All News articles – Page 1758
-
News
Medium sized firms join forces to take on competition
Two legal heavyweights are to head a national network of law firms formed in the latest response to competition challenges resulting from the Legal Services Act. The Legal Alliance (TLA) is a group of mainly medium-sized firms which will market business and consumer services under ...
-
News
Wallace collection
Obiter got quite excited by an email headed ‘Matthew Pryke’s Kilimanjaro climb for Honeypot’. Was this someone more dedicated to the pursuit of honey than Winnie the Pooh?
-
News
Law firms may be forced to disclose lobbying clients
Law firms are a step closer to being forced to disclose the clients on behalf of whom they lobby as the parliamentary debate on lobbying continued this week. Responding to a question last week at prime minister’s question time, Gordon Brown said the government had ...
-
News
Tax specialists dismiss MP's clampdown motion
City tax lawyers have dismissed as unworkable a parliamentary motion urging the government to clamp down on firms that design tax avoidance schemes. Thirty-two MPs have so far signed an early day motion urging the government to ‘investigate and regulate’ the activities of banks, law firms ...
-
News
Repossession claims fall in wake of new protocol
The number of new mortgage repossession claims issued in the courts is down by 50% since the credit crunch-inspired introduction of a civil procedure affecting lenders and borrowers. The mortgage pre-action protocol (MPAP), approved by the Master of the Rolls, was introduced for possession claims in ...
-
News
CDS Direct unbalances the scales of justice
The feature ‘Dial J for Justice’ (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 10) demonstrates how the Legal Services Commission is collaborating with the government to reduce substantially, if not extinguish, access to justice through legal aid. My own experience is apt.
-
News
Society to help firms fight personal injury 'client capture'
Solicitors attacking the insurance company practice of ‘capturing’ personal injury clients have been promised the support of the Law Society. The Accident Compensation Solicitors Group (ACSG), which lobbies for the right of consumers to choose their own solicitor, has attended a meeting at the Law ...
-
News
Thinktank calls for overhaul of City firm regulation
A legal policy thinktank has today (23 February) called for an urgent shake-up of the regulation of City law firms. Trying to regulate the high-street practitioner and global firms under one regime produces ‘unhappy compromises’, argues the College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute. The institute ...
-
News
UK unfairly burdened by money laundering regulations
UK solicitors are unfairly burdened by anti-money laundering regulations compared with many of their European counterparts, the Law Society has warned. In its submission to the House of Lords Inquiry into Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism, Chancery Lane also calls for a Europe-wide ...
-
News
Domestic violence victims get banking help
Victims of domestic abuse can now bypass banks’ money laundering regulations under new measures to help them gain financial independence from their abusers. The Home Office and the British Bankers Association said last week that victims would be allowed to open accounts with only a ...
-
News
Taking liberties – we want them back
As an example of gobsmacking candour from an establishment grandee, it ranks alongside former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s startling assertion that the Iraq War was ‘largely about oil’. Former MI5 chief Stella Rimington this week accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism to curtail civil liberties. ...
-
News
LSC 'arrogant and devious' says helpline pioneer
A top criminal lawyer who helped set up the CDS Direct helpline for detainees has launched an outspoken attack on the Legal Services Commission, which engaged him as a key adviser. Writing in this week’s Gazette, Michael Burdett accuses the LSC of being ‘arrogant and ...
-
News
Three solicitors appointed Queen’s Counsel
Three out of four solicitor applicants for Queen’s Counsel (QC) were successful in the latest appointment round, it was announced today (19 February). And women continue to outperform men overall, with 55% of all female applicants successful in 2008/09 compared to 40% of men. ...
-
News
Baby P case sparks hike in care applications
Fears that vulnerable children would be put at risk because of the soaring cost of family care proceedings appear to have proved unfounded, new figures suggest. Fees for public law childcare applications rose from £150 to £4,825 last May, as part of a government drive ...
-
News
Work-permit policy for trainees 'discrimination', appeal tribunal rules
Law firms that refuse to consider training contract applications from students who would need a work permit are having to review the policy following a ruling last week. The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld a finding of indirect race discrimination on the grounds of nationality against top-30 ...
-
News
Axe falls at A&O
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy is to cut up to 82 partners and up to 200 lawyers and freeze pay for all employees as part of a wide-ranging, £44m restructuring programme. In total more than 240 A&O jobs in London could go.
-
News
International panel condemns UK anti-terrorism measures
'Excessive’ and ‘abusive’ anti-terrorism measures have undermined international human rights law, according to a report by an independent panel of judges and lawyers. After a three-year study, the Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, established by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), said ...
-
News
Media law – offers of amends
Warren v Random House Group Ltd (Nos 1-3) (CA) [2008] EWCA Civ 834; Tesco Stores Ltd v Guardian News & Media Ltd and Rusbridger [2008] EWCH (QB)
-
News
Probate lawyers face tough challenges ahead
Probate lawyers may find themselves in the line of fire as plunging stocks and shares devastate the value of estates, prompting beneficiaries to take a hard look at their role in protecting those assets. Beneficiaries are increasingly prepared to take their battles to court – last ...
-
News
Age-old problem
In revisiting its equality and diversity strategy, the Solicitors Regulation Authority ought to take a look at the question of age discrimination in the provision of training contracts. There has been publicity about partners in their 50s being forced out, but the implications of a retirement ...