

    My first jumbo

    2012-05-11T00:00:00Z

    I was reading one of those booklets that get sent out by indemnity insurers to remind us how to avoid claims. Most of them are very good. They are readable and clear and will not give you too many nightmares. No one likes waking up in the middle of court ...

  • News

    Future is fixed billing - Neuberger

    2012-05-11T00:00:00Z

    Master of the rolls Lord Neuberger has warned that alternative business structures may sound the ‘death knell’ for hourly billing. Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers conference today, Neuberger said clients were increasingly put off by hourly billing and attracted by fixed fees. As well ...

  • News

    Justice and Security Bill faces a rough ride

    2012-05-11T00:00:00Z

    The Justice & Security Bill is to allow the courts, through the ‘limited use of closed proceedings’, to consider all material relating to a case without needing to disclose information that could risk national security. The government says its purpose is to ‘respond to the challenge ...