All News articles – Page 1606
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News
You must speak proper to work in the City
Clever, white, working-class men and women are being overlooked for top jobs in City law firms because they don’t quite ‘fit in’, according to research released yesterday. ‘Focusing on ethnicity enables law firms to boast excellent or, at the very least, improved diversity outcomes, despite the ...
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Firms reject candidates on the basis of their accents, research suggests
Top London law firms are hiring graduates with ‘smart’ accents and public school backgrounds because they think they are better for their image than working-class candidates, new research has suggested. Suitable white working-class applicants are being passed over for jobs in favour of middle-class graduates of ...
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‘Irresponsible’ to roll out virtual courts after critical report, says Law Society
Virtual courts should not be rolled out nationally following a critical Ministry of Justice evaluation of a year-long pilot, the Law Society has said. The MoJ said yesterday that the pilot was successful in reducing the average time from charge to first hearing, failure to appear ...
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Publish complaints against firms, Consumer Panel urges
The body that advises the Legal Services Board on the interests of consumers has called for the publication of complaints made against law firms if they have been upheld. Responding to an open consultation by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) on whether its decisions should be published, the Legal Services Consumer ...
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Age of criminal responsibility will not change, says government
The government will ‘hold firm’ on the age of criminal responsibility despite the findings of a recent critical parliamentary report on the matter, the House of Lords heard yesterday. Francis Hare, the Earl of Listowel, questioned justice minister Lord McNally over the All-Party Parliamentary Group for ...
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Forced mediation will encourage ‘excessive demands’ in family disputes
Pushing parties into mediation in family disputes will encourage badly behaved partners to make ‘excessive demands’, an MP warned in a parliamentary debate on legal aid reform last week. Labour MP Karen Buck, who tabled an adjournment debate on legal aid that took place last week, ...
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How old is too old? Retirement ages for partners
Telling someone that they must stop work merely because they have reached a particular birthday is a blatant form of age discrimination. Laws prohibiting age discrimination came into force in 2006 and were this year incorporated, largely unchanged, in the new Equality Act. Age differs from ...
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Less bureaucracy for all
Christmas is coming, and so the European Commission wants to clear the decks before the holiday break. We notice this before the summer break, too. It announced last week not one, but two, initiatives affecting the work of lawyers.
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Lord chief justice allows Twitter in court
The lord chief justice has issued guidance indicating that journalists and others may tweet from the courtroom, provided this does not interfere with the administration of justice. The decision, contained in interim guidance issued today, comes after journalists were allowed to use Twitter to ...
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Immigration cap ‘unlawful’, court rules
The home secretary’s imposition of a temporary cap on the number of skilled workers allowed into the UK from outside the European Union was ‘unlawful’ and must be annulled, the High Court has ruled.
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FSA raises protection for client accounts
Client money held in solicitors’ bank accounts has been given greater protection in the event of a bank collapse, after the Financial Services Authority unveiled rule changes today. Implementing a European Commission directive, the City regulator upped the cap on the compensation available for deposits that ...
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MPs warned they will be ‘overloaded’ due to legal aid cuts
A group campaigning against the government’s legal aid cuts has sent Christmas cards to MPs warning them that they could be overwhelmed with constituents’ problems. Justice for All, a coalition of legal and advice agencies, politicians, trade unions, community groups and members of the public, said ...
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Linklaters tops diversity league table
Magic circle firm Linklaters has topped a league table based on a survey of the demographic diversity of 48 leading law firms, published today. City firms Baker & McKenzie, Norton Rose and Trowers & Hamlins came second, third and fourth respectively. The ...
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Solicitors make errors in PII proposal forms
Solicitors continued to make errors in their professional indemnity insurance (PII) proposal forms this renewal period, according to a major broker. Illegible writing, unanswered questions, inaccurate fee breakdown between work types, and incomplete financial information continued to litter law firms’ proposals, according to Kim Swestun, associate ...
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Why are lawyers so unpopular with the public?
I thought he was going to hit me, if he didn't fall over first. He hated effing lawyers, he said. He was a bulge-eyed roaring drunk and had got it into his befuddled brain that I was a lawyer, rather than someone who wrote about the ...
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Motion to widen Society membership withdrawn
Law Society Council member Derek French withdrew his motion proposing to allow barristers and legal executives to become members of the Law Society, at the Society’s council last week. However, French said the Society’s Membership Board has agreed to prepare a paper on the issue, which ...
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£1bn paid out to law firms for handling coal miners’ claims
Some 19 law firms each received more than £10m in fees for handling claims on behalf of former coal miners who contracted lung disease in the course of their work, parliamentary records show. More than 500 firms handled at least one claim for chronic obstructive pulmonary ...
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Aluminium deal, London IT, Euro 2012 football, healthcare and telecoms
UEFA on track: The London office of French firm Salans advised European real estate investment management firm Meyer Bergman on a €200m (£169m) joint venture to redevelop the main railway station in Katowice, Poland, in preparation for the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament. ...
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BME solicitors must act now to survive upheaval in legal services
by Nwabueze Nwokolo, chair of the Black Solicitors Network and Law Society Council member, Minority Ethnic Concerns It is with great pleasure that I take on the role of chair of the Black Solicitors Network. I have campaigned all my professional life for the elimination of ...
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Judiciary has failed to lure City lawyers, lord chief justice admits
The head of the judiciary has admitted being ‘unsuccessful’ in persuading City lawyers to become judges. Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge told the Lords Constitution Committee yesterday that, if he could persuade City lawyers and their firms that a judicial career is a plausible option, ‘we ...