All News articles – Page 1528
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News
Lawyers in the summer’s high-profile stories
Where did the silly season go? Nobody can complain that this summer has been dull news-wise - if anything, it has been too exciting. In Germany, they had the story of Yvonne, the missing cow, as if the front pages needed filling. But here one earth-shattering development has succeeded another ...
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LSB gives go ahead for barristers to manage ABSs
The Legal Services Board has approved the Bar Standards Board’s application for changes to the bar’s code of conduct to allow barristers to be managers or employees of alternative business structures. In April this year, the bar’s regulator took the decision that barristers should be permitted to work in the ...
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Co-operative Legal Services' profits rise
The Co-operative Legal Services has seen its revenues increase by 22% and its profits rise by 3% during the first half of the year, the group’s interim financial results have revealed.
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A good way of saving costs without merging?
In the run-up to the 6 October start date for alternative business structures, various surveys have reported a distinct hotting up of the number of mergers among law firms. At the High Street end, part of the reason for this will be firms’ very sensible desire to achieve greater economies ...
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Did you get the holiday you deserve?
I have given advice to a client wearing my swimming costume (I mean I was wearing the trunks, not the client). I do not know what the SRA would say about that. They would ask what was the objective and the desired outcome. I also spoke to my bank manager ...
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Will-writing fraudster jailed
An unregulated will-writer has been jailed for 14 months after fraudulently charging 130 clients between £30 and £60 to fix a non-existent problem with their wills. Berkshire resident Walter Ventriglia, 47, was running a will-writing firm called Legacy & Law. He wrote to the clients, under ...
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Are advisers the weak link in the data chain?
2011 has been a busy year for hackers. In March, marketing giant, Epsilon, saw details of 2,500 customers on its database fall into unauthorised hands, affecting at least 19 of its client companies. Also in March, a security service and product supplier, RSA, was the subject of a so-called Advanced ...
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Non-trial advocates to be excluded from court work
Non-trial advocates will be excluded from higher court work by the quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA), a leading solicitor advocate has warned. Following publication of a second consultation on the controversial accreditation scheme, president of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates Jo Cooper said ...
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Irish firm achieves Lexcel status
An Irish law firm has become only the third outside England and Wales to secure the Law Society’s Lexcel practice management accreditation. Dublin firm O’Rourke Reid joins Polish firm TGC Corporate Lawyers and Scottish firm McClure Naismith among those to have passed the assessment process required ...
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Dare to adapt, innovate and be inspired
As layoffs continue to sweep through Wall Street I got to thinking about our legal world and the movie Indecent Proposal. There’s a thought-provoking and inspiring line spoken by Demi Moore at the very start of the film. She is reflecting on her (film) husband’s ...
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Barristers seek to extend public access rights
Public access barristers could be allowed to accept direct instructions from clients eligible for legal aid, under proposals being considered by the Bar Standards Board. Currently Rule 3(1) of the Public Access Rules prohibits barristers from accepting direct instructions from a lay client who may be eligible for public funding ...
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Pro-bono project takes foothold in India
Former UK attorney general Lord Goldsmith has moderated a roundtable for eleven of India’s leading law firms to discuss how to develop a pro bono culture. The roundtable, the first of its kind in India, was co-hosted by UK-based i-Probono, a non-profit organisation that connects ...
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500th law firm secures Conveyancing Quality Scheme status
Five hundred law firms have now secured accreditation to the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS), the Society said today. Essex firm Todmans SRE was the latest to receive the CQS mark of excellence in residential conveyancing practice. Since CQS launched ...
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No let up in anti-money laundering developments
The summer months have seen a quickening of pace in news relating to lawyer involvement in anti-money laundering procedures. Although there have been times in the past when the work of our CCBE anti-money laundering committee has lessened, its agenda is now overflowing.
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Record number of care cases puts courts under strain
Record numbers of care cases are putting ‘intense’ pressure on the family justice system, according to the head of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). Figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show that the number of care and supervision cases before ...
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Eviction of rioters
Question: What’s the difference between having a child who is a mass murderer and a child who is a rioter? Answer: A roof over your head. That’s because sharing a home with a mass murderer won’t get you and the rest of ...
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Bankruptcy petition filed against Solicitors from Hell owner
A solicitor who won libel damages from the owner of the Solicitors from Hell website has filed a bankruptcy petition against him after he failed to pay damages ordered by the court. The solicitor, from London firm Hickman & Rose, is seeking £31,105.44 from website owner ...
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SRA set to license ABSs in early 2012
The Solicitors Regulation Authority does not expect to start licensing alternative business structures until early 2012, it has said in a new guide to help prospective ABS owners. The guide includes information about which firms need to be authorised as ABSs, essential requirements and details about ...
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We can all read the Equality Act
For as long as I can remember, the Law Society has tried to collect diversity data from me, as an individual, and my response has always been the same. Mind your own business. Now the Legal Services Board is to require regulators to ensure firms collect information on their staff. ...
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Advancing against the judicial ‘no-go area’ that has covered military action
'There shall be no Alsatia here’ is a traditional assertion of judicial jurisdiction over the objections of the Crown. The erudite Lord Justice Sedley was rather fond of the phrase. Historically, it alludes to the legal sanctuary derived from the presence of Whitefriars monastery, south of Fleet Street in London. ...