A round-up of the week’s news

7 March

A lawyer who spent more than 60 years working for a law firm in Hull founded by his father has joined another firm in the East Yorkshire city. Patrick Burstall has been appointed a consultant solicitor in the private capital team at Rollits LLP. Burstall joined his father Bryan’s firm Burstalls in 1961 and qualified as a solicitor in 1968.  

A specialist defendant firm has posted another year of higher profits under private equity ownership. Turnover at top-50 north-west firm Keoghs climbed 7% to £115m in the year to 31 May 2023, while operating profits rose 6% to £34.3m.

6 March

Spending limits published alongside Wednesday’s budget show a planned £500m cut in day-to-day spending by the Ministry of Justice, to £10bn in 2024/25 from £10.5bn in 2023/24. Capital spending will rise by 20% from £1.5bn to £1.8bn.

5 March

A former management consultant and NHS trust chair was named as the next head of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. Retail, health and governance expert Tom Hayhoe, 68, will succeed Sarah Chambers on 1 May.

A new force in the fast-growing collective redress sector was announced with the merger of no win, no fee specialist Keller Postman UK Limited with Lanier, Longstaff, Hedar & Roberts, the UK arm of US giant Lanier.

A litigant in person who alleged a conspiracy between two leading firms and a string of lawyers has had his claims thrown out by the High Court. In Haddad v Rostamani, Mr Justice Fancourt said there was a ‘degree of inherent improbability’ in Dr Mohammed El Haddad’s ‘serious and unfounded’ claims that Allen & Overy, Clyde & Co, three senior solicitors, two leading counsel and three junior counsel had all dishonestly conspired to make him lose a partnership dispute in 2021.

4 March

Eagerly awaited legislation was announced by the government to overturn the Supreme Court’s PACCAR judgment, which raised fears for the future of litigation funding.

 

The government faces a constitutional headache in getting its emergency Rwanda bill through parliament, after UN experts declared that the proposed legislation threatens to undermine judicial independence. Meanwhile, the Law Society warned that there is no evidence Rwanda is yet a safe country for asylum-seekers.

 

A High Court judge set aside a multi-million-pound arbitration award and judgment after finding they were ‘fabrications’. The Honourable Mr Justice Butcher’s ruling in Contax Partners Inc BVI v Kuwait Finance House (KFH-Kuwait) & Ors centres on an order giving Contax BVI, described as an oil and gas company, leave to enforce a Kuwaiti arbitration award of over £70m.

 

A firm operating from two small offices in the south-west has been hit with a £23,000 fine for failing to comply with anti-money laundering regulations. Batchelor Sharp was issued with the sanction – almost the maximum the Solicitors Regulation Authority can impose – despite no evidence of any harm caused.

1 March

The Legal Services Board has allocated an initial £60,000 to investigating the SRA’s actions over the collapse of the national firm Axiom Ince, board papers disclosed.

Portrait of Marta Williamson

A Poland-born solicitor who arrived in the UK aged 19 unable to speak English has opened a new base in Cheshire for her law firm. Marta Williamson (pictured) founded My Local Solicitor Ltd six years ago as a consultancy where members get to keep 70% of their billings.

 

 

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