The Law Society Gazette, 20 September 2007

In-house solicitors reel after privilege ruling

In-house lawyers must rethink their strategy for dealing with European Commission dawn raids, the Commerce & Industry Group has warned. It follows the long-awaited decision of the European Court of First Instance in the Akzo Nobel case, confirming that in-house counsel cannot claim legal professional privilege protection.

24 September 1997

Hoon flags no win, no fee expansion

Geoff Hoon, the parliamentary under-secretary at the Lord Chancellor’s Department, this week gave the strongest signal yet that the government will extend conditional fees to cover new areas of civil litigation. Mr Hoon said he would ‘find it hard to justify maintaining the exemptions on conditional fees and effectively lifting access to justice for a large number of people’.

30 September 1987

Privatising the Land Registry

So it seems that the Land Registry is to be privatised. The Sunday Times states that the registry is valued at about £500 million and that First American Title Insurance is interested in buying it. If the Land Registry is to be privatised, this is a golden opportunity for the legal profession for once to show its muscle against big business and to form a consortium to outbid the Americans.

21 September 1977

Bill of Rights opposed

The National Council for Civil Liberties has come out very strongly against an ‘entrenched bill of rights’ and in favour of the incorporation into the domestic law of this country of the European Convention on Human Rights. The NCCL concedes in its memorandum that there are numerous criticisms to be made of the European Convention – the fact, for example, that it ‘allows restrictions on freedom of information in the interests of national security and territorial integrity’.

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