Last 3 months headlines – Page 1313
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Santander makes Conveyancing Quality Scheme mandatory
Santander has become the first lender to make membership of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme mandatory for firms applying to be on its conveyancing panel. The bank reopened its panel to new members in August, with the introduction of a £199 application fee. A Santander spokesman confirmed that CQS ...
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Clarke to promote UK legal services
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke was preparing to update City lawyers on the government’s blueprint for promoting UK legal services abroad as the Gazette went to press. He was expected to reiterate the government’s opposition to European contract law harmonisation and reassure foreign markets that alternative ...
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Legal aid cuts: the fight goes on
Campaign groups have vowed to continue their fight against the government’s legal aid cuts, following the rejection of opposition amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill by a committee of MPs. The Public Bill Committee, charged with scrutinising the proposals, last week ...
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LSC chief’s exit worries lawyer groups
Lawyers have paid tribute to departing Legal Services Commission (LSC) chief executive Carolyn Downs, following the announcement that she is leaving to take up a senior role in local government. Downs took over as chief executive of the LSC in March 2010 on secondment from the ...
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Lucy Scott-Moncrieff among AWS award winners
Law Society vice-president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff was named best woman solicitor in a legal aid practice at the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) third annual awards ceremony held in London last week. She is pictured (centre) with AWS chairwoman Joy Van Cooten (right) and award judge ...
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Vickers review puts lawyers centre stage
Banks’ legal and compliance departments are expected to grow with the implementation of reforms recommended this week by the Independent Commission on Banking, chaired by Sir John Vickers (pictured). The centre of power for corporate counsel will be located firmly on the retail side and ...
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A return to articles of clerkship would help solve the access problem
I was amused to read Michael Robinson’s letter suggesting a solicitor apprenticeship as a way of reducing the cost of training. What he describes is virtually a return to the articles of clerkship, through which I and countless other solicitors entered the profession until entry was restricted to graduates some ...
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Keep cameras away from court
I read with interest that John Ryley, head of Sky News, wrote to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke calling for court proceedings to be televised. While Mr Ryley is to be applauded for his concern for our justice system, to what extent the demands placed on him ...
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A costly word
All firms must by 6 October alter their paper and all else to state ‘authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority’, we are reminded by Charles Plant in the Gazette of 8 September. How many hours did this decision consume? How many hours will be ...
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Distorted portrayal
The Gazette report of my speech last week to the Westminster Legal Policy Forum was a distorted portrayal of the views I expressed. I was not referring to ‘ABS licensing’ as a shambles, and nor were my remarks directed specifically at the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
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Shaggy dog stories
Helen Mahy, group company secretary and general counsel at the National Grid, has another string to her bow. She writes children’s stories that feature the adventures of Basil, a black and white spaniel. Basil is based on Mahy’s own dog of the same name and ...
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Going backwards and moving forward
Almost as irritating as the upward inflexion at the end of every sentence uttered by young folk (which turns every statement into a question), is the proliferation of the term ‘going/moving forward’. This has crept into business jargon like bindweed, it pains Obiter to relate, and deserves to be trampled ...
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O tempora, o mores
Being a crusty old soul, Obiter abhors change. Having grudgingly accepted that outcomes-focused regulation is going to happen, however, we popped into the SRA’s London roadshow, held over the river at Glaziers Hall, Southwark, hoping for an enlightening crash course.
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Caught out
Cricketing solicitor Pete Dodd has been back in touch to say that he was not, as he had thought, the only member of the profession to play in the British team in the Lawyers Cricket World Cup in Barbados. Andrew Bretherton, a partner at Edwin ...
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Clarke likens ABS revolution to financial ‘Big Bang’ of 1986
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has predicted that the advent of alternative business structures could have as dramatic an impact on legal services as the so-called ‘Big Bang’ of 1986 had on the financial sector. Speaking this morning at a conference on promoting UK legal services ...
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Flaws in the quality assurance scheme for advocates threaten the criminal justice system
It is over five years since a single, late, unconsulted, unevidenced sentence in Lord Carter’s report on legal aid recommended that there should be a quality assurance scheme for advocates. Since then, groups from the bar, Law Society, judiciary and the Legal Services Commission have been arguing about exactly what ...
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Bid to exempt Trafigura-type claims from reform fails
Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs have rejected an amendment to legislation that would exempt claims brought by foreigners against UK multinationals from civil litigation reforms. The Public Bill Committee debated the amendment to the Legal Aid, Punishment of Offenders and Sentencing Bill, tabled by Labour ...
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Why was Jack Straw unable to move against referral fees when in office?
Did Jack Straw’s late intervention spell the end for personal injury referral fees? That the government changed its view last week is a good thing. Even many lawyers who gained instructions via such arrangements remained deeply discomfited by their existence. So ...
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Straw in line of fire over referral fee bill
Lawyers and medical experts have hit back at Jack Straw over comments he made yesterday while seeking to persuade MPs to criminalise PI referral fees. The former justice secretary introduced a ten-minute rule bill outlining proposals to make offering referral fees for victims’ details a criminal ...