All News articles – Page 1823
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News
Fees feedback
I write in response to Mark Thompson’s letter ‘Swings and roundabouts?’ (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 9). It is clear that, in this case, Mr Thompson has a client who has required considerable extra work to be undertaken on their behalf.
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Merger rise predicted as law firms struggle
Merger activity in the legal world is ‘rampant’, with more deals predicted in the next year than in the past 25, a leading consultant predicted last week. Chris Frederiksen, chairman of the 2020 Innovation Group, said that mergers are happening because the profession’s three main underpinnings ...
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Lord Hunt to head regulation review
A former cabinet minister, Lord Hunt of Wirral (the solicitor David Hunt), is to head the Law Society’s review of professional regulation. Lord Hunt, who was senior partner at Beachcroft between 1996 and 2005, is chairman of Beachcroft’s financial services division. Between 1979 and 1995 ...
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Redundancy help for lawyers
Solicitors faced with redundancy – together with the 700 already made jobless since the financial crisis began – are to receive urgent help from the Law Society. The Society has prepared guidance to help practitioners with advice on negotiating redundancy packages, working notice periods, continuing professional ...
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Personal injury
Clinical negligence – Consent to treatment – Neurological disorders – Duty of care Janet Birch v University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: QBD (Mr Justice Cranston): 29 September 2008 ...
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A matter of principles
The aim of the Law Society’s regulation review is to protect the public while also supporting the profession. Regulation sets the standards by which all solicitors are judged. At its best it offers clients a sense of security by assuring them that a professional is looking ...
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Victory for science
In your article ‘Down on the Farm’ (see [2008] Gazette, 25 September, 16) you quoted a Welsh firm of commercial solicitors stating that it was essentially fear of political fallout which motivated the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to call off the proposed badger cull in the ...
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Stalemate in Strasbourg
Why Russia holds the key to creating a streamlined European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights has become a victim of its own success. Applications are up by 23% compared with last year. There are some 95,000 cases pending. Last month, the ...
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Taking stock after 30 years
Recession may be looming, but Manchester firm Harold Stock & Co knows how to throw a party. To celebrate its thirtieth birthday the generous firm took 41 of its employees on a no-expense-spared weekend trip to Barcelona. Mark Ryan, senior partner, said: ‘Thirty years in business is a real milestone ...
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American perspective: we interview the head of the ABA
Paul Rogerson speaks to Tommy Wells, president of the 400,000-strong American Bar Association, about Wall Street, the White House – and Guantanamo. PR: Perhaps we should start with ...
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Access to justice
It would be a shame if readers obtained a misleading impression as a result of the headline in your recent news item about our views on the Legal Services Commission’s (LSC) fixed fees (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 1).
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Franchising, construction, acquisitions and investments
Toy story: City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse advised toy retailer Hamleys on a franchising deal that will allow it to open up to 20 stores in India. The franchise will be run and operated by a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private ...
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New advice for detainees branded 'illegal' in report
Suspects’ rights to consult a solicitor of their choice have been undermined by potentially illegal reforms to the legal aid process, leading academics said this week. Professors Lee Bridges and Ed Cape, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, accused ...
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Firm breaks new ground by sending PI work to South Africa
Personal injury cases are to be outsourced to South Africa this week in the first trial of its kind, the Gazette has learned. Hertfordshire firm Underwoods has signed a deal with an unnamed practice to test whether road traffic accident (RTA) cases that fall under the ...
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Legal aid despair
As a solicitor still doing some legal aid work while trying to get out of legal aid entirely, I read your Opinion in last week’s Gazette with interest (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 8).
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Legal aid a 'cottage industry'
Government policies are creating a ‘cottage industry’ of legal aid provision, with large firms being driven out of the market, solicitors warned this week as a major firm shed its bulk criminal legal aid practice. Hickman & Rose, whose managing partner Jane Hickman is a ...
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Legal aid leads Europe
England and Wales has fewer courts per head of population than Belgium, Ireland or the Russian Federation, but spends at least four times more on legal aid than any other Council of Europe jurisdiction, an official survey reveals this week. The Council’s European Commission for the ...
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Arbitration
Real property – Mining – Coal authority – Compensation – Loss – Subsidence Coal Authority v (1) FW Davidson (2) WE Davidson: QBD (TCC) (Mr Justice Coulson): 9 September 2008. ...
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Reaching a global audience
Hundreds of lawyers and students are fighting injustice as part of the Law Society’s international work. About 18 months ago, the international human rights work of the Law Society was more or less moribund. The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) existed, but had no resources. Its ...
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Call for ban over HIPs
An investigation that exposed home information packs (HIPs) as flawed has prompted calls for insurance-backed personal searches to be banned. Birmingham Trading Standards inspected HIPs at 15 estate agents, randomly selecting six packs for scrutiny. Five contained false or misleading search information. ...