All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 28
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News
Recruitment on the rise for private practice
Corporate and private client firms are stepping up their recruitment, experts said today, as public sector bodies seek to reduce their headcount. Recruiters said large firms have returned to their previous practice of sending lengthy ‘vacancy lists’ to recruiters, in a sign of a strengthening of ...
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Downing Street backing for Djanogly over Telegraph claims
Downing Street has expressed ‘full confidence’ in justice minister Jonathan Djanogly, who is in charge of legal aid, following claims in the Telegraphtoday that the minister hired private detectives to find out what his colleagues thought of him. The newspaper reported that Djanogly paid a private ...
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News
Guidance on ABS discussions may be amended
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to review its current guidance on what arrangements firms may enter into with other businesses when alternative business structures come into force in October 2011. However, the SRA board was emphatic that ‘those in control of law firms must be under ...
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News
SRA ‘unlikely’ to relax ABS restrictions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...
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News
SRA steps up ARP enforcement action
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has visited 88 firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) since July, as part of its tougher enforcement strategy to clamp down on ‘financially unstable’ firms in the pool. The regulator announced a new enforcement regime in July designed to address the ...
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News
Rules on ABS discussions unlikely to be relaxed
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to relax its rules on allowing firms to enter into deals with other businesses in advance of the licensing of alternative business structures, a paper prepared by the regulator has indicated. The paper, which will be discussed by the SRA ...
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News
Legal executives seek right to conduct reserved probate work
Will-writers and legal executives could be given the right to apply for grants of probate by next March, under powers being sought by the Institute of Legal Executives. However, the Law Society has warned that the move could give ‘false comfort’ to consumers. ...
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News
Could acting for both sides change the nature of the conveyancer’s role?
The Gazette reported recently that the Legal Services Consumer Panel, which is the body set up by the Legal Services Board to advise it on what is in the best interests of consumers, is generally in favour of letting one solicitor act for both buyer and seller in a conveyancing ...
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News
Firms seek to launch High Court challenge to LSC tender process
Some 31 firms across the north-east have joined forces in a bid to launch a High Court challenge to the Legal Services Commission’s recent family tender process, the Gazette has learned. The group of firms in Teesside, Durham and Newcastle, led by Helen Scourfield, associate at ...
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Call to SRA to loosen solicitor conduct rules
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has called for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to scrap the conduct provisions that prevent a solicitor from acting for both seller and purchaser, and for both lender and borrower in a conveyancing transaction. Responding to the SRA’s current consultation on its ...
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News
Gazette seeks nominations for Legal Personality of the Year Award
The Gazette is looking for legal professionals who are ‘influential, inspirational and in the public eye’ for its inaugural Gazette Legal Personality of the Year award, with just over a week to go until the deadline for nominations. The award aims to recognise those who have ...
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News
Redundancies predicted over family legal aid tender
Some 90% of family lawyers think the legal aid tender result will lead to widespread redundancies across the profession, according to a survey of Resolution members. The poll also showed that 86% of respondents whose firms were unsuccessful in the tender have appealed. ...
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News
Lack of capital putting firms at risk of Halliwells-style collapse
The legal market could see another law firm fall in a Halliwells-style collapse in the next 12 months due to lack of capital and high property costs, experts have told the Gazette. Accountants also warned that the demise of the north-west firm may make it more ...
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News
Firms await result of family tender appeals
Hundreds of legal aid solicitors are currently awaiting the outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s appeals process for family legal aid contracts. The deadline for submitting appeals was 6 August, and the LSC has 28 days to process the appeals.
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News
Conveyancers should be free to act for both sides, consumer panel says
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has called for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to scrap the conduct provisions that prevent a solicitor from acting for both seller and purchaser, and for both lender and borrower in a conveyancing transaction. Responding to the SRA’s current consultation on its ...
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News
Why civil partnerships for heterosexual couples could be a good idea
The Gazette reported last week that there has been a surge in cohabitiation cases as a result of the recession.
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News
OFT seeking costs analysis over will regulation
The Office of Fair Trading is not opposed to will-writing becoming a reserved activity, but is seeking a costs benefit assessment before there is any extension of regulation in the field, it has told the Legal Services Board. Speaking at a recent LSB seminar on the ...
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News
Research shows ‘incompetence’ in will-writing
Two-thirds of trust and estate practitioners have encountered ‘incompetence or dishonesty’ in the will-writing market in the past year, according to research published today. The study has prompted the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), which conducted the survey, to renew its calls for better ...
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News
Law Society calls for suspension of family tender result
The Law Society has called on the Legal Services Commission to suspend the implementation of the family legal aid tender round in a letter to its chief executive Carolyn Downs. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said ‘the public interest demands’ that the tender round should ...
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News
Family judges alarmed over legal aid tender
The head of the family courts has warned the Legal Services Commission that he has been ‘inundated’ by family judges expressing serious concerns over the outcome of the family legal aid tender, in a letter seen by the Gazette. Lord Justice Wall has written to the ...