All News articles – Page 1686
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News
Law firm partners ‘overpaid’, says Mayson
Law firm partners are paying themselves too much and their businesses will struggle to attract external investment because they are not worth as much as the partners believe, a leading commentator has warned. Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, said partners have ...
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Red tape cut for forced marriage orders
Local authorities can issue orders to protect vulnerable adults and children from being forced into marriage without seeking the leave of the court, under new powers introduced yesterday. Forced Marriage Protection Orders can include orders to compel a person to hand over passports to prevent someone ...
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CPS publishes ethical principles
The director of public prosecutions has today published a ‘statement of ethical principles’, setting out what is expected of public prosecutors in England and Wales. Keir Starmer QC said the document, which sets out the ethical principles that underpin and guide the work of public prosecutors, ...
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Law firm standards should inform their commercial behaviour
Regular readers will know that I am an advocate of law firms getting their acts together as businesses, but this is not to say that solicitors should in any way give up the particularly high service standards set for the protection of clients’ best interests.
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Does the UK spend too much on legal aid?
England and Wales has ‘one of the highest per capita spends in the world’ on legal aid, the Ministry of Justice said this week. Well there’s no surprise there; that little snippet is regularly trotted out by the government when it is responding to Gazette reports on legal aid cuts.
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LSC launches tender for Community Legal Advice Centre in Barking & Dagenham
The Legal Services Commission has announced the launch of a tender for the new £2.1m Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) in Barking & Dagenham. The new service to provide a one-stop-shop for legal advice and representation will be jointly funded by the LSC and Barking & ...
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Mott on the landscape
Can anyone spot the lawyer amid these aging rockers? Yes, construction lawyer David Mosey of Trowers & Hamlins is third on the right, pictured with Mott the Hoople members (left to right) Ian Hunter, ‘Overend’ Watts and Verden Allen. Mosey met the not-quite-so-young dudes during their reunion tour, and like ...
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Personal injury
Armed forces – Compensation – Medical treatment Secretary of State for Defence v (1) Anthony John Ross Duncan (2) Matthew Richard McWilliams: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Keene, Carnwath, Elias): 12 October 2009 ...
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Human rights record
Jason McCue of H20 Law became the third human rights lawyer in three years to be named practising Solicitor of the Year in the annual Law Society Excellence Awards. McCue followed in the footsteps of Phil Shiner, who won the accolade in the inaugural year ...
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News
Probate: privileged wills and not-so-helpful help
Just how unusual it is to have a modern case on privileged wills is, perhaps, indicated by the comment of judge Peter Langan at the start of his judgment in Re Estate of Ashley Edward Servoz-Gavin, deceased 14 September 2009: ‘The case has involved a forensic journey on a path ...
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Gag ladies
David Mosey is not the only solicitor to be involved in a shameless publicity stunt this week (see Mott on the landscape). Jeanette Miller, co-founder of Manchester firm Geoffrey Miller, gave staff a surprise earlier this month when she asked them to put on gags and go out into the ...
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News
A touch of Frostrup
A sprinkle of stardust descended on last Thursday’s boisterous and extremely well-attended (recession, what recession?) Law Society Excellence Awards at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. No, not in the person of the BBC broadcaster Mishal Husain, who conducted proceedings with consummate aplomb. An even brighter star was present, the ...
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LPA error
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has confirmed that on 1 October their website contained an error in the Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), where there was an incorrect additional part C (for the attorney to sign) included in the downloaded document.
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Employment
Employers’ duties – Honest belief – Strict liability – Transfer of undertakings Royal Mail Group Ltd v Communication Workers Union: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Waller, Hughes, Rimer): 14 October 2009 ...
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Lending credibility
I write on behalf of the Council of Mortgage Lenders in response to Alan Tunkel’s letter (see [2009] Gazette, 1 October, 9). Mr Tunkel states that ‘over the last decade or so the CML has imposed on solicitors who sign certificates of title ever-increasing obligations’.
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News
Immigration and turning up to court
While thumbing through previous copies of the Gazette I found an article from 4 June 2009 which stated that a defendant had escaped confiscation proceedings because she was unable to find an advocate who was willing to represent her under the legal aid rate. This article emphasised the importance of ...
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News
European Commission criticises lawyers over lobbying
Law firms that carry out EU lobbying work have been criticised by the European Commission for failing to enter their clients’ names on its voluntary lobbying register. The commission said that law firms, in arguing that they would breach professional conduct rules by revealing clients’ names, ...
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News
Transport secretary grilled over Freshields fees in Metronet collapse
Legal and professional advisory fees were cast into the spotlight as MPs picked over the bones of Metronet, the collapsed London Underground upgrade consortium whose failure cost the taxpayer up to £410m, at a public accounts committee hearing last week. Magic circle firm Freshfields was the ...
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Lovells moves closer to transatlantic merger
City firm Lovells and US firm Hogan & Hartson moved closer to a transatlantic merger today as management at each firm agreed to recommend the tie-up to partners. Information on the proposed merger will be sent to partners at each firm late next week, before a ...