Case of two halves as McCormick goes into extra time

Just as good a story second time around is the trial of two Leeds United footballers, with club solicitor Peter McCormick denying in court that he told player Michael Duberry to lie to police about his involvement with an attack on a student.The original trial of Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate collapsed earlier this year following an article in the Sunday Mirror.

As a result the press is being more discreet with its reporting of the second trial.The Daily Telegraph (28 November), which splashed a picture of the solicitor on its front page last time, told how Mr McCormick, senior partner of Leeds-based McCormicks and a director of the football club, allegedly urged Mr Duberry - who is not on trial - to 'stick to his story, knowing it was false'.

Unsurprisingly, the allegation was strenuously denied by the 'God-like figure' of Mr McCormick, who said that 'if proved that I advised a client in that way, it would be the end of my career and, I suspect, my freedom as well'.The two trials of the Leeds footballers have made front pages throughout the year, but if the Sunday Times (2 December) is to be believed, these could well become a thing of the past.

Two-thirds of jury trials - 'more than 30,000 a year' - will disappear under government proposals, originally contained in the Auld report, to limit the amount of jury trials to only the most serious cases.

Further information on the plans was obtained by the Sunday Times from 'leaked Home Office documents, left in a London pub by a civil servant', which reveal that a forthcoming draft bill is likely to contain Auld's suggested reforms.

In case anyone reading the papers was at all unclear about their contents, a Home Office official helpfully scribbled in the margin: 'Two-thirds of jury trials disappear.'Jury trials are not the only things doing a disappearing act.

Lord Phillips of Sudbury, or plain 'Andrew Phillips' as the solicitor peer's by-line has it, wrote in The Observer about how 'the steady closure of magistrates' courts is robbing communities of a sense of involvement in the law' (2 December).

Local justice, he wrote, is 'one of the singular glories of our history and culture', but in a culture 'preoccupied with celebrity high court judges and silks, and dominated by London values', the humble JP 'counts for far too little in Whitehall and Westminster'.Lord Phillips, a Liberal Democrat, has something of a bee in his bonnet about the issue, as he went on to rail against the 'efficient, centralised anonymity which characterises and demoralises so much of British society'.

No prizes for guessing whether the author is a city or country man, with his withering critique of the 'deracinated metropolitan class', who 'drive modern justice' but have themselves 'lost much of their sense of locale and of the virtues of modern organic community life'.However, all is not lost for the provinces, as a survey published in The Financial Times (3 December) showed how 'big companies are increasingly employing regional firms'.

The survey, by legal research company RSG Consulting, showed that companies were looking for the best value for money, and 'many clients are actively looking outside London, with 80% of companies questioned using regional firms'.

In certain areas of law - such as commercial, employment and intellectual property - 'clients say they can get comparable service levels from ex-City lawyers who have chosen to practise from their home towns'.And finally, spare a thought for City high-flyers already struggling under the weight of an impending recession and fears for their job security - now even their annual ritual of drunken humiliation in front of their colleagues and superiors is under threat.

The Financial Times reported how the 'economic downturn is taking its toll on departmental budgets', and bean counters at City firm Allen & Overy have 'looked askance at the typical bill for the annual partners' bash' (3 December).

A total of 40,000 has been saved through cancellation, which was driven by 'the sombre post-11 September mood, as well as cost considerations'.Victoria MacCallum