All articles by Paul Rogerson – Page 30
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News
Halliwells’ administration - nice work if you can get it
When I grow up I want to be an insolvency practitioner. That was my rather facetious thought upon reading BDO’s latest administrators’ report on the collapse of Halliwells. Nothing to do with the defunct firm’s travails as such – though since RBS is down over £15m it looks like taxpayers ...
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LSB launches investigation to consider regulation of will-writing and probate
The Legal Services Board is to launch a formal investigation that will consider regulation of will-writing, following a recommendation from its consumer watchdog. The regulatory overseer stressed, however, that ‘a monopoly for solicitors is not the answer’. In its second major piece ...
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Lenders vet solicitors on Google
Credit checking law firms and monitoring the timeliness with which they register charges are among measures being considered and in some cases adopted by lenders seeking to clamp down on mortgage fraud. One large lender is also demanding the introduction of a compulsory scheme under ...
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Striking contrast - white-collar militancy
In 1984 I was at secondary school in Wakefield, where the playing fields backed on to a training college for West Yorkshire Police. One afternoon, while meandering reluctantly to rugby practice, I encountered an extraordinary scene. Hundreds of uniformed police ...
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Law Society winds up final salary pension scheme
The Law Society is to wind up its deficit-stricken final salary pension scheme, a move that chief executive Desmond Hudson expects to save the organisation £12.5m a year from 2012. Agreement has been reached with global retirement and savings specialist MetLife for a buy-out of ...
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Profits rebound as legal firms slash overheads
Law firms are slowly rebuilding profitability and beginning to hire again, according to a respected annual bellwether of the sector’s financial health. Support staff numbers remain under pressure, however, and practices are bearing down heavily on non-salary overheads to boost the bottom line. ...
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News focus: sole practitioners face 'perfect storm'
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the sole practitioner appear greatly exaggerated. Despite their near-universal hostility to alternative business structures, delegates at last weekend’s SPG conference in Harrogate were surprisingly upbeat about the ‘perfect storm’ they must weather. ...
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Two new insurers set to enter solicitors’ PII market
Two new, A-rated insurers are poised to enter the professional indemnity insurance market, adding much-needed volume to a market that is again expected to be tough this year. Leading broker Richard Brown told the Sole Practitioners Conference in Harrogate yesterday that he is ‘90% of the ...
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News
Shadow justice minister attacks Jackson costs reforms
Shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter (pictured) called on personal injury lawyers to get their clients involved in the fight to amend the government’s proposals on civil litigation costs. Solicitors have until 30 June to respond, and the Labour MP for Hammersmith stressed how difficult it is ...
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APIL warns of ‘dumbed down’ lawyers post-ABS
The new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) today warned of the emergence of a new breed of 'dumbed-down, legal-lite' lawyer following the introduction of alternative business structures. Addressing APIL's annual conference, David Bott (pictured) predicted that 'potentially massive' new entrants to ...
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News
Firms ignoring ABS impact are 'sticking their heads in sand'
Most solicitors will ‘survive and prosper’ in the revolutionised legal services market, but those who ignore the likely impact of alternative business structures (ABSs) are ‘sticking their heads in the sand’. That was the stark warning from David Taylor, chair of the Law Society’s membership ...
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News
Law Society of Scotland defers constitutional reform
A three-year project to modernise the constitution of the 10,500-strong Law Society of Scotland has run into difficulties, after solicitors failed to agree on the proposed changes. At the Edinburgh-based body’s annual meeting last Friday, a motion to rescind the current constitution won approval, with ...
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News
Law Society of Scotland members stage mass revolt
More than 160 members of the Law Society of Scotland have called for the body to be abolished in its present form, citing their ‘complete lack of confidence’ in its ability to represent the interests of the profession north of the border.
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Profits continue to fall at Scottish legal firms
Scotland's solicitors’ profession is becoming increasingly polarised as the downturn continues, new figures show. Smaller firms in Glasgow and Edinburgh are continuing to suffer sharp declines in profitability, but the biggest practices, including cross-border firms, are showing strong signs of recovery. ...
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News
ABSs ‘won’t drive top firms south’
The Law Society of Scotland has voiced confidence that the nation’s biggest cross-border firms will remain domiciled in Edinburgh, even though they are expected to enjoy less freedom to restructure and raise investment than their English counterparts after the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs).
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News
Leading Sheffield firm falls victim to downturn
Century-old Sheffield law firm Ashton Morton Slack LLP has collapsed into administration, becoming the latest regional casualty of the economic downturn. Administrators from BDO, appointed by the limited liability partnership’s members last Friday, blamed the firm’s demise on cashflow problems arising from declining volumes of work and increasing overheads. ...
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'Mixed practice' warning for publicly funded barristers
Incoming Bar Council chairman Peter Lodder QC today warned publicly funded barristers to diversify or face a bleak future. Legal aid rate cuts have been ‘too numerous and too deep’ for young barristers to survive on that single source of income, he told Bar ...
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Big majority backs free legal advice
More than eight out of 10 people believe civil legal advice should be free for people on average earnings or below. This conviction is consistent across all social classes, a nationwide opinion poll has found, raising fresh questions over the government’s mandate for swingeing legal aid cuts.
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News
The Solicitors Benevolent Association has a modern makeover
Many years ago Establishment publications like the Telegraph carried advertisements for the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association. This charity’s raison d’être appeared to be to ease the money problems of well-bred Home Counties types who had fallen on hard times. I remember thinking then that this must have been a ‘tough ...
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Earn CPD points with the Gazette
Today sees the launch of Gazette CPD, through which you can gain up to 10 CPD hours by answering questions about our articles. Each month (excluding August and December), an assessment consisting of 15 questions based on four articles published in the previous month’s Gazette will ...