All News articles – Page 1723
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Cuts, freezes and sabbaticals mooted at top-100 firms
Top law firms are re-evaluating their staffing policies by introducing more flexible working to avoid making redundancies, according to research by Sweet & Maxwell. The legal information provider found firms are introducing more flexibility, offering sabbaticals, retraining and part-time working to their employees.
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Professional independence in danger, incoming president warns
The legal profession is in danger of losing its independence, incoming Law Society president Bob Heslett warned last week. Heslett (pictured), who assumes the office next month, has identified three key themes and 11 objectives to tackle during his year in office. The themes will ...
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What voting for the Pirate Party means
Here in Brussels, we are still trying to come to terms with the European election results. Voters have had their fun kicking Gordon Brown, rewarding Silvio Berlusconi for the topless women at his villa, or giving a seat to the Pirate Party in Sweden...
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Serious concerns are raised with the first non-jury criminal trial
By Raj Chada, a partner in the criminal department at Hodge Jones & Allen The recent bout of soul searching with regard to jury trials has come as a result of a Court of Appeal decision in the Menzies World Cargo trial, which has allowed the ...
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Show of separation
Social stigma around marital breakdown isn’t what it used to be. News has just reached Obiter of a new event in the social calendar, the Divorce Show. Launched to a fanfare of softly weeping violins, the show at the NEC is aimed at more than two million people in the ...
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Memory lane
Gazette, 16 June 1999 We are not the enemy, lawyers sayLegal aid solicitors last week called on the ...
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Switzerland moves to protect in-house privilege
Switzerland could become the most attractive location for corporate general counsel in Europe if the country’s parliament accepts a government proposal to grant professional privilege to in-house lawyers. The Swiss Federal Council has published draft legislation that would grant in-house lawyers ‘professional secrecy’ concerning the ‘products ...
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Lawyers on honours list
Michael Smyth, a partner at Clifford Chance, has been awarded a CBE for services to pro bono legal work in the Queen’s birthday honours list. A partner since 1990, Smyth is an author of Business and Human Rights Act (2000) and chairman of Public Concern at Work, the whistleblowing charity.
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Navigating mental health law
A barrister friend sent me a copy of Jonathan Rayner’s moving and disturbing article on his family’s experience of the law and mental health (see [2009] Gazette, 5 March, 14).
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Law Society research shows women’s share of the profession growing
The number of women admitted to the profession grew five times faster than the rate for men in the 10 years to July 2008, new Law Society research reveals. The latest Trends in the Solicitors’ Profession study, carried out by Chancery Lane’s research unit, paints ...
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Solicitors need to take initiative and plan for the future
The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, has not spoken much about the organisation of the legal profession since assuming the role, which made last week’s slightly cryptic call to arms all the more interesting. There was some head scratching at the Institute of Legal Executives luncheon ...
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SRA immigration ‘loophole’ exposed
Loopholes that allowed a solicitor to practise for two years in England despite being an illegal immigrant are still in place, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed. Jitendra Kumar Sharma, 44, of Southall, London, was last week jailed for seven years for a multi-million-pound visa scam.
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Global Managing Partners Summit - exclusive report
When times are tough, it’s good to talk – no matter how big or how tough you think you are. But the annual Global Managing Partners Summit in London, chaired by Law Society vice-president Robert Heslett and Gazette editor Paul Rogerson, kicked off with an observation that this year’s financial ...
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Dressing down
Judicial interest in the fashion sense of female lawyers is not a purely British phenomenon. We read in the New York Times that a distinguished panel of US judges has been debating this vital issue. According to the newspaper, Judge Michael P McCuskey, chief judge ...
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Guardian raps decision to keep judicial disciplinary proceedings private
The Guardian newspaper has reacted angrily to losing its freedom of information (FoI) bid to force the Ministry of Justice to name more than 100 judges who have been disciplined over the last 10 years and disclose why they were disciplined.
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Criminal procedure
Legal advice – Living expenses – Money laundering – Proceeds of crime Crown Prosecution Service v Susan Jane Campbell: Michael Joseph McInerney v Financial Services Authority: Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency v Graeme Trevor Carlton: CA (Crim ...
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Counselling the counsel
At the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, one theme resonated the loudest – and surprisingly, it had nothing to do with slashing panel law firms and cutting external legal spend. Still, external counsel shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
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Local government: surveillance powers, tenancy and effective consultation
There is always a public authority tension between what might be called 'customer-centred governance' and regulation. So while most local authorities will try to be 'customer responsive' to their council tax payers and other stakeholders, their regulatory functions mean that not everyone will always feel treated as a 'customer'. For, ...
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Clarity on TUPE
In your article titled ‘Law Society calls for halt to BVT rollout’, [Law Society chief executive] Des Hudson expressed concerns about BVT (see [2009] Gazette, 21 May, 3).
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LCS puts coal-compensation claims on hold
The Legal Complaints Service has gone against the advice of its watchdog by refusing to re-open around 160 complaints against Yorkshire law firm Raleys concerning compensation payments to miners. The LCS, which suspended investigations in March, said it will not reopen the cases until the ...