All News articles – Page 1717
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News
Increased competition for trainee jobs at top firms
Competition for traineeships with the UK’s biggest law firms has reached a new intensity, with an average of 130 graduates applying for each trainee job, new research suggests today. As many as 78 more applications per place are being made this year than in 2007/08, when ...
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Employment solicitors exploit client ignorance over contingency fees
Some employment solicitors may be ‘exploiting client ignorance’ of their funding options for their own gain, research has claimed. However, it was found that generally claimants were happy with the services provided and with the fairness of their fee arrangements.
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Your client database is worth a lot more than you think
Client databases are often seen as a dull subject – complex to manage and just getting in the way of fee-earning. But databases are necessary for every legal services practice that wants a future.
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Jean-Michel Darrois proposes Clementi-style reforms in France
The architect of Clementi-style reforms of France’s legal landscape visited Chancery Lane this week for a seminar organised by the Law Society’s international division. Jean-Michel Darrois (pictured left), a company law specialist, headed a commission of academics, business people and other non-lawyers which published a ...
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Insurers claim referral fees push lawyers’ costs out of control
Solicitors have hit out at a report claiming the market in personal injury claims is failing because legal fees are out of control. Arguing that fees could be reduced without restricting access to justice, a study commissioned by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said there ...
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Profits down by a third at City outfit Nabarro
City firm Nabarro today reported profits down by 35% and revenues down by 10%, describing the result as ‘disappointing’ but ‘not surprising’. Profits per equity partner declined from £574,000 in 2007/08 to £375,000 in the year ended 30 April. Revenues fell by 9.7%, from £140m to ...
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Exploiting the goodwill of children’s lawyers
Solicitors acting for children have spoken out this week about the dire quality of representation that some – by no means all – firms acting for parents are offering. I’ve been told stories of parents’ cases being handled by staff who are clearly not qualified for the job – in ...
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We can lead change
Robert Heslett urges the profession to prepare for change (see [2009] Gazette, 18 June, 12), but says little about precisely what it should do. He also highlights a long-standing concern about how new entrants can be imbued with the ethics of the profession. As he is aware, we have been ...
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Great leap forward: survival depends on the challenge of change
This is my final President’s Podium, and while I write it with no little sense of sadness, I do so in the certainty that many in the profession are well placed not only to survive the current downturn, but to flourish in its aftermath.
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Reforms to practising certificate fee to hit private practice firms
Sweeping reforms to the practising certificate fee that will ‘shift the fee burden onto private practice’ were published for consultation this week. The changes would benefit solicitors in local government, commerce and industry and the Crown Prosecution Service at the expense of those working in private ...
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Freshfields overtakes CC as top UK firm by size
Freshfields has overtaken magic circle rival Clifford Chance as the biggest UK firm by revenue, posting a 9% rise in turnover to £1.29bn for the year ended 30 April. Profits per equity partner (PEP) were static at £1.44m. Clifford Chance, which was the largest firm ...
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Parents in child care cases are receiving poor representation
Law firms acting for parents in care proceedings are exploiting the fixed-fee system by using unqualified staff – in one case a receptionist and another a secretary – to do legal work, prominent family lawyers warned this week. Solicitors acting for children warned that the court ...
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BVT considerations
I write with reference to the letter from Carolyn Regan (see [2009] Gazette, 18 June, 13). She states that best value tendering will continue to ensure the quality of criminal defence services. Although she does not say so in her letter, I presume she means ...
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Boom with a view
If you can spare your mind from the big questions of life like, well, Wimbledon, give this one a thought: can international law oblige states to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and pay compensation for the adverse effects of climate change upon a country or its citizens?
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Pro bono costs win
Pro bono lawyers have saved a family from eviction and secured a £20,000 donation to the Access to Justice Foundation (AJF) charity. Shelter solicitors John Gallagher and Marie Burton, and barrister Andrew Walker of Maitland Chambers, acted for a family facing eviction from their home of ...
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Lawyers invited to get on board diversity charter
Law firms, in-house lawyers and purchasers of legal services have signed up to the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter, launched this week. The charter, initiated by the Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) and supported by telecoms giant BT, aims to encourage FTSE 250 companies only ...
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A tribute: Lord Bingham’s passion for justice and history
For me, last Thursday was Bingham day. I spent the morning interviewing the former senior law lord about a centre for the study of the rule of law to be established in his name. In the afternoon I dipped into a book of essays written in his honour by more ...
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Ronnie Biggs was doing time, till he done a bunk
I have in my somewhat exotic record collection a curious disc cut by The Sex Pistols in 1978 entitled No one is innocent. It features a guest appearance by Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, and though I have not listened to it for 30 years I can still remember the ...
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Legal Services Commission publishes new timetable for civil bids
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has published the timetable for the new civil bid rounds and details of its amended contracting proposals, after consultation with providers. Following concerns about the criteria for consortium arrangements, under which firms can join together to provide the package of debt, ...