All News articles – Page 1757
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Estate agents merger call
Merging solicitor and estate agent practices could be a viable business model for the future of conveyancing, the E-Homebuying Forum lobby group said this week. The group published a report containing 13 proposals to modernise the homebuying process. Greater use of technology and the introduction of ...
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OFT estate agent study will assess new business models
The Office of Fair Trading today (25 February) launched a market study into home buying and selling, following two months of consultation on the scope of the project. It will examine the level of competition between estate agents, and look at the relationship between estate agents ...
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South Africa is producing the best wine it has ever made
In South Africa, the political classes are mobilising for an April election. The frontrunner, Jacob Zuma, is beset by allegations of corruption, which he contests, while critics of his party, the ruling African National Congress, fear a wave of nationalisations in agriculture, mining and industry. Driving out of Cape Town ...
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IT systems, fundraising, acquisitions and refinancing
Resourceful integrator: south-west firm Osborne Clarke advised two AIM-quoted natural resources clients, iodine producer Iofina and hydrocarbon producer Nighthawk Energy, on fundraisings worth £5m and £7m respectively. The firm also advised Marks & Spencer on an IT systems integration contract with IBM. IT ...
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LSB cautious on bank-led ABSs
Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds has hinted to MPs that the oversight regulator will be extremely cautious about letting banks enter the legal services market in the aftermath of the current financial crisis.
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Allen & Overy to cut 282 lawyers worldwide
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy will cut up to 282 lawyers worldwide as part of the largest recession-triggered redundancy consultation to date. The firm’s announcement last week means that around 630 lawyers are in line to be axed by the top 10 UK law firms – around 3% of ...
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Data page for February 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the Data Page for February 2009 below ...
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Hammonds to cut up to 20 partners
National firm Hammonds is the latest big name to announce a round of recession-linked redundancies, with up to 20 partners across the country set to go. The firm’s new redundancy consultation, covering almost 10% of its partnership, has already led to the departure of a handful ...
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Women’s work
Grania Langdon-Down’s interview with the first female president of the Association of District Judges, Edwina Millward, made interesting reading (see [2009] Gazette, 12 February, 14).
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Porn in the post
Obiter’s personal mail is usually an uninspiring mix of junk and bills. This is not the case for certain prisoners at high security Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire. They have been receiving post ostensibly from their legal advisers which turns out to contain ...
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We are out of touch and self-serving
Your anonymous correspondent who bemoans the present state of conveyancing hankers for an age that is fast disappearing and rightly so (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 9).
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Mining investments and transport negotiations
China investment: Magic circle firm Clifford Chance, alongside Australian firm Mallesons, advised Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) on its $19.5bn (£13.4bn) investment in the Rio Tinto mining group. The transaction involved the issue of convertible bonds to Chinalco, which will increase Chinalco's shareholding ...
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Human rights
Byelaws – Campers – Demonstrations – Freedom of association – Freedom of expression Tabernacle v Secretary of State for Defence: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Laws, Wall, Stanley Burnton): 5 February 2009 ...
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Human rights are too important to be left to party politics
Dominic Raab is a Tory rising star. He is currently chief of staff for Dominic Grieve MP. He has served David Davis in the same capacity and he will doubtless go far. In his recent book, The Assault on Liberty: what went wrong with rights (Fourth Estate), Raab flies a ...
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Give us the tools
I refer to Peter Williamson’s comments on the Solicitors Regulation Authority board’s decision not to ban referral fees (see [2009] Gazette, 12 February, 9).
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Food for thought
Despite its reputation as a profession of bon vivants, the legal world figures only lightly in the Cabinet Office’s ‘trough list’ of hospitality enjoyed (or endured) by senior civil servants. In contrast to their counterparts in IT and consultancy businesses – not to mention the arms trade – legal firms ...
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Tales of femininity
More tales, from the terrifyingly recent past, about the judiciary's nervousness of anything vaguely feminine entering the courtroom. Jackie Mensah, an associate with Bennett Griffin in Worthing, recalls ‘having the privilege of experiencing a male district judge at the Principal Registry informing a female counsel that he really couldn't "hear" ...
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Sharia finance joins global economic downturn
Hopes that Islamic finance would escape the economic downturn are unfounded, early figures suggest. After six years of growth, the value of sukuk bonds issued fell from $42bn (£28bn) in 2007 to $20bn (£13.4bn) in 2008, according to a new survey. The Islamic Finance 2009 ...
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Law Society to help develop conveyancing websites
The Law Society is to join efforts to develop websites that will display what progress has been made up and down a chain of property transactions. Law Society President Paul Marsh told the Gazette that the Society’s e-conveyancing taskforce is working with a number of ...
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Conveyancing solicitors need to control their own destiny
So, there we have it. Not only do we have to endure the president of the Law Society telling we conveyancers ‘don’t panic’ in the teeth of the worst recession for two generations (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, 1), we now have the unedifying spectacle of the Gazette as a ...