Last 3 months headlines – Page 1326
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JAC commissioner: 'let solicitors become judges'
The newly-appointed solicitor commissioner to the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has expressed scepticism about targets and quotas for diversity as well as the ‘tipping point’ method of favouring under-represented groups.
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'Safe harbour’ compliance advice for whole profession
The Law Society has announced it will offer ‘safe harbour’ compliance advice to the whole profession. The move follows Chancery Lane’s launch last month of the Compliance Reference Group (CRG) pilot for enquiries on regulation from top-100 firms. The service will now ...
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Post-legislative scrutiny of the 2000 FoI act
Last year the justice select committee, chaired by Sir Alan Beith, launched a call for written evidence for its post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI). The committee invited written evidence on the following issues (although those responding were free to discuss other matters): ...
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Franchises elicit every human response from lawyers, but rarely good-humoured scepticism
The emergence of law firm franchises - the subject of a feature by Neil Hodge this week - is an alien and unwelcome development for many solicitors. Negative responses range from fear to disdain. Franchises are not to everyone’s taste, but as a response to a changing legal market they ...
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Law firm trainee opportunities 'boosted by salary cut'
Removing the trainee minimum salary will increase training opportunities but at a cost of lower wages, a survey has found.
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Law centres will continue to fight for their clients and communities
by Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Federation As deliberation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act was nearing conclusion, I thought I saw in the eyes of several work acquaintances the kind of commiserating gaze reserved for terminally ill patients.
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Open letter: trainee solicitors and the minimum salary
We are a few of the thousands of students who have passed the LPC exam and are desperately waiting for training contracts. We and many of our other friends have been applying for training contracts for over two years since passing the LPC but without success. Some of us have ...
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‘Burdensome’ patent court should come to UK, say MPs
A group of MPs has slammed the European Union’s draft agreement on the creation of a centralised court to allow businesses to obtain a low-cost single patent covering 25 European countries. They said that negotiations have been rushed through, but insist that any such court must ...
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Name game
Obiter has always been impressed seeing professional lobbyist friends in action around a major parliamentary vote, especially when those friends are on the side of the angels. The lobbyists scour parliamentarians’ records and past passions, target MPs with relevant constituency interests, press case studies on those they identify as vulnerable ...
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Keep dreaming
Parallels between Lord Falconer and Kevin Costner (pictured) are scarce, Obiter has to admit. But the former lord chancellor evoked the spirit of the body-guarding Prince of Thieves last week at the grandly-titled SRA Regulation Symposium. In keeping with the theme of the day, Tony Blair’s former flatmate was asked ...
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'Interesting' insight
It’s getting on for two years since the government launched its crackdown on local authority newspapers. Communities secretary Eric Pickles declared war on what he famously described as ‘town hall Pravdas’ wasting taxpayers’ money and time.Lately, however, ministers have stopped beating that drum - hardly surprising when Whitehall departments continue ...
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Competition
European Union - Rules on competition - European Commission finding defendant companies entering into cartel regarding provision of heavy electrical equipment used in power grids National Grid Electricity Transmission Plc v ABB Ltd and other companies: ChD (Mr ...
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Judicial review
Specialist services - Applicant hospital trust providing paediatric and congenital cardiac services - Trust challenging consultation process R (on the application of Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust) v Joint Committee of Primary Care ...
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We must adapt to LASPO
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act received royal assent last week. The consequence of this will be that, in some very important areas such as housing and welfare benefits law, vulnerable members of society will find legal advice and representation in the courts, funded by legal ...
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Justice chief to step down after 11 years
Roger Smith, the director of human rights group Justice, has announced that he is to stand down at the end of October after 11 years in the job. Smith, a solicitor and Gazette columnist, said he intends to do more journalism and work on a book ...
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Regulators agree to share data on ABSs
A cross-profession agreement should ensure that alternative business structures have to deal with only one regulator. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed this week by regulators from the legal, accountancy, financial and property sectors will enable more information to be shared, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ...
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Singapore move for College of Law
The College of Law (CoL) has formed a strategic collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Legal Education with a view to establishing a permanent presence in the state. The move is expected to be the first of many such projects made possible by the college’s new ownership structure. ...
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Disclosure
Confidential information - Injunction against disclosure of information - Interim injunction BUQ v HRE: Queen's Bench Division (Mr Justice Tugendhat): 29 March 2012 The Queen's Bench Division allowed the defendant's ...
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Employment
Discrimination - Sex discrimination Hawkins v Atex Group Ltd and others: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Mr Justice Underhill): 13 March 2012 The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed the employee's appeal against the ...