All News articles – Page 1605
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News
Teaching in Tanzania
Professor David Higham describes his experience of teaching in East Africa with the International Lawyers Project ‘It’s blackboard and chalk; and bring your own chalk.’ With those words, the briefing meeting at Norton Rose’s riverside offices started. For a dyed-in the-wool PowerPoint® trainer like me, ...
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Are KPIs useful when managing lawyers?
In my last blog on the role of coaching in law firms, I argued that a coaching style of management was appropriate when managing lawyers, most especially those who are senior and experienced. The blog attracted comments making the fair point that we should ensure we have the ‘right’ people ...
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Firm oversteps ABS rules in outsourcing deal
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has found that Bradford, Glasgow and Newcastle firm Optima Legal overstepped the rules on alternative business structures (ABSs) in an arrangement with outsourcer Capita. Publishing an investigation into the agreement, the SRA said that ‘while Optima Legal’s original outsourcing and funding arrangements ...
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MoJ to slash £2bn from its budget
The Ministry of Justice will slash £2bn from its £9bn budget in order to meet government spending targets, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has claimed. Citing a letter understood to have been circulated to MoJ senior staff today, the PCS estimated that around 15,000 ...
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Research shows ‘incompetence’ in will-writing
Two-thirds of trust and estate practitioners have encountered ‘incompetence or dishonesty’ in the will-writing market in the past year, according to research published today. The study has prompted the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), which conducted the survey, to renew its calls for better ...
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Law Society calls for suspension of family tender result
The Law Society has called on the Legal Services Commission to suspend the implementation of the family legal aid tender round in a letter to its chief executive Carolyn Downs. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said ‘the public interest demands’ that the tender round should ...
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Scrapping personal search fee will ‘benefit no one’, warn conveyancers
The government’s decision to scrap the fee for personal searches of the local land charges register will benefit no one and will add to the financial pressure on local government, lawyers have warned. Housing minister Grant Shapps announced last week that the government will abolish the ...
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Family judges alarmed over legal aid tender
The head of the family courts has warned the Legal Services Commission that he has been ‘inundated’ by family judges expressing serious concerns over the outcome of the family legal aid tender, in a letter seen by the Gazette. Lord Justice Wall has written to the ...
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Legal professional privilege is under attack again
I have a message for democratic governments everywhere (please forgive the self-importance): stop interfering with legal professional privilege. I think that they used to, by and large, leave alone this cornerstone of the definition of the legal profession – and, of course, cornerstone of a citizen’s fundamental rights, which is ...
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The Human Rights Act at war
Helen Grimberg and Mike Brown assess the impact of a recent Supreme Court decision on the right of soldiers to sue for damages when they are injured during foreign combat ...
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Lawyers see 'explosion' in cohabitation cases
The recession has caused an ‘explosion’ in the number of cohabiting couples seeking advice on relationship breakdown, according to family lawyers who have called for the ‘complex’ laws applied to them to be updated. Vanessa Lloyd Platt, founder of London firm Lloyd Platt & Co, said: ...
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Act fast to avoid PII misery
It’s not a sexy subject, and it’s not particularly fun to write a stream of gloomy reports on it, but solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) is a hot topic for the profession. We are exactly eight weeks from the 1 October renewals deadline and there is already plenty to ponder.
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Memory Lane
Law Society’s Gazette, July 1980 Legal confidentiality and the press Home secretary Theresa May appeared to signal the ...
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Human rights
Duty to undertake effective investigation – Inhuman or degrading treatment – Iraq Ali Zaki Mousa & Ors (claimants) v Secretary of State for Defence (defendant) & Legal Services Commission (interested party): DC (Sir Anthony May (President QB), Mr Justice ...
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Horn ultimatum
There aren’t many people who can claim to have spent the best part of two months under a rhinoceros. But that is precisely what Sara Corley (pictured), a dispute resolution solicitor at Hillyer McKeown in Chester, has been up to. Corley created two impressive rhino sculptures as part of the ...
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Top firms gear up for private investors
Two of the UK’s top-30 law firms are putting formal arrangements in place to take on private capital next year, the Gazette has learned. Jane Galvin, head of professional services at Barclays Corporate, said in an interview with the Gazette this week that two ‘brave souls’ ...
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New governments mean new marketing opportunities for law firms
Whatever your political views, there’s no doubt that a new government can provide excellent marketing opportunities for law firms – particularly those firms that like to keep their clients up to date with the latest legal developments.
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Duty solicitors face pay scrutiny
A proposal to change the way duty solicitor slots are allocated would ensure that duty lawyers are no longer ‘overpaid’, a leading criminal solicitor has suggested. The Ministry of Justice is understood to be considering altering the current arrangements, so that duty solicitor slots are ...
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Down and out
Obiter takes his swimming cap off to Hamlins intellectual property partner Ian Down, who is set to swim the English Channel for charity this week. Apparently, the first successful swim crossing was by Captain Webb in 1875, and the average time to swim ...
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SRA fee: double the pain
I have a firm turning over £2.2m with eight solicitors. In 2009/2010, we paid £10,610 for practising certificates and the compensation fund etcetera.