Last 3 months headlines – Page 1164
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Law centres ponder structure switch
Law centres are exploring a range of new business models to survive – but few are likely to take the alternative business structure route, the director of the centres’ umbrella body said this week. Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Network (formerly the ...
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New York offices reopen post-Sandy
New York lawyers are back at work after the city’s battering last week by ‘superstorm’ Sandy. Some firms were forced to close after the storm left offices and homes without power and caused staff to be evacuated from their homes or stranded without public transport. Clifford ...
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APIL slams £500k ‘token gesture’ crime victim fund
The government is to push through cuts of £50m from compensation to crime victims - but will provide a £500,000 hardship fund to help some victims excluded under the reform. Lawyers denounced the measure as ‘a token gesture’. Justice minister Helen Grant told parliament last week ...
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SRA rebuffed over fining powers
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is reviewing its options after the Ministry of Justice declined its request for tougher fining powers against ‘traditional’ law firms. In May, the regulator applied to the MoJ to have the maximum fine it can impose on law firms raised from £2,000 ...
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Chancery Lane hits out at LETR over claim
The Law Society has hit back at claims that the current system of legal education and training is unfit for purpose. In a critical response to a discussion paper published by the cross-professional Legal Education and Training Review (LETR), the Society says it is ‘not aware of clear evidence that ...
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Firms must rethink how to tap into energy boom
Flashpoints in the international energy industry, from oil drilling in the Arctic to gas field disputes in the eastern Mediterranean, will mean big opportunities for law firms – if they are prepared to reassess how they practise, according to City consultants. A report published last week ...
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PII warning over unrated insurers
Cash-strapped law firms have been driven to obtaining professional indemnity insurance from unrated insurers this year, risking regulatory sanctions where an insurer becomes insolvent, a leading broker and the Law Society have warned. Unrated firms, listed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, are those without a ...
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Privilege fight taken to Supreme Court
Insurer Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend the rule of legal professional privilege was heard this week. The case follows a 2010 Court of Appeal ruling that legal privilege should not apply to any professional group other than qualified lawyers. The Law Society won permission last year to ...
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PC renewal system makes further progress
More than 1,000 practising certificate renewals were approved within five days of the 2012 process opening, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said this week, despite a software bug causing frustration in the first days. Registration through the mySRA website opened on 1 November for solicitors renewing ...
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Goodbye to the profession
I must agree with David Kirwan’s comments regarding the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates.
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Why a lawyer makes a difference
The article about Lord McNally’s speech to the Legal Aid Practitioners’ Group brought memories flooding back to me. Fifteen years ago we asked our local education authority for a statement of special educational needs for our second son, who suffers from dyslexia and who was getting ...
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Unjustifiable PC renewal cost
I have just renewed my practising certificate for 2012/13. Between last year and this, our firm’s annual turnover has fallen by £13,000. You will therefore understand my astonishment to find that, although last year I paid £1,551 to renew, this year it has cost £2,278. ...
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ECJ blocks Hungarian retirement law
The Hungarian government’s widely criticised attempt to cull the country’s judiciary by lowering the retirement age of judges to 62 has run foul of the European Court of Justice. The court ruled this week that the changes constituted unjustified discrimination.
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Stamp out referral fees
The Law Society could not be further from the mark in accusing the Bar Council of ‘confusing the public interest with barristers’ interests’ in relation to the guidance which the Bar Council offers the profession on referral fees.
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Cause for complaint
Chief legal ombudsman Adam Sampson appears unwilling to engage in a proper dialogue, insisting as he does that the consultation about publication is ended and the decision to publish is fixed. He did not mention the judicial review claims against the LeO that this policy has encouraged.
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Dyson dismay
I was dismayed to read that the master of the rolls has called upon the profession to ensure that the forthcoming ‘reforms’ do not undermine access to justice. Just how does he expect solicitors to achieve this?
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Anachronistic nonsense
Now that the Bar Council has decided to imitate the stupidity of our side of the profession and allow barristers to practise in an alternative business structure, why is it continuing to maintain the pretence of the cab-rank principle? This only ever existed in the way ...
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Learning curve: doing an MBA
Today’s challenging economy combined with uncertainty in the legal sector has brought more lawyers around to the idea of supplementing their legal knowledge with a business education. Training contracts are being deferred, redundancies are continuing and lawyers are considering their career options. A Masters in Business Administration (MBA) is a ...
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All fright on the night
Last week’s London Legal Support Trust Halloween thrash was held in the appropriately sepulchral precincts of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn. The drinks reception in the Hunterian Museum of anatomy beforehand was certainly not suitable for those of a nervous disposition. Jar after ...
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Bare essentials
As Gazette readers will know, debate rumbles on between lawyers and the Legal Services Commission about the timeliness of payments. Invited by the Law Society president to crowd-source solutions for parts of the legal profession that are struggling, Obiter cast a productive set of yeux ...