Memory lane

Gazette 22 July 2013

‘Dismay’ as new LCJ named

The new process for appointing the lord chief justice has come under fire after Downing Street confirmed the appointment of Sir John Thomas, a white, privately educated Cambridge graduate, to the post ahead of the widely tipped Lady Justice Hallett. In a letter to The Times, barrister John Hacking wrote that ‘many in the legal profession and outside’ are ‘dismayed’.

24 July 2003

£15k poor service payouts

The Law Society Council voted to triple to £15,000 the maximum compensation solicitors can be ordered to pay clients who received poor service. The council also voted to increase contributions to the Solicitors Compensation Fund by £324 to £824.

21 July 1993

Regions snap at City’s heels

Recessionary pressures have revolutionised legal practice in the past few years, according to the latest version of The Legal 500, as once-dominant London firms have been thrown into direct competition with newly prominent regional partnerships. The report is the second in as many weeks to show fees to have stagnated or fallen over the past year.

20 July 1983

Legality of candle auctions

I recently dealt with an arbitration claim over agricultural land purchased at auction. It emerged that the auction had been a ‘candle auction’, i.e. a candle was lit, bids were made, and the last bid before the candle went out was successful. I’d be interested to know if any of your readers has heard of this sort of auction, and to read opinions as to its legality.

July 1963

World peace through law

As this issue of the Gazette is published, the first World Conference on World Peace through the Rule of Law will have reached its concluding sessions in Athens. It was attended by two members of the legal profession from some 100 nations. The first task of the conference was to try to formulate principles of public international law for international courts to apply.