All News articles – Page 1680
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News
Slithery customer
Obiter is grateful to professor Phil Thomas of Cardiff Law School for sending in a news snippet from the Hindu English language newspaper in India. A four-foot snake slithered into a judge’s chambers last month, and had to be ‘rescued’ by Fire and ...
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Scottish solicitors reject ‘Tesco law’ – and raise fears of flight to England
The likelihood of Scotland’s ‘big four’ law firms defecting to England appears to have risen this afternoon, following a landmark vote against the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) north of the border. At a special general meeting of the Law Society of Scotland, members voted ...
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Recession makes the trainee jobs market tougher than ever
The recession has made the trainee jobs market tougher than ever, with more than a third of graduates expecting to work more than 50 hours a week and almost 40% forced to look for jobs outside law, according to research published today.
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The sour smell of failure
As prosecutors and defence lawyers know only too well, criminals can be pretty, well, gormless is the word – or the ones who get caught can be, at any rate. Obiter has spotted a wealth of stories about foolish offenders recently. There was 68-year-old John Maurice, who was sentenced last ...
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Family law
Cafcass – Children – Contract orders – Removal from jurisdiction Re D (a child): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Wall, Aikens): 8 April 2010 The appellant father (F) appealed ...
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Playing with fire
Solicitors are notably risk averse and can be relied on, in Obiter’s long experience, to spot a dozen dire threats where others see only tranquility. And yet just last week this column witnessed a roomful of the profession’s finest demonstrate unblinking insouciance in the face of near certain incineration. The ...
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No pain no gain
There is such a thing as a glutton for punishment, and it seems that is what the Legal Services Commission must be.
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Quinn to re-enter UK insurance market
Quinn Insurance has been given permission for a limited re-entry into the UK insurance market following an announcement by the Irish Financial Regulator yesterday. However, the relaxation of the regulator’s restrictions preventing Quinn from writing new business in the UK does not extend to solicitors’ professional ...
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Keep on running
Sedentary Obiter doffs a cap to Jeffrey Gordon, a 76-year-old criminal defence solicitor from Battersea who is set to run the London Marathon for the 30th time this year. Gordon is one of a group of indefatigable runners known as the ‘ever presents’ who have completed the event every year ...
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State of the unions
Unlike my old classmate Chris Cox, director of legal services at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), I was delighted with the president’s response to the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations (DBAs) (see [2010] Gazette, 15 April, 11). At last there was official recognition of the true position of the unions on ...
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Coming after Goldman Sachs – and lawyers perhaps?
It looks as though the US’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) are hunting down those they believe to be the architects of the financial crisis. This week, the SEC filed a fraud suit against Goldman Sachs, the recession-defying Wall Street investment bank.
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Tell your clients why they should choose your legal services
There is another big and complex problem that needs to be dealt with as the legal services market continues to change. Simply put, most clients, the general public and and small- and medium-sized enterprises, don’t know the difference between solicitors, lawyers, barristers and other qualified or non-qualified providers of legal ...
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City partnership promotions unveiled
Major City firms announced a wave of partner promotions today, with 33 lawyers made up across the world. City firm Herbert Smith made up 18 lawyers, including 11 in London and three in Paris. The most promotions were in the firm’s energy practice (4). When the ...
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Co-op launches advertising campaign in legal services drive
The Co-operative Group is to launch a fresh campaign to promote its legal services to food shoppers in its 3,000 supermarkets nationwide. The news comes as the group, which aims to be one of the first alternative business structures, told the Gazette that it believes ‘the ...
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In memory of Joanna Agacka-Indecka
Last weekend, I was on one of the beautiful country walks which abound around Brussels when I received a text message from my president, to say that the head of the Polish delegation to the CCBE and president of the Polish Bar Council, Joanna Agacka-Indecka, had been among the victims ...
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Call for opening up of search data
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has called on the government to consult on legislation requiring local authorities to provide open and free access to property information. In a ‘manifesto’ published last week, CoPSO said councils were arbitrarily restricting access to data and ‘urgent action’ ...
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The crucifix discrimination case was a victory for common sense
by Nikki Duncan, who is based in Bond Pearce’s Plymouth office. She advised the Exeter-based Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital on the claim, which was presented in the tribunal by Thomas Kibling from Matrix Chambers Employers will be drawing comfort this week from a landmark tribunal ...
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‘No action needed’ on Quinn Insurance
The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society have both issued statements reassuring Quinn Insurance policyholders that they do not need to take action after permanent administrators were appointed to the Irish insurer yesterday. The SRA said that the full administration of Quinn under Irish ...
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A conveyancing conundrum that shows the value of high street firms
It’s a long time since I studied land law at university (about 17 years actually), but working as I do in the legal press, sometimes family members expect me to know a bit more about the niceties of conveyancing procedure than I actually do.