All News articles – Page 1741

  • News

    How come it’s taken so long for a LinkedIn for lawyers?

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Really interesting little spat going on over at Nick Holmes’s Binary Law blog about whether Martindale Hubbell’s 'Connected' social networking site for lawyers is any good/worth getting into/old before it’s even born, it seems.

  • News

    Class war still to be fought in the legal profession

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The law and other professions remain closed shops to many from socially disadvantaged backgrounds (see my story this week on the Cabinet Office report in which this was revealed).

  • News

    Top city firms tight-lipped on future of graduate training schemes

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Two top City firms have remained tight-lipped over the future of their specialist graduate training schemes after asking prospective trainees to start work a year later than planned. Magic circle firms Clifford Chance and Linklaters, which have asked prospective trainees to volunteer to defer for a ...

  • News

    Plan for chief legal officer splits local government solicitors

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    A proposal that every local authority be required to appoint a qualified chief legal officer has attracted split responses from 70 different organisations. The Law Society and Solicitors in Local Government have proposed a change in the law to create the new role, replacing that ...

  • News

    MoJ and Insurance Fraud Bureau to share data on fraud

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Data on criminal syndicates and solicitors involved in personal injury compensation scams will be shared between the Ministry of Justice and the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) under a new agreement, the Gazette has learned. The agreement will allow the MoJ and IFB, the insurance industry-funded fraud ...

  • News

    Environment initiatives, business enterprises and broadcast news

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Green deal: National firm Addleshaw Goddard advised a number of banks, led by Bank of Ireland, on financing a construction project by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. The 25-year private finance initiative, worth an estimated £4bn, aims to boost recycling and reduce ...

  • News

    Power in numbers: making sense of the numbers behind commercial litigation

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    There are ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’, said the Victorian politician Benjamin Disraeli (allegedly), but numbers and statistics can also help uncover the truth – or at least the facts.

  • News

    The judiciary needs more solicitors to become judges

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    I am grateful to the Gazette for providing me with an opportunity to write directly to solicitors about judicial office. There is a considerable public interest in the availability of high-quality candidates for judicial appointment, from whichever branch of the legal profession they may come.

  • News

    Olswang to make patent attorney partner in LDP move

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    City firm Olswang has become one of the first big corporate firms to take advantage of new business structure changes enabled by the Legal Services Act. The firm has applied to have one of its patent attorneys made a partner in the firm following the promotion ...

  • News

    Associate prosecutor fears

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    It is a long time since I practised criminal law, but I have been a civil courts judge for 16 years so I know the value of good advocacy anywhere. I would like to comment on the letter ‘For the defence’ from the chief crown prosecutor Barry Hughes...

  • News

    Taylor Wessing asks staff to buy extra holiday

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    City firm Taylor Wessing is to cut up to nine associates and nine support staff and has asked all staff to buy extra holiday by means of a salary cut. The firm said today (21 April) that the latter proposal is ‘one of a number of ...

  • News

    Zero tolerance of ‘solicitor bashing’ of any kind

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Tim Lawson-Cruttenden is chairman of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates In recent weeks the standard of solicitor advocacy has been the subject of ...

  • News

    City giant announces job cuts

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    City firm Herbert Smith will cut up to 84 London staff and freeze salaries across its London office, the firm announced today (20 April). Up to 30 fee-earners will be made redundant as part of the cuts, while the pay freeze, which comes in to force in September, will ...

  • News

    Amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Part 79The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2008 (SI No.3085) were made on 2 December 2008 and came into force on 4 December 2008.

  • News

    Vexatious requests, audit reports, data protection and disclosing legal advice

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    It is now four years since the Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into force. While the act is about opening up the public sector to more scrutiny through access to recorded information, parliament has recognised the importance of ensuring that public authorities are protected from vexatious requests that waste ...

  • News

    Law Society to shoulder 90% of the cost of Legal Services Board

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society will have to bear more than 90% of the initial set-up and running costs of the Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints under plans published last week. Proposals for a levy to raise £15.1m for the new bodies appear ...

  • News

    Wisdom of Solomons

    2009-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Here’s a challenge for the chaps in spotty bow ties: how can we ‘sex up’ board meetings of the Solicitors Regulation Authority? The question actually came up at a board meeting last month – in the context, we hasten to add, of encouraging more members of the public to come ...

  • News

    Smashing time

    2009-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Sussex firm Griffith Smith Farrington Webb takes pride in offering a full range of legal services. But it draws the line at drive-in personal injury clients. So staff were relieved that nobody was hurt when an elderly lady lost control of her Toyota Yaris and arrived in the Hassocks ...

  • News

    Unfair punishment

    2009-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Following an SRA spot check, the partners of my firm were advised of two minor infractions. More than six months later, and following a delay in the reissue of practising certificates, we were advised over the phone that we were to be reprimanded.

  • News

    Public recognition

    2009-04-09T00:00:00Z

    The true source of Ken Gulati’s grief about public sector pay (see [2009] Gazette, Letters, 26 March, 11) is readily apparent from his own letter.