All News articles – Page 1491

  • News

    Clyde & Co and BLG give merger details

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Management at City firms Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert have revealed details of their forthcoming merger after partners gave their backing last week. The combined firm will be called Clyde & Co, and will have 270 partners, more than 1,250 fee earners and ...

  • News

    Big firms coy on external investment talks

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Most leading law firms are discussing the potential for external investment ahead of the Legal Services Act coming fully into force – but they are not admitting to it, according to a financial advisory group. Few of the larger firms have shown any public interest in ...

  • News

    Thousands of the ‘Big Society’s’ most disadvantaged will be left vulnerable by law centre closures

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Last month justice minister Jonathan Djanogly highlighted ‘the need to redefine and reposition the future role of not-for-profit agencies and their work’ as the government prepares to ‘reframe’ legal aid. He’d better get a move on; or is it too late already? A few short weeks ...

  • News

    Banking

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Banker/client relationship - Derivative agreements Anthracite Rated Investments (Jersey) Ltd v Lehman Brothers Finance S.A. in liquidation; Fondazione Enasarco v Lehman Brothers Finance S.A. and another: Chancery Division: 15 July 2011 ...

  • News

    Legal assumptions will be challenged

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Having started my presidential term representing the solicitors of England and Wales just three weeks ago, and spending many days since meeting senior judges, ministers and officials, I have become even more conscious that I take on this responsibility at a time when the entire profession stands on the cusp ...

  • News

    Twitter popular among judges - but they need to master the medium

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    The judges have started tweeting. Even though reporters are still waiting for final guidance from the judiciary on the use of ‘live, text-based communication from court’, senior judges have jumped the gun and embraced Twitter with enthusiasm. Not that you’ll see judges telling us what ...

  • News

    Misinformed view that legal aid is too easily available

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    I write in response to Mr Comport’s letter. I do not think he is ‘reactionary’ in respect of legal aid – he voices the legitimately held view of many people in the UK. I do however think he is misinformed.

  • News

    Advertise the halo

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Regarding Mr Simkins' letter, my firm does not pay referral fees either. But I doubt you can go about banning things just because you disagree with them. Besides, a referral fee is just outsourced marketing with payment by results. Is it just the marketing you want ...

  • News

    Disappearing act

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    Obiter was amused last year by reports that some bobbies in the south-west had caused a stir by climbing through the open windows of houses, placing valuable items on show into a paper ‘swag bag’, and then leaving what must have been a remarkably irritating leaflet pointing out to homeowners ...

  • News

    Law firm mergers trend ‘to accelerate’

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    A high proportion of small and medium-sized firms have completed mergers in the first half of 2011, new research by the Law Consultancy Network suggests. The third set of six-monthly statistics compiled by consultant Andrew Otterburn showed that one in three of the 31 firms surveyed ...

  • News

    1,000 wills-related files found on pavement

    2011-08-04T00:00:00Z

    More than 1,000 files containing wills and other confidential information were recently found dumped on the pavement outside a will-writing company in Doncaster, the Society of Will Writers (SWW) revealed this week. The files were left by staff at another will-writing company, Gainsborough-based Minster Legal Services ...

  • News

    Claimant lawyers warn over health and safety review

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    Ministers have been warned they risk inviting a raft of claims by loosening health and safety legislation. Consultation closed last week on the Department for Work and Pensions review of workplace rules, with the results to be published in the autumn. Employment ...

  • News

    Colombia dubbed ‘the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    The South American state of Colombia is fast becoming the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’, the Law Society warned this week. Recently released figures reveal that six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 other lawyers were murdered there between 2003 and 2009.

  • News

    Columbia dubbed ‘the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    The South American state of Colombia is fast becoming the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’, the Law Society warned this week. Recently released figures reveal that six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 other lawyers were murdered there between 2003 and 2009.

  • News

    Columbia dubbed ‘the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    The South American state of Colombia is fast becoming the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’, the Law Society warned this week. Recently released figures reveal that six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 other lawyers were murdered there between 2003 and 2009.

  • News

    Columbia dubbed ‘the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    The South American state of Colombia is fast becoming the ‘lawyer murder capital of the world’, the Law Society warned this week. Recently released figures reveal that six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 other lawyers were murdered there between 2003 and 2009.

  • News

    Ministers are deaf to reason on legal aid

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    Time and again government ministers say they are listening when it comes to formulating policy in an environment of austerity. At a press conference on the day that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill was published, the prime minister David Cameron said ...

  • News

    Legal aid lawyers band together to lobby government

    2011-08-03T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers’ groups have come together in an informal coalition to lobby the government over its legal aid and civil costs reforms, which they claim will ‘threaten the entire legal advice network’. Groups including the Law Society, Bar Council, Legal Action Group, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, ...

  • News

    Solicitors fined £20,000 for sending intimidating letters

    2011-08-02T00:00:00Z

    Two London solicitors have been fined and suspended for three months by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for sending intimidating letters accusing people of illegal filesharing. David Gore, a current partner at Davenport Lyons, and Brian Miller, a former partner at the same firm, were found guilty ...

  • News

    Will solicitors want to disclose their diversity information?

    2011-08-01T00:00:00Z

    The publication of magic circle firm Linklaters’ diversity statistics last week was made all the more interesting by the fact that the Legal Services Board has just laid down in statutory guidance its expectation that all firms will need to be publishing similar information by 2012. ...