All articles by Paul Rogerson – Page 29
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News
Record profits for Eversheds as the good times roll again
Eversheds has returned to growth and posted record profits after three years of declining or flat revenues. Profit per equity partner climbed 14% to £632,000 in 2011/12, while income climbed 3% to £366m. Net profit grew 10%. In a statement, the firm said all major ...
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News
SRA chief wants more trainee positions
Solicitors Regulation Authority board chair Charles Plant (pictured) today calls on the Law Society to launch a campaign encouraging solicitors to employ more trainees, after the regulator abolished the minimum salary requirement. And he insists there is ‘little evidence’ that the 30-year-old mandatory minimum ever met its stated objectives of ...
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‘Clumsy’ regulation could thwart innovation, Chancery Lane warns
‘Clumsy’ intervention by regulators to ensure quality could stymie the development of innovative legal services, the Law Society has warned. Regulatory action should be used as a ‘tool of last resort’ in this regard, so firms are free to develop new ways of serving clients, it says. ...
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'Customer' or 'client'?
I popped in to the doctor’s yesterday but I had to wait because my GP was busy with another customer. Actually, I was a bit late for my appointment. I’d just got off the phone to my child’s teacher. She’s always keen to chat because my family is one of ...
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News
News focus: progress report on legal profession
The Law Society’s 28th Annual Statistical Report might appear to be a rather desiccated agglomeration of facts, tables and bar charts. It is not an avowedly political document and, for that reason, raises more questions than it answers. As a snapshot of changing trends in the profession, however, the survey ...
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LSB chair brushes aside critics in robust defence of liberalisation
The chair of the Legal Services Board yesterday rebutted allegations that the quango is overreaching itself by seeking to 'micro-manage’ professional regulation. 'People and glasshouses spring to mind,’ David Edmonds (pictured) told a seminar on regulation at the Royal Festival Hall organised by Russell-Cooke and chaired ...
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News
Law firms remain cautious despite profit growth
Law firms continue to rebuild profitability while keeping a tight rein on overheads, according to a respected annual bellwether of the sector’s financial health. Practices are also relatively bullish about future fees, with most expecting a 3% rise in 2012.
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Big Brother in the Big Society
Civil liberties have few friends in government – only in opposition. Witness the coalition’s decision to hand police and intelligence agencies far-reaching new powers to monitor emails, phone calls and websites. ‘Big Brother WILL be watching you,’ booms today’s Independent.
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News
Ditch the Porsche and fund an ‘apprentice’
A packet of wine gums at a provincial cinema; a large cappuccino at Starbucks; or maybe 10 minutes of Premier League football. That’s what a trainee will be able to buy for an hour’s work when the Solicitors Regulation Authority does away with the minimum wage.
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Interpreting the interpreters’ strike
‘Know your own strength!’ the historian and intellectual E.P. Thompson told the biggest central London demonstration for years, on 25 October 1992. But we’ll never know whether the 150,000 who marched that day did know it, since they were protesting against the Major government’s emasculation of Britain’s coalmining industry.
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Law Society president: split in profession to end
The president of the Law Society expects the 180-year-old division between solicitors and barristers to wither away as a result of the reforms set in motion by the Legal Services Act. It is ‘inevitable’ the professions will ‘need to revisit the question whether [they] should continue ...
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'Gang of Five' in late bid to halt civil litigation reforms
An alliance of lawyer pressure groups will this week make a last-ditch bid to halt the government’s civil litigation reforms.
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News
Flexible working protocol launched
The Law Society has launched a flexible working protocol for legal firms, after research last year identified resistance to the practice is the ‘single most significant obstacle’ to women reaching senior roles. The protocol presents a clear business case for flexible working, including the retention of ...
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News
SRA to phase in online PC renewals
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to phase in its new online practising certificate registration and renewal system, following delays caused by implementation problems. Selected firms will begin using the new system this week, after the regulator decided that it does not plan to revert to paper-based renewals for 2011/12. A ...
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Plans to boost London-based firms abroad
New proposals to ‘cut through the regulatory maze’ inhibiting London-based international law firms and help them develop more unified global businesses have been published. The Solicitors Regulation Authority wants to give big cross-border practices more flexibility to operate in any form allowed in other countries, and also to incentivise foreign ...
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News
Ombudsman will name lawyers and firms ‘in public interest’
The Legal Ombudsman has taken the highly controversial decision to name lawyers and law firms in circumstances where there is a ‘pattern of complaints’ against them or when it is in the ‘public interest’ to do so. The regulator denied that its object is to ...
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News
Reforms will cut claims against NHS in half
Legal aid cuts and the Jackson reforms will slash the number of claims brought against the NHS by 50%, a senior member of the Civil Justice Council has predicted. Peter Smith, managing director of FirstAssist Legal Expenses Insurance, told Saturday’s Bar Conference that Jackson in particular ...
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Watchdog’s warning to legal regulators
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has today challenged regulators including the SRA to make the new compliance regime work, or face being replaced by a single regulator independent of the profession. In its response to a Legal Services Board consultation on the boundaries of ...
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News
Excellence Awards winners revealed
Jo Cooper, chair of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, was this week named Law Society Gazette Legal Personality of the Year in the Law Society’s annual excellence awards. The accolade recognises Cooper’s sterling efforts in promoting the interests of solicitor higher court ...
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News
Lenders warned over panel charges
The Law Society has warned mortgage lenders against following the example of Santander by charging a fee for conveyancing panel membership. Chancery Lane told the Council of Mortgage Lenders that such a trend would make house buying more expensive, and could see solicitors applying for several ...