All News articles – Page 1756
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News
Crown Prosecution Service saves £11.5m by using in-house advocates
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) saved £11.5m last year by using in-house advocates in the Crown court instead of instructing external counsel, its chief said last week. Keir Starmer QC, director of public prosecutions, also announced that Crown prosecutors across England and Wales are to undergo ...
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Taylor Wessing hit by 14% profits fall
City firm Taylor Wessing today reported global profits down by almost 14% despite a small rise in turnover, with its UK business hit hard by the economic downturn. The firm estimated that profitability in the UK was down 30% on 2007/08, with UK turnover falling by ...
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Diversity seminar backs joint action on judicial appointments
New measures to increase diversity in the judiciary have been jointly agreed by the Law Society, Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) and Bar Council. Key new initiatives include a Law Society mentoring programme to support solicitors applying for judicial office, and an extension of the Bar Council’s ...
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The LSC must address the scandal of experts pocketing exorbitant fees
It was interesting to read Carolyn Regan on the subject of achieving the best value for taxpayers’ money as far as the Legal Services Commission is concerned (see [2009] Gazette, 18 June, 13). It is depressing that this argument only ever seems to apply to the fees of high-street solicitors ...
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Solicitors take advantage of LDP rules while the bar still lags behind
Three months after Legal Services Act 2007 reforms took effect, solicitors have gained the ‘upper hand’ over the bar, with 61 firms becoming legal disciplinary practices (LDPs). While the number of solicitors’ firms becoming approved LDPs has doubled in the past month, barristers remain unable to ...
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Offshore firms stay afloat while governments target tax havens
In the normal course of events, law firms would be falling over themselves to have their headquarters name-checked by the leader of the free world. But not offshore giant Maples and Calder. Its offices at Ugland House on the Cayman Islands were singled out by Barack Obama on his campaign ...
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Prejudice against solicitor-advocates is a ‘fact of life’, says solicitor QC
Prejudice from the bar and bench against solicitor higher court advocates (HCAs) is ‘a fact of life’, the first female solicitor QC has alleged. June Venters, who was made a QC in 2007, told the Gazette that as a solicitor HCA she has experienced hostility and ...
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Linklaters pushes ahead with revenues increase
Magic circle firm Linklaters today reported a slight increase in revenues to £1.30bn, placing it ahead of fellow magic circle firms Clifford Chance and Freshfields. Linklaters profits per equity partner (PEP) stood at £1.30m for the year to 30 April 2009, a fall of 9.6% on ...
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Criminal law: self-defence, diminished responsibility, et alia
The law on self-defence has been ‘clarified’ (section 76(9)) but not amended or consolidated by section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which came into force in July last year.
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Sentencing policy attacked by MPs for being incoherent and inconsistent
MPs have branded current sentencing policy incoherent and inconsistent, and warned that it risks being driven by a misguided view of what the public want. In a report on parliamentary scrutiny of sentencing guidelines published today, the justice committee says the five aims of sentencing set ...
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‘PC fee increase not attributable to Chancery Lane’
by Des Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society Last week Council reluctantly recommended an increase to the practising certificate fee for 2009/10 to £1,180 to fund the work of the SRA, LCS, Law Society, SDT, Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints.
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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, ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...