In 2011, a pensioner complained to Trading Standards after seeing a punnet of strawberries on sale in Tesco for £1.99, marked down to half price from £3.99 per punnet. She asked staff whether the punnets had ever been on sale at the higher price. The staff did not respond. Birmingham Trading Standards brought a case […]
HM Treasury has just issued the new Fair Deal guidance. The new Fair Deal, which is non-statutory policy, sets out the principles that will ensure that staff compulsorily transferred out of the public sector will continue to have access to their existing public service pension schemes. The new guidance is intended to achieve better value […]
Stories about pensions don’t make for light weekend reading, but it’s one of those things we all need to understand. A bit like timetables, or how to make a boiled egg. For the firms who have been pitching for a place on the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) panel, this surely sounds familiar. (We’re talking about […]
Public interest litigation costs and funding have attracted considerable attention recently and now a fight between elements within the legal profession has shone a rather bright light on the issue. Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is no longer advising the Legal Services Board over a judicial review to prevent the implementation of the controversial Quality Assurance […]
It’s a funny thing for a European visiting the US and recovering from jetlag, because I woke up again around 4.30 this morning ready to go to work, only to realize that the sun had yet to rise. So I brewed some coffee, grabbed my laptop, and started the day early – extremely early. As […]
Last month’s outstandingly successful Lawyer Management event showed just how many in the legal industry are looking at innovation and shaping their businesses for a changing market. Most of the focus so far has been on private practice. But as our interview this week with BT’s general counsel Dan Fitz shows, in-house counsel are also […]
Living and working in Saudi is a challenge if you’re a woman. The Saudi authorities have just awarded a female lawyer the first ever licence to operate in the country, but as our series of investigations have shown, women still face enormous hurdles in the kingdom – and that’s the understatement of the year. Saudi […]
The Legal Service Board (LSB) has dropped Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) from representing it in its defence of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) after the firm proposed a £400,000 cost estimate for a three-day hearing, The Lawyer can reveal. HSF was defending the LSB from a judicial review launched by the Criminal Bar […]
A total of 185 firms have applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for the extended indemnity period (EIP) of insurance having failed to secure professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover by the regulator’s 1 October deadline. Of those 185 firms, 10 have since secured cover, leaving a total of 175 that are now scrabbling to […]
Middle Eastern firm Al Tamimi & Company has opened an Erbil office, following its launch in Baghdad eight years ago. The office in the Kurdistan capital is currently staffed by a senior associate and an associate, supported by other regional offices – particularly Baghdad and Amman. The main clients for the Erbil office are expected […]
Spanish firm Broseta Abogados has named tax head Luis Trigo as its first managing partner, in an ‘institutionalisation’ bid designed to set the firm up for future expansion. Trigo’s appointment is part of a programme of modernisation at the firm, which was first founded in 1975. Manuel Broseta, the founder’s son, is now Broseta’s senior […]
London increasingly attracts the US litigation outfits that are spotting strong opportunities in the capital. Quinn Emanuel has been the most visible so far, but plenty of others are scouting. The latest to land is Boies Schiller, which has just hired Natasha Harrison from Bingham McCutchen. Boies Schiller hires Bingham star Harrison to launch in […]