Last 3 months headlines – Page 1247
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Firms must cut staff, warns RBS
Law firms may have to cut thousands more solicitors to restore profits to pre-2008 levels, according to Royal Bank of Scotland’s 2012 review of the legal profession. The report says that at least 5% of fee-earners may have to be culled.
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Many contributions offer fresh and original insights on the topics to hand
One of the more gratifying aspects of the development of the Gazette’s website in the last three years has been the democratisation of comment on our content. Some readers may still not be aware there are comment threads on news stories. Many contributions offer fresh and original insights on the ...
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UK lawyers leading Camp Ashraf challenge
by Hossein Abedini, a member of parliament in exile of Iranian Resistance At a glance one might ask why UK lawyers are doing all they can to help 3,400 Iranian refugees in a camp based some 3,000 miles away in Iraq. The two groups are not ...
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Breaking the silence
It is perhaps ironic that a lecture by a judge on when it might be appropriate for judges to speak to reporters should have remained unnoticed by reporters until two weeks after it was delivered.
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MPs call for review of legal aid cuts
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has added its voice to calls for an independent assessment of the impact of the government’s cuts to legal aid. In a hard-hitting report on Ministry of Justice finances, the committee said the government’s own impact assessment ‘has ...
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Spectres at the feast
When you’re amid like-minded souls in the comforting surroundings of the Inner Temple’s Grand Hall, it’s easy to feel invincible. Especially when there’s nearly unlimited wine flowing (thank you the Nuffield Foundation). So it was something akin to a victory rally last week when the ...
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Taking the biscuit
Anyone wondering whether those in government are hep to modern technology should be in no doubt after justice minister Lord McNally’s performance at a conference last week. Responding to a question on whether the forthcoming defamation bill would be compatible with the EU directive on ...
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Higher calling
Hitesh Keshvala of London firm Ally Lindsay has risen to the challenge of claiming to be the country’s youngest higher rights advocate. ‘My date of birth is 1/6/87 and I qualified with higher rights on 15 November 2011, making me a higher rights advocate at 24 years and 167 days.’ ...
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Taking the PI
Toilet humour is not usually welcome at any time but it got a laugh on this occasion. As the men queued during a break in Wednesday’s Claims Management Conference in Manchester, one moaned about the length of the line. ‘Give it a year and there’ll be ...
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Claimant firms warned of wind of change
A leading insurance solicitor has urged claimant firms to follow the lead of defendants and change their business model. Anthony Hughes, chief executive of national firm Horwich Farrelly, told the 2012 Claims Management Conference yesterday that change is inevitable in the personal injury market. ...
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‘Primordial role’ no excuse for gender stereotyping, ECHR rules
Gender stereotyping can breach the rights of men and women alike, irrespective of prevailing social attitudes or perceptions of ‘man’s primordial role’, Europe’s human rights watchdog ruled today. It said that it would not be in the public interest to allow someone’s choice of employment to imply that he or ...
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Lukewarm reaction to Osborne's £20bn loan scheme
The legal sector has given a tepid welcome to the £20bn low-interest loan scheme announced by the chancellor in the runup to this week’s budget. William Arthur, consultant at professional services consultancy Kerma Partners, said: ‘There is no sense of a pent-up and unsatisfied demand ...
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Should lawyers welcome the end of the 50p tax rate?
There will be plenty of Gazette readers who do not benefit from the scrapping of the 50p rate of income tax on earnings over £150,000 - though a decade spent covering the City and corporate parts of the legal market means I know very great numbers who are set to ...
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Lawyers condemn budget’s £20m legal funding gesture
Chancellor George Osborne today promised £20m a year in new funding for the not-for-profit advice sector over the next two years. The sum was immediately and widely condemned as being not enough to replace shortfalls left by spending cuts. The announcement, in today’s budget, makes available ...
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No referral exemption for charities, Lords rule
The House of Lords has blocked attempts to exempt charities and trade unions from the referral fee ban. The house was debating proposed amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill.
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Women’s criminal justice policy proposal fails
A proposal to establish a women’s criminal justice policy unit within the Ministry of Justice foundered yesterday after a vote on an amendment to the Legal Aid Sentencing and Criminal Justice Bill was tied. Peers voted evenly, with 217 votes for and 217 against, on an ...
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Alarm over Chinese allegiance oath
Chinese lawyers must promise to ‘fulfil the sacred mission of socialism’ or be denied a licence to practise, the country’s justice ministry ordered yesterday. Among other pledges, China’s lawyers must also now swear ‘loyalty to the motherland and its people’ and vow to ‘uphold the leadership ...
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Outrage at £2.60 wage proposal for trainees
Trainee solicitors could be paid as little as £2.60 an hour in their first year under an amendment to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's proposals for ending the minimum wage. The Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) today condemned the move as another step towards making the legal profession the ‘preserve ...
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Advocacy quality scheme deal ‘imminent’
An announcement to break the deadlock over the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) is ‘imminent’, the director of the Bar Standards Board said yesterday.