All News articles – Page 1719
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Immigration: migrants who wish to qualify as UK lawyers
Studying law with a UK institution and becoming a solicitor or barrister in the UK has long been an esteemed achievement by lawyers around the world. Historically, the UK has welcomed migrants who wish to undertake the challenge. Immigration rules (the rules) and related concessions have made routes to becoming ...
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Memory Lane
Law Society’s Gazette, November 1969 The lot of the 5 year articled clerk [letter to the editor] ...
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Negligence
Asbestos - Causation - Duty of care - Mesothelioma Karen Sienkiewicz (administratrix of the estate of Enid Costello, deceased) v Greif (UK) Ltd: Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Lord Justice Scott Baker, Lady Justice Smith): CA (Civ Div) : 6 ...
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Client surveys: where’s the value?
There is a marketing ‘tick’ that appears in many firms when they have the marketing bug. It’s the tendency to spend time and effort on client surveys. But while discussing this with a client keen to proceed with them, I came to the conclusion: ‘Why should we bother?’
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Litigation can cost more than just legal fees
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has become the latest corporation to toss the remnants of its reputation on to the scrapheap of litigation.
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The Legal Services Board must properly research what it is about to do
In a week in which the Legal Services Board has issued another consultation on alternative business structures, I want to speak about the importance of good quality research before important policy proposals are made which may radically affect the legal services market.
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Partnerships as a structure may be unable to compete with ABSs
Listening to the lively debate at PR firm Byfield Consultancy’s launch of a report into life after the Legal Services Act this week, I couldn’t help but muse on the term ‘alternative business structure’. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that it is most firms’ business ...
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Bar Standards Board opens door to joint practices
Barristers and solicitors will be able to go into practice together as a first step on the post-Clementi road, following a historic meeting of the Bar Standards Board last night. The board met to consider recommendations from its working group on alternative business structures to determine ...
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Professional indemnity costs rise by £15m
Solicitors paid £15m more to insurers for professional indemnity insurance this year, Solicitors Regulation Authority figures have revealed. The cost of insuring the profession rose from £226m in the 2008/09 indemnity year, to £241m in 2009/10, a rise of 7%. Between them, ...
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Europe's notaries need to modernise and abandon their pompous ceremonies
by Gill Mather, a sole practitioner based in Colchester, Essex I heartily agree with Jonathan Goldsmith’s Euro blog ‘Notaries in revolt’ that much of what notaries do is ceremonial, unnecessary and ludicrously expensive.
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ABI to introduce new voluntary code on third-party capture
The Association of British Insurers is to introduce a voluntary code of conduct on third-party capture early next year in an effort to appease critics of the controversial practice, it emerged last week. However, claimant lawyers have dismissed the initiative as a tactic to allow insurers ...
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Fee abomination
The payment of referral fees is an abomination which is destroying our profession. I am so pleased the Law Society’s Council has decided to call for their abolition.
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Stock Exchange activity, WHSmith expansion and new fire stations
Sovereign wealth: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised a number of underwriters on issuing the government of Dubai’s inaugural sukuk, worth around $2bn (£1.2bn) in total this year. It is believed to be the largest sovereign sukuk ever issued. City firm Taylor ...
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The best advice on how to prepare for a legal services revolution
As firms begin to emerge from the recession in 2010, they may feel they want to get their breath back before tackling the next challenges that face them. But as any law firm consultant will tell you, now is the time to get lean, efficient and in shape to deal ...
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Solicitors issue advice warning over child neglect cases
Solicitors representing children in cases of chronic neglect are being obliged to act without the advice of a guardian or social worker, lawyers warned this week. A shortage of guardians at the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service has led to courts directing solicitors to appoint ...
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Conservatives pledge to apply brakes to alternative business structures
A Conservative government would seek to slow down the introduction of alternative business structures, shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham revealed last week. Describing ABSs as ‘one more assault on the high-street solicitor’, Bellingham (pictured) predicted that big names would enter the market and cherry-pick the more ...
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Amending the Code by the back door
As your readers will be well aware, practising solicitors are currently bound by a Code of Conduct which runs to more than 200 pages. The code is being regularly amended, often making it very difficult for solicitors to know what regulatory rules they have to obey on any given occasion.
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Demonstrating little benefit: the assigned risks pool is draining resources
This autumn has seen by far the most difficult professional indemnity insurance renewal for many years. The number of firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) – the system under which solicitors who have been unable to obtain insurance on the open market are given temporary ...
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SRA moves to scrap assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will recommend abolishing the assigned risks pool in a consultation to be launched today. The regulator also wants to make it easier for struggling law firms to be taken over rather than shut down.