All News articles – Page 1760
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Firms face lobbying scrutiny
UK law firms of all sizes risk being dragged into the debate surrounding parliamentary lobbying, as pressure to make consultancy agreements more transparent was stepped up this week. UK law firms engage 15 Lords and four MPs as consultants a Gazette investigation has found. A number ...
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Real estate, hair products and energy efficiency
Heathrow hub: Birmingham firm Wragge & Co advised international real estate group Goodman on its £17m acquisition of a 220-acre site near Heathrow airport from Argent, the property development company. Goodman says it plans to develop a rail freight distribution hub on the ...
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False economies
Your article ‘Dial J for Justice’ claims CDS Direct saves money (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 10). John Sirodcar [director of national accounts at the Legal Services Commission] says they get £18 or £19 a call as opposed to £30.25 in private practice – giving a £1m saving.
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Delivering the post on time
Practising solicitors are proving slow to grasp the business development opportunities offered by the internet, as this column somewhat didactically observed last month. The findings of this year’s Law Society Software Solutions Guide (see In Business) confirm what we know.
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Penalties for maintenance defaulters ‘draconian’
Civil liberties lawyers have dismissed as ‘disproportionate’ and draconian new powers to confiscate without a court order the driving licences and passports of parents who default on child maintenance. The Welfare Reform Bill, in the House of Commons committee stage this week, will allow the ...
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Female decoration
We welcome two new members to the club of long-serving legal stalwarts: secretaries at Suffolk firm Greene & Greene who have clocked up a combined total of 84 years’ service. Lorraine Palfrey joined the firm in October 1966 as an office junior, being promoted ...
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Conveyancing crisis: a reflection of the times
I am writing as chair of the Direct Conveyancing Association, which represents some of the largest direct conveyancers in the UK, to respond to comments made by Law Society President Paul Marsh (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, p1).
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Commodity fetish
I note the recent sad administrations of Hammonds Support Services and Fox Hayes (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, 1). They were probably two of the biggest examples of firms who followed Professor Richard Susskind’s regular entreaties to the legal profession to ‘commoditise’ legal work. Will ...
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Ormerod to head Law Commission
The Law Commission has appointed Mark Ormerod as its new chief executive. Ormerod, who is currently director of access to justice policy at the Ministry of Justice, will take up his new position on 2 March, replacing William Arnold, who has been acting chief executive ...
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New property search rules ‘lack clarity’
Property professionals have demanded more clarity in new search regulations to prevent personal search companies using loopholes to ‘flout the law’ and produce ‘worthless’ searches. From 6 April, new rules affecting the contents of home information packs come into force. From that date, a temporary provision ...
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Concern as magic circle firm culls partners
The head of an influential alliance of corporate general counsel has expressed concern at the soaring tally of City firm redundancies, as Clifford Chance became the first magic circle firm to announce it will cut partners. Peter Maynard, legal director and company secretary at Prudential and chair of GC100, which ...
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Cost fears that may put solicitors off ID cards
The Home Office wants lawyers to be ‘early adopters’ of ID equipment. According to minister Meg Hillier, ‘for legal transactions it might well be worthwhile [solicitors] having a reading machine to quickly verify ID’ (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 4). There are many civil liberty arguments against the scheme. But ...
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Graduate recruiters buck jobs trend
Law firms top the league for graduate starting salaries and are predicted to recruit more graduates this year than in 2008 - bucking the national trend. These are among the key findings of the bi-annual survey of the jobs market by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).
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Breaking the law
They are supposed to uphold and administer the law, but when it comes to motoring, the legal profession shows delinquent tendencies. Lawyers, judges and magistrates are 60% more likely than the average motorist to have points on their licence, according to research by insurer ...
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Solicitors to promote own high street brand
High street solicitors have launched a new legal brand to promote themselves collectively when supermarkets and other businesses enter the legal arena in 2011. QualitySolicitors.com is a nationwide alliance of small and medium-sized firms that will pool resources to develop a recognisable brand to compete with ...
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Lord Bingham monitors the Binyam Mohamed controversy
David Miliband won something of a hollow victory over the media last week. The foreign secretary persuaded two judges not to publish ‘seven very short paragraphs’ they had withheld from a judgment last August. These 25 lines summarised reports to British security and intelligence officials by ...
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Lawyers blame NHS for soaring negligence bill
Clinical negligence lawyers have denied charges of profiteering following an National Health Service announcement that total claims could almost double to £713m next year. The NHS said the estimated £317m increase in the total bill for 2009/10 was the result of changes to ...
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PPI claims become a revenue stream for law firms
In the last 12 months, the payment protection insurance (PPI) claims sector has exploded as customers increasingly become ‘clued up’ about their consumer rights.
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Asylum laws putting women at risk
British immigration policy is putting female asylum seekers at risk of sexual assault, lawyers warned this week as the Refugee Council reported that three-quarters of women seeking asylum have been raped either in their country of origin or in the UK.