All News articles – Page 1599

  • News

    Firm claims sex discrimination in legal aid tender

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    A London firm has claimed sex discrimination in judicial review proceedings challenging the Legal Services Commission’s refusal to award it immigration and community care contracts. Hereward & Foster issued proceedings in the Administrative Court on 7 September and has requested an expedited hearing. ...

  • News

    Crowned advocate

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    With the traditional image of a solicitor being a little – dare we suggest – staid, it is heartening to know that a touch of glamour will be heading our way in a few years. Jessica Linley, a 21-year-old law student at Nottingham University and the current Miss Nottingham, has ...

  • News

    Young set to rule out TV ad ban for personal injury

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    Lord Young will not seek to ban TV advertising for personal injury work in his review of the ‘compensation culture’, but is expected to call for a strengthening of referral fee regulations. Sources close to Lord Young of Graffham’s review, due to report this month, ...

  • News

    SRA ‘unlikely’ to relax ABS restrictions

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...

  • News

    SRA pays out over £9m to former clients of Wolstenholmes

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far paid out more than £9m to former clients of Cheshire firm Wolstenholmes. The SRA closed down the firm, which had offices in Cheadle and Birmingham, last year, on the grounds of suspected dishonesty and breaches of the solicitors’ accountancy ...

  • News

    Pro bono panel for 2012 Olympics

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society and Bar Council are to establish a joint pro bono panel of advisers for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Although City firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the official legal adviser to the London Olympics, the games’ organising committee has asked the two representative ...

  • News

    Data page August 2010

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. Downloads Download the ...

  • News

    The Digital Economy Act 2010 and online copyright infringement

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    The Digital Economy Act 2010 – legislation to fit Britain for the digital age, or the oppressive tool of capitalist lickspittles? You be the judge. Digital Britain was an impressive white paper published in June 2009 containing a raft ...

  • News

    LinkedIn group: membership tops 2,000

    2010-09-09T00:00:00Z

    Membership of the Gazette’s LinkedIn group broke through the 2,000 mark this week – a rise of 1,000 so far this year. The social networking group, which is open to all solicitors, features topical discussions on issues affecting the profession, as well as regular updates of ...

  • News

    What about firms that can’t afford to promote social mobility?

    2010-09-08T00:00:00Z

    Accustomed as I am to receiving gloomy news about legal aid and vulnerable people being denied access to justice, a press release heralding a rare piece of good news brightened my inbox this week.

  • News

    Handling launch of legal directories

    2010-09-07T00:00:00Z

    Today sees the publication of the 2010 Legal 500. Reputations and egos will be bolstered or dented and questions will be raised: ‘Why is such-and-such still ranked above us, when we all know that we are better?’

  • News

    Firms see boom in high-value litigation

    2010-09-07T00:00:00Z

    A quarter of litigation disputes involve claims of more than £3m, and legal costs exceed £500,000 in 10% of cases, a survey of the heads of litigation at the UK’s top 200 law firms has revealed. The research, commissioned by Harbour Litigation Funding, showed that commercial ...

  • News

    The struggle over the European Law Institute

    2010-09-06T00:00:00Z

    Prepare yourself for a battle of similarly sounding initials. This is a story of how ELIA has been struggling with EUI, and how they have then decided to make common cause to be able to carve out the spoils of the battle between themselves, and so decide who else should ...

  • News

    LSC extends family contracts

    2010-09-06T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review at a hearing last week. At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, ...

  • News

    LSC extends family contracts

    2010-09-06T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the family legal aid contracts for a month, as the Law Society won an application for an expedited hearing of its judicial review last week. At a directions hearing at the High Court on Friday, the court granted ...

  • News

    Barristers offer ‘lifeline’ to criminal solicitors

    2010-09-06T00:00:00Z

    Barristers’ chambers could provide a ‘lifeline’ to small criminal law firms, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC has told the Gazette. ...

  • News

    Should corporations be bound by human rights treaties?

    2010-09-03T00:00:00Z

    Human rights treaties bind states, not big business. And yet some multinational corporations are virtually states in themselves.

  • News

    The SRA must amend the Code of Conduct or law firms will close

    2010-09-03T00:00:00Z

    This autumn the media will be replete with stories about the number of small firms of solicitors who have ceased to practise. A recurrent theme will be the lack of competition between those firms who remain, and an absence of choice for the consumer. There are three reasons for my ...

  • News

    SRA steps up ARP enforcement action

    2010-09-03T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority has visited 88 firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) since July, as part of its tougher enforcement strategy to clamp down on ‘financially unstable’ firms in the pool. The regulator announced a new enforcement regime in July designed to address the ...

  • News

    Rules on ABS discussions unlikely to be relaxed

    2010-09-03T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...