All News articles – Page 1671
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News
Asian lawyers recognised in awards
The Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) has announced the winners of its annual awards to recognise the exceptional achievements of Asian solicitors and barristers practising in the UK. The award winners were: Young lawyer ...
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Cameron McKenna signs deal to outsource ‘middle office’ functions
City firm CMS Cameron McKenna is to outsource a substantial part of its non-legal office functions in a deal valued by outsourcer Integreon at £583m over ten years. Much of the firm’s non-billable ‘middle office’ functions including accounting and finance; human resources and training; marketing and ...
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Solicitor and firm fined £400,000 for aiding share scam
The senior partner at London firm Atlantic Law has been banned by the City watchdog from working in financial services and along with his firm, fined £400,000 in total for ‘recklessly’ signing off adverts issued by Spanish fraudsters.
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Indian LPO Pangea3 opens in UK in European expansion drive
Indian legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider Pangea3 has opened an office in London as part of a concerted expansion drive in Europe. Brian Allan, vice-president of legal services in Europe, will head the office on London’s South Bank. He said the decision was taken because the ...
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ABSs are getting closer – don’t waste time hoping reforms will be diluted
by Tony Guisea director of Guise Solicitors in London The Lawyers Defence Group’s call for government protection for high street firms (see [2010] Gazette, 29 April, 3) is about as likely to succeed as Canute’s attempt to stem the tide. As the Legal Services Act 2007 ...
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Firms are alive to the changing market and are adapting their business model
Like self-employed doctors or indeed barristers, solicitors are not feted for their business management skills. However, this year’s LMS Financial Benchmarking Survey gives one cause to reconsider that cliched perception.
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Quinn administrators recommend closure of PII arm
The administrators of Quinn Insurance have recommended that the Irish insurer’s professional indemnity insurance (PII) business in the UK should close for good, the Gazette has learned. Administrators Grant Thornton told the Gazette that in their proposals to the Irish Financial Regulator, which regulates Quinn, they ...
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Commission wins legal aid contract fight
A London immigration firm has lost a judicial review action against the Legal Services Commission after the firm missed a deadline to apply for a new legal aid contract. The High Court ruled that the LSC was not obliged to write to the firm directly to notify it of ...
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Master of the rolls Lord Neuberger: ‘Train all lawyers in mediation’
The master of the rolls has called for mediation to become part of every lawyer’s training from university, but warned against an overzealous approach to alternative dispute resolution. Speaking at the Civil Mediation Council’s annual conference, Lord Neuberger (pictured) said: ‘If mediation and other forms of ...
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Kenneth Clarke appointed as new justice secretary
Veteran Conservative and former chancellor Kenneth Clarke will be justice secretary in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, it was announced this morning. He will also be lord chancellor. The 69-year-old is a former barrister, having been called to the bar by Gray’s Inn in 1963 and ...
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PI lawyers asked to report ‘foul play’ by insurers
Personal injury lawyers are being asked to provide evidence of alleged foul play by insurance companies that settle motor accident claims directly with victims. The Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS) and Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) have asked members to pass on evidence of alleged ...
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Flash back
The cartoon in Obiter of 29 April shows a camera flashing a van for speeding in relation to www.mybrief.com. The camera appears to be a classic Gatsometer which flashes but takes photos of the rear of the vehicle, not the front as in the cartoon.
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LSC begins phased rollout of eForms
Criminal law solicitors this week voiced concerns over the Legal Services Commission’s track record on IT projects, as it began a phased national rollout of its new electronic criminal billing and claim forms. The new eForms are part of the LSC’s delivery transformation programme, designed to ...
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Law firms reveal impact of recession in benchmarking survey
Small to medium-sized law firms axed nearly one in 10 staff as the recession bit and profit per equity partner plunged by a quarter, new research shows. However, market conditions have improved in recent months, with firms starting to hire again and revenues expected to remain stable in 2010. ...
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Eversheds to fight employment tribunal bias ruling
National firm Eversheds last week lodged an appeal against an Employment Tribunal ruling that it must pay £123,300 in compensation to a male associate who suffered sexual discrimination during the firm’s 2009 redundancy programme. The tribunal found that former real estate associate John de Belin was ...
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Town hall budget cut fears over local government legal services
Local government legal services will be ‘severely at risk of implosion’ if public sector budget cuts force a decline in professional standards, the new chairman of the Solicitors in Local Government group has warned. Stephen Turner, a solicitor at Kingston-upon-Hull City Council, said maintaining services and ...
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Loose cannon
It’s not that uncommon for lawyers to have an exotic sideline. Readers of this column will know that solicitors can also be Elvis impersonators, belly dancers or, indeed, flamenco enthusiasts. But on (somewhat morbidly) perusing the Times’ obituaries section last week, Obiter was surprised to read of a solicitor who ...
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Chancery Lane highlights the importance of legal professional privilege
The Court of Appeal’s decision to give the Law Society permission to intervene in Prudential PLC and Prudential (Gibraltar) Limited v Special Commissioner of Income Tax and Philip Pandolfo (HM Inspector of Taxes) is a crucial step in our efforts to defend the principles of legal professional privilege (LPP). LPP ...
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Cup of cheer
Four weeks to go and the World Cup piggybacking has kicked off, with Leeds firm Godloves scoring the opening goal. The ‘football mad’ firm is offering free wills advice to clients until 9 June – if England win the World Cup they won’t be billed. Sceptical readers might think it ...
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Chelsea and Yorkshire to review conveyancing panels
Chelsea and Yorkshire building societies are to conduct a review of their conveyancing panels following the merger of the two lenders last month, the Gazette has learned. The merger, which created the second largest building society in the country, was completed on 1 April. ...