Gazette 4 February 2013

Warnings follow Cobbetts collapse

The demise of top-100 firm Cobbetts should serve as a wake-up call for legal practices with outdated structures and mounting bank debt, legal sector finance experts said this week. The Manchester-headquartered firm was rescued last week when national firm DWF announced a buyout with all the hallmarks of a pre-pack deal.

3 February 1993

Where are all the solicitor judges?

Barristers make up only 10.88% of the practising profession but occupy 89.33% of the senior judicial posts. One reason given for so few solicitor appointments is that solicitors are often unknown to judges. This is hardly surprising given the battle which the bar has waged to keep solicitor-advocates out of the higher courts.

7 February 1973

Mentally disturbed offenders

The recently published Aarvold review was set up in the aftermath of the Graham Young case. Young, an offender who had been detained in Broadmoor under a s.65 order, was conditionally discharged from that institution in February 1971 and subsequently convicted of murder and other grave offences after he left Broadmoor. It was widely suggested at the time that this case indicated grave deficiencies in the procedures associated with the discharge of offenders. However nothing in the Aarvold report supports the hysterical reactions to which the case gave rise in certain quarters.

February 1943

Honours and awards

Hopgood, John Vere DFC, Flight Lieutenant, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, awarded a bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross. During the daylight attack on LaCreusot, Flight Lieutenant Hopgood participated in a particularly daring attack on the electrical transformer station, which was bombed effectively from a height of only 500 feet. In all his work with the squadron he has displaced the greatest keenness and devotion to duty. He is articled to Mr N. C. Dowson, of 7 St James’s Place, S.W.1.

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