Last 3 months headlines – Page 1250
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Deferred prosecution could come to UK, says Alderman
Legislation to enable US-style deferred prosecutions for corporate crime may feature in the Queen’s speech on 9 May. Richard Alderman (pictured), outgoing director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said last week that deferred prosecution - under which the authorities and a business agree a ...
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News focus: no to ‘patronising’ quotas
Women lawyers overwhelmingly oppose the introduction of quotas as a tool to help more of them into senior positions in firms, it emerged at an international conference last week. As the proportion of women on boards of FTSE100 companies looks set to pass 25%, the ...
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Is it not time for law firms to be bold and mandate change?
‘Personally, I am not a great fan of quotas, but I like the results they bring. We need quotas to break the glass ceiling before returning to normal.’ So said EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding recently, introducing a consultation on whether to bring in quotas for women in company boardrooms.
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Accreditation can help firms meet fresh challenges
by Joe Gibson, a practice manager at Beeley & Co in Stockport There are about 11,000 firms of solicitors in England and Wales and 1,082 legal practices have the Lexcel accreditation. So why is it that so many firms have either not achieved the Lexcel accreditation ...
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Media distortion obscures human rights
Should you, for any bizarre reason, feel like a period of abuse from outraged members of the public, try defending the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in the Abu Qatada case. One outraged viewer of a TV slot three weeks distant is still calling daily to express his anger. ...
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Hill start
Biking is a theme at Southport personal injury firm Fletchers, so it was appropriate that Tommy Hill, British Superbike champion, was invited to open its new offices. Fletchers sponsored Hill at the start of his career in 2003. Hill knows a bit about personal injuries: his early racing life included ...
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Act now to avoid a budget-day headache
Speculation has been rife in recent weeks that tax relief on pension contributions could take a hit in the budget next week. Partners urgently need to consider that it could be a quid pro quo for a reduction in the 50% rate - and ...
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Concern over new powers to prosecute cartels
Legal specialists have warned that a new anti-competition regime announced by the government today could lower the bar to prosecutions, creating the risk of miscarriages of justice. The reform, proposed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, would merge the Competition Commission and the ...
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SRA sets back compliance officer deadline
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has postponed the date for firms to nominate compliance officers after another technological delay. The new deadline has not yet been announced. Firms had been expected to put forward two staff members by the end of this month, but with the online ...
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Kettling no violation, ECHR rules
The ‘kettling’ of protesters and others by the Metropolitan Police in 2001 did not violate their human right to liberty and security, the European Court of Human Rights ruled today. The case was brought to the Strasbourg court by a demonstrator and three passers-by who had ...
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My experience as a conveyancing client
Just over two years ago my colleague Rachel Rothwell, now editor of Litigation Funding magazine, wrote a blog with the same title as this one. Rothwell shopped around a bit, asked questions about referral fees, and eventually settled on a licensed conveyancer above a couple of ...
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SRA 'grey areas' an issue for troubled firms
The implementation of the Legal Services Act in October 2011 has brought a significant wave of changes and challenges to the legal profession, which is only just starting to be felt by law firms. Law firms are facing several challenges and opportunities: new regulatory structures ...
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Libel reform coming, says McNally
Libel reform should not be delayed by the ‘Leveson tsunami’, the justice minister Lord McNally said today, giving a strong hint that a reform bill would feature in the government’s next legislative programme. ‘I would be immensely disappointed if it wasn’t in the Queen’s speech,’ McNally told a conference organised ...
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ECHR vindicates UK for second time in a week
The UK government has been cleared of human rights violations for the second time this week, following a ruling by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights that by suspending a doctor from practice it had not violated his right to ‘peaceful enjoyment of possessions’.
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Question time
It took a month, but the Gazette’s revelations of difficulties with Ministry of Justice interpreting arrangements have finally reached the top. Labour MP Gisela Stuart last week used prime minister’s questions to ask about the quality of service experienced by West Midlands Police from translating contractor Applied Language Solutions. The ...
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Honouring the legend of Darrow
The American lawyer Clarence Darrow (pictured) did not come to the annual wreath-tossing in his honour last week. But then he hasn’t appeared since his death in 1938. Darrow, never a believer in Spiritualism, said that if he ever did return it would be in Jackson Park, Chicago, on the ...
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Message to Cameron: there is no compensation culture
Dear Mr Cameron, I am writing to you as my MP but also, more importantly, as my prime minister. I voted in the Conservatives because I felt that Labour had not done what they promised. I now find myself furious and pretty ...
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Law Society slams barristers’ public access plan
Proposals to allow barristers with less than three years' experience to accept work directly from the public without supervision are ‘an abdication of regulatory risk,’ according to the Law Society. Responding to a Bar Standards Board (BSB) consultation on relaxing the public access rules, Chancery Lane called for ‘clear and ...
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Should surplus lawyers sue?
In New York suits have been filed against 14 law schools on behalf of alumni who have been unable to start the legal career they had set their hearts on. It would be easy to sneer at what looks, from a certain angle, like the plaintiffs’ ...
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Rights commission in disarray following factional splits
Chaos reigns among the members of the commission set up by the prime minister to draft a replacement for the Human Rights Act (HRA), leaked emails and a resignation suggest. According to documents leaked to the press, one Tory member of the commission has accused the ...