All articles by Paul Rogerson – Page 28
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News
Stop moaning about your pension, m’lud
The sound of judicial bleating about what lesser mortals will surely view as a modest and sensible recalibration of judges’ pensions is hard to bear. It seems their lordships might even take new justice secretary Chris Grayling to court to block reforms that reflect the straitjacket imposed on public spending ...
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IBA 2012: Robinson urges lawyers to join climate fight
The International Bar Association has heeded a call from former Ireland president Mary Robinson (pictured) to join the fight against climate change. At its conference in Dublin, the organisation confirmed it will set up a taskforce to help fulfil the agreement reached at the UN ...
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Trade in your rights, urges Osborne
Can there be a better example of doublethink than George Osborne’s continuing insistence that ‘we are all in this together’, and his espousal of a multi-tier system of employment rights? On Monday, the chancellor unveiled a working rights waiver plan that sets an alarming precedent – citizens will effectively be ...
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IBA 2012: former president of American bar dismisses 'risky' ABS model
The immediate past-president of the American Bar Association has strongly denounced alternative business structures, arguing that non-lawyer investment in law firms compromises the client's best interests and undermines professional independence. William T (Bill) Robinson III gave the strongest indication yet that the US will ...
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IBA 2012: 'banker to the poor' calls for company law rethink
Nobel Peace laureate and anti-poverty campaigner Professor Muhammad Yunus today called for a fundamental rethink of company law in order to help the world's poor. The Bangladeshi banker and former economics professor wants to see a relaxation of the obligation on public company directors to ...
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IBA 2012: inside the bubble
At the risk of appearing graceless to my host, I can't help wondering if the International Bar Association ought to be more important than it is. After all, the world's biggest organisation of international bars and legal practitioners has this week convened what is thought to be the biggest gathering ...
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IBA 2012: public opinion 'immune' to torture since 9/11
People in liberal democracies have become 'immune' to the obscenity of torture since the US launched its 'war on terror', one of the world's great human rights champions told the International Bar Association conference today. Juan E Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other ...
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Austerity a challenge to rule of law says Nobel prizewinner
Nobel economics laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz yesterday urged lawyers worldwide to help safeguard access to justice in the face of deep cuts to state aid for legal representation. 'Inequality was growing before the financial crisis and has been exacerbated by it,' he told thousands of ...
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IBA 2012: ‘No western bias at International Criminal Court’
The UN's legal counsel has rebutted allegations that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is applying 'selective justice' by concentrating its attention on Africa. Patricia O'Brien also described as a 'misconception' claims that the US is 'in combat with' the court because it has not signed ...
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Judge speaks out on pensions
A solicitor judge unhappy with pension reforms has warned lawyer colleagues to ‘think carefully’ before ‘burning their bridges’ in private practice to join the bench. In a letter to the Gazette published today the judge, whose name is withheld on request, says they ‘no longer feel ...
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Honours even?
‘There’s nothing new under the sun,’ as my grandmother (92 and still going strong) is gnomically wont to opine. News that a committee of MPs has concluded that too many people - particularly civil servants - receive government honours ‘just for doing their jobs’ shows that the dictum retains ...
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Wheeldon should get the Buckles treatment
Just as respectable physicists once believed in the luminiferous ether, the mainstream commentariat has long been bewitched by the notion that public services are better and more efficiently run by organisations energised by the profit motive. A neoliberal article of faith for both main parties in recent years, it was ...
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Law firm bids for TV licence
A Birmingham law firm behind a consortium bidding to run a new TV station in the city plans to broadcast a regular legal programme. DBS Law is part of Bham TV, which plans to launch in October if it wins approval from Ofcom for a ...
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IFA rule under scrutiny
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has signalled that it is likely to scrap the requirement for lawyers to refer clients only to wholly independent financial advisers, as opposed to advisers contracted to sell the products of one or more providers.
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SRA outlines ‘race bias’ action plan
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has reasserted its commitment to transparency in regulatory decision-making following allegations of discrimination against black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers. Following talks with its External Implementation Group (EIG), which represents minority and BME practitioners, the regulator has drawn up a list ...
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Top-100 annual results show PEP up by 8%
The first batch of top-ranking law firms to publish annual financial results for 2011/12 have reported average growth in profit per equity partner (PEP) of 8% (see table below). However, this figure masks wide variations in trading performance which have also been complicated by merger activity.
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Separate jurisdiction could leave Wales in slow lane, Society says
The Law Society has warned that creating a separate legal jurisdiction in Wales could ‘dilute some of the benefits’ which accrue to the country from its present alignment with England. Such a move would also raise questions relating to whether there needs to be a ...
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Hart waves Welsh flag to boost legal jobs
The Welsh government will today launch a long-term strategy to attract thousands of new legal jobs to the country. Business minister Edwina Hart is targeting international, London-based law firms, which she will urge to consider Wales as the ‘business location of choice’ for expansion and ...
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Law Society vice-president's firm applies to be ABS
A virtual law firm set up by the incoming president of the Law Society has applied to become an alternative business structure, so that its lawyers can share profits without the regulatory burden of becoming a partner or director.
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PEP dips by a fifth at FFW as public sector contracts
Field Fisher Waterhouse has blamed the squeeze on public sector spending and investment in the firm’s German offices for a sharp fall in profits in the year to 30 April. Profit per equity partner dipped £100,000 on 2010/11, from £510,000 to £410,000, on revenues which rose ...