Press round-up

The government's so-called class war reached the legal profession this week as Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott attacked civil liberties lawyers.

His 'sideswipe' at lawyers in the Independent on Sunday (4 June) was sparked by Oxford University's refusal to admit a state school student who went on to win a scholarship at Harvard.

'Prescott blasts lawyers in "class war"', screamed the front-page headline.

In his article, Mr Prescott said Oxford's admissions policy was part of a much larger issue of privilege.

He went on: 'Some lawyers squeal when we crack down on young thugs, but the reason we do it is to protect decent people whose life can be made miserable by mindless hooligans.'The paper said lawyers were unhappy with the remarks.

Liberty director John Wadham, himself a solicitor, said: 'Those lawyers who speak out most against government proposals to take away people's fundamental rights are usually the least well paid.'Despite these apparent problems with locking up mindless hooligans, the government is planning cuts of more than 12 million in the 311 million Crown Prosecution Service budget, according to The Times (5 June).

This is despite a 245 million cash boost elsewhere in the criminal justice system.

The paper said leading silks fear this will mean fewer criminals being brought to book.

Meanwhile, a civil liberties solicitor's English accent has helped win a reprieve for a prisoner on death row in the US.

Owen Williams, an associate at Clarke Willmott & Clarke in Bristol, told The Daily Telegraph how the chief prosecution witness opened up to him where US colleagues had failed when the witness heard his accent (3 June).

He subsequently retracted his testimony.

Mr Williams was on a three-month secondment to the US with UK-based human rights group Amicus.Staying with human rights, a draft of the European charter on human rights was leaked to The Times, which dubbed it a 'Europe bill of rights'.

The Times saw the charter as a 'challenge to Britain's criminal justice laws', and said European integrationists see it as 'a building block for a European constitution' (1 June).

The Financial Times rallied behind The Times with the headline 'EU treaty "should not create new rights"' (3 June).

But in the City, lawyers will be watching for the end of the Financial Services and Markets Bill's passage through Parliament.

The Times said the government has struck a compromise with the Liberal Democrats to reduce the Takeover Panel's independence (2 June).

The Financial Times said the move 'should guarantee approval of the Financial Services and Markets Bill' (2 June).A Financial Times editorial welcomed the Office of Fair Trading's inquiry into competition restrictions in the professions (1 June).

It said the work already done had brought benefits to consumers, but added: 'The inquiry has bigger issues to tackle, not least the ban on fee-sharing partnerships between lawyers, accountants and other professionals.' It said conflict issues and differences in fiduciary roles still need to be resolved, and that the inquiry 'should prove a valuable forum for tackling that'.The Independent focused on accountants' law firms (31 May) under the headline 'Big Five take the law into their own hands'.

It said auditors like Arthur Andersen are hiring from independent law firms in a bid to turn their associated law firms into a 'credible legal force in the key financial markets of London, New York and Hong Kong'.The jury is still out on the benefits of seller's packs, according to The Times (31 May).

While seller's pack participant Edward Faulkner said his sale went smoothly, estate agent Trevor Kent said the scheme was 'unrepresentative and unpopular'.

According to Mr Kent: 'People feel it's unfair for lawyers and surveyors to be paid in advance of a sale that may not transpire.'The Observer ran an article on Eversheds' 'trade union roadshow' involving US and UK employment lawyers (4 June).

It said Eversheds is building a 'union resistance practice - or union-busting as it is called in the US - in anticipation of new laws, which mean unions are recognised for collective bargaining purposes'.

Nabarro Nathanson and DLA were also mentioned as firms anticipating an increase in trade union-related business.

Anne Mizzi