All News articles – Page 1741
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News
Helping the community is good for law's hard-nosed image
Corporate social responsibility has come of age. Everybody is embracing it, from magic circle firms to sole practitioners, all trying to be considerate neighbours, treat others with respect, reduce fuel consumption, recycle waste materials, participate in the community and adopt other responsible behaviours.
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Employment complaints rise by a third – LCS
Complaints against employment solicitors have risen by almost a third in the past year, while personal injury lawyers saw a 15% rise, the Gazette has learned. However, complaints against conveyancing solicitors fell by nearly a fifth, to 1,184. The latest figures, obtained ...
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SRA considers foreign lawyer language test
Foreign qualified lawyers seeking to practise in England and Wales may have to pass an English language test under proposals to be considered by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority board this week. The SRA’s education and training committee has put forward the recommendation as an amendment to ...
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The true cost of social mobility
Your feature about social mobility underplayed what can be the biggest barrier for applicants to the law – money (see [2009] Gazette, 20 August, 8).
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Court jesters offer light relief
Is there something about the courtroom – the gravitas of the surroundings, the adversarial ambience – that makes people’s minds (professionals included) turn to mush? Having stumbled across some of the amusing courtroom quotes collated by Mary Louise Gilman, editor of the National Shorthand Reporter, Obiter is beginning to wonder. ...
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Defendants on videolink 'get raw deal', warn solicitors
Defendants who appear in court via videolink are being ‘treated differently’ from those who appear in person, solicitors have warned, with a much higher proportion going unrepresented. The pilot virtual court, whereby defendants make their first appearance in court via videolink from a police station, has ...
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Swiss legal professional privilege plea for foreign in-house lawyers
Europe’s largest association of corporate general counsel has asked the Swiss government to bolster legal professional privilege for foreign in-house lawyers working in the country. The call comes after the Swiss government put forward a draft bill to grant resident corporate counsel a right to legal professional privilege – a ...
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New ideas to squeeze more value from private practice
Long gone are the days when going in-house was likened to putting on a comfy pair of slippers. General counsel now enjoy high status as custodians of the corporate purse strings. They want more for their money and are getting it. Fixed fees and rigorous panel ...
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Solicitors in referral tie-up with IFAs
Solicitors and independent financial advisers (IFAs) have entered into a nationwide tie-up to take advantage of the relaxation of the rules on partnerships between lawyers and non-lawyers. Some 600 law firm members of the 360 Legal Group will be given access to 1,700 IFA members of ...
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Memory lane
Looking back on some rather dated advertisements, while we've also managed to pull out a letter that amusingly describes a client's interpretation of lawyer interactions. Law Society’s Gazette, September 1959 ...
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Football fans – law-abiding pariahs
The erosion of liberty is especially insidious because it happens by barely perceptible degrees. As a resident of Edinburgh, I was always able to park in the wide streets surrounding the city’s lovely Botanical Gardens for nothing (congestion is not and never has been a problem). No longer. Now you ...
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Solicitors sign referral deal with financial advisers
Solicitors and independent financial advisers (IFAs) have entered into a nationwide tie-up in order to benefit from the relaxation of the rules on partnerships between lawyers and non-lawyers. Some 600 law firm members of the 360 Legal Group will be given access to 1,700 IFA members ...
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News
Deals delight but the recession isn't over yet
Boom! Bang! We’re a week away from the one-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, and the big guns are beginning to fire again in quick succession. In the space of just two days, we have a huge deal announced in the food sector (Kraft trying and failing to buy ...
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New EU term begins – what’s on the agenda
The summer break is over. Newly elected MEPs are beginning to meet, and the policy machine is grinding into action once again. So, what is on the agenda generally, and for lawyers in particular?
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Chancery Lane attacks 'deeply flawed' MoJ legal aid proposals
The Law Society has called on the Ministry of Justice to clarify its ‘incoherent’ and ‘deeply flawed’ consultation on criminal legal aid cuts. In a hard-hitting letter to legal aid minister Lord Bach, Law Society president Robert Heslett said the vagueness and uncertainty of the paper ...
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Pakistan must take steps to ensure judicial independence, says IBA
Flawed judicial appointments processes, shortcomings in court infrastructure and a lack of training for legal professionals are hindering the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan, a report by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute has warned. The report said that the reinstatement of Pakistan’s ...
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News
Legal Sector Alliance of City law firms press G20 on climate change
A group of City firms committed to safeguarding the environment has written a communiqué to the leaders of the G20 nations calling on them to ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to climate change legislation, the Gazette can reveal. The Legal Sector Alliance (LSA) of 18 ...
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Interpreting part 6 of the CPR: service by fax
The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2008, which came into force on 1 October 2008, brought about a number of significant amendments to the CPR, including changes to the rules governing the service of the claim form on defendants. The interpretation of some of these rules, in particular in relation to ...