News – Page 25
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NewsKent council firm boosts profits
Profits at Kent Legal Services rose 20% to £2.4m for 2012/13, the local authority-owned venture reported today. Turnover rose £1m to £12m. The performance capped the previous year’s growth of 18% to £2m, on a turnover up by 10%. Kent County Council was one of the first legal service teams ...
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NewsMagic circle ‘must adapt to changes’
Magic circle firms must innovate to adapt to a permanently changed legal market, warns Baring GC
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The view from Qatar
Qatar’s state-of-the-art litigation centre is not attempting to poach business from London
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TSol set for major recruitment push
Whitehall’s central legal services provider the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) is to recruit 40 lawyers after spending nearly £4.6m on temporary staff through outsourcer Capita, the Gazette can reveal. The recruitment campaign is for advisory, commercial, employment and litigation lawyers at civil service grade 7, with salaries between £47,086 and ...
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Lawyers wary over company owners rule
Company law specialists have cautiously welcomed the government’s approach to requiring all companies to declare their beneficial owners. A discussion paper published last week by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills proposes creating a register of beneficial owners to meet a commitment set out at last month’s G8 summit. ...
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In-house lawyers focusing more on business issues
The role of the in-house lawyer is increasingly moving away from legal work to concentrate on business issues, research has found. A survey of UK heads of legal and general counsel by resourcing consultancy FreshMinds Legal found that, on average, just 38% of the day is now spent on legal ...
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Lambeth eyes ABS to save legal spend
The London Borough of Lambeth’s in-house legal department is considering forming an alternative business structure to help reduce its £3m annual external legal spend. Lambeth has to slash costs by 45% but cannot cut the size of its already-stretched legal team, said Mark Hynes (pictured), Lambeth director of governance and ...
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Bribery Act lying dormant, SFO admits
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating just two cases relating to the Bribery Act more than two years after the new law came into force, the Gazette has learned. A freedom of information request has revealed the SFO has yet to bring any prosecutions under the new legislation and has ...
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CPS has 'more in-house lawyers than it needs'
The Crown Prosecution Service has too many in-house lawyers as it continues to face the challenges of budget cuts, according to the annual report of the agency’s inspectorate. Her Majesty’s CPS Inspectorate said a lack of resources due to budget cuts is hampering the service’s ability to prepare cases, but ...
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Pre-pack deals under scrutiny in company law shake-up
A central register of beneficial owners and a review of ‘pre-pack’ takeovers of failed businesses are among measures proposed in a shake-up of company law today. A discussion paper published by the department for Business, Innovation & Skills sets out how the UK proposes to carry out its commitment at ...
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In-house concern over compliance message
Most legal and compliance departments in Fortune-1000 companies report that systems designed to boost ethical and compliant behaviour in the rest of the business are not being properly communicated. In 63% of companies, internal performance standards in these areas are ‘neither clear nor adequately expressed’. That is the conclusion of ...
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Quarter of GCs lack resources to manage
As European in-house legal budgets rise across the board, a divide is opening up between departments that have sufficient resources to provide legal advice coverage, and those that do not. That is the conclusion of benchmarking research by Consero Group carried out among members of its European General Counsel Forum. ...
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In-house practitioners warm to mediation
In-house lawyers are becoming more confident about mediation without assistance from external firms and three-quarters expect their use of mediation to grow in the next three years, according to a leading dispute resolution group. A survey by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) showed that of 50 respondents, 42% ...
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Picture-perfect in-house advice
In-house counsel were last week urged to show the value they add ‘in pictures’ not ‘words’, to be better understood by the rest of their business. This was among the tips Richard Tapp, director of legal services at construction and support services giant Carillion, shared with 110 lawyers who attended ...
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BT Law is born as claims unit granted ABS licence
Telecommunications giant BT today announced its long-expected move into legal services with the launch of BT Law Limited. The subsidiary, which has received an alternative business structure (ABS) licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, will offer services to corporate customers, initially in the motor claims ...
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US eases curbs on foreign in-house lawyers
Foreign-qualified lawyers are to be allowed to work as in-house counsel at US companies in all 50 states for the first time, the American Bar Association (ABA) has resolved.