All News articles – Page 2944
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Cool reaction to European patent unification
Leading intellectual property lawyers in the UK have reacted coolly to the unitary patent and unified patent court process approved by the European parliament on Tuesday. ‘No one can doubt that having a single system is, in principle, a good idea,’ said Claire Bennett, partner in international firm DLA Piper's ...
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Ministry IT costs soar as deadline looms
Numbers of temporary staff working on the Ministry of Justice’s £500m National Offender Management Service (NOMS) IT system have soared as the government rushes to complete projects before the general election, research has revealed. NOMS aims to share data across 125 prisons and 35 probation services. The project is due ...
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Cry freedom of information
The eyes of the news media have been elsewhere, but the House of Commons justice committee has just restated an important constitutional principle: freedom of information is a good thing. A long-awaited post-legislative review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 concludes: ‘We do not believe that there has been ...
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SRA to rubber stamp next phase of red tape cuts
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it is open to further ideas for cutting regulation after several demands from members of the profession. The regulator is this week expected to rubber stamp the second phase of its programme to reduce red tape. Under the new reforms, compliance officers will no ...
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Hopes rise for legal services in EU-US free trade deal
Free trade talks between the EU and US are almost certain to end with agreement freeing up the movement of lawyers, a leading European figure in the campaign to remove barriers has predicted. Louis-Bernard Buchman, chair of the International Legal Services committee of the Council of Bars and Law Societies ...
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Working with DNA evidence
It is important for defence solicitors to understand DNA evidence better and routinely to press for greater disclosure, say Mark Fenhalls and Brian Costello On 20 December 2007 the case against Sean Hoey (R v Hoey [2007] NICC 49 – the Omagh bombing case) failed. Mr Justice Weir was critical ...
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What the election result will mean for the legal profession
Unless they are unusually concentrated in marginal constituencies, the votes of UK solicitors are unlikely to swing the outcome of the general election in three weeks’ time. However, the main parties’ manifestos have much to say about the law (especially where it relates to crime, human rights and civil liberty), ...
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It’s not enough to be a good lawyer
Having read a number of pieces recently on diversity and the lack of women and ethnic minorities in senior leadership positions in the legal profession, I keep seeing similar comments about lack of these opportunities. The message seems to come across again and again that opportunities need to be offered ...
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EU withdrawal: at what price for lawyers?
I hope that the in-house journals of every trade and profession in the UK are now running articles like this, containing an assessment of the consequences for each particular sector of the UK withdrawing from the EU. It is obvious from the newspapers that we are in danger of sleepwalking ...
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Fear and loathing in libel reform
To put it mildly, this is not a good time for politicians to be seen doing favours for media proprietors. Yet this is inevitably how the upcoming debate on libel reform - expected to be kicked off with a bill in the Queen’s speech in May - is going to ...
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Iraq: fragile justice
Nearly 10 years after regime change, seven years since the first democratic elections and despite several billion dollars worth of targeted aid, the rule of law in Iraq ranges from fragile to non-existent. In one of the first tests of Europe’s Common Security and Defence Policy, a small and little-known ...
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Future-proofing the LeO
Winter is closing in. Here in the Midlands we have been under the threat of deluge for weeks. The only thing more common than flood warnings are the German sausages being enthusiastically chomped down by visitors to Birmingham’s Christmas market. And, as is increasingly the case, many colleagues here at ...
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My legal life: Geoff Wild
The whole point of lawyers is that we serve others. We make things better for other people. That is what drew me into the public sector in the first place and has kept me there ever since. At the end of the day, a client simply wants to be made ...
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Halabja remembered
Under a glass case in the Halabja memorial museum is a brown, three-strand hemp rope, the kind a lorry driver might use for tying down loads. A black label bears the date 25 January 2010. I had a pretty good idea of the significance, but I asked the curator anyway: ...
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My legal life: Helena Kennedy QC
I had from the beginning an idealistic idea that I could be the kind of lawyer who might change things for ordinary people. I thought law could be used as a protection and as a tool for social change. I set up a legal advice centre with a social worker ...
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The high rollers
If as a gambling lawyer you are not phenomenally busy at the moment, then there is something wrong, says Julian Harris, partner at niche City gambling and leisure law firm Harris Hagan. Earlier this month, the government sprung a surprise by choosing Manchester as the host of Britain’s ...
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My legal life: Myles Jackman
I have a masters in film and used to run my own company making low-budget productions, but there was no money in it. A friend’s mother ran a small criminal law firm which back in 2000 dealt with the case of Afghans who hijacked a plane and forced it to ...
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My legal life: Sophie Khan
Before I settled on law I wanted to be a conservationist. I had read Peter Matthiessen’s book The Snow Leopard, in which he diarised his journey through the Himalayas, and wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’ve always been a worker and couldn’t wait to qualify. I can remember in ...
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My legal life: Roger Terrell
My father was a farmer but I didn’t fancy a career in agriculture. The beauty of a law degree is that it then takes you on a well-defined path. My training contract was with the legal department at Nottinghamshire County Council. I was articled to John Hayes, who had a ...
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My legal life: Sarosh Zaiwalla
My late father was a solicitor. In 1925 he became one of the first, if not the first, Indians to qualify as an English solicitor. I trained at Stocken & Co in Fleet Street. They were maritime lawyers. The hardest challenges I faced as a lawyer came in my early ...