Chris Fogarty reports A group of non-practising barristers is poised to set up a law centre “chambers” in a bid to capitalise on the Government’s controversial legal aid reforms. Non-Practising Bar Association secretary Dr Peter Gray has written to the Bar Council outlining plans to establish a pilot law centre in Sittingbourne, Kent. Gray’s proposed […]
A small district council legal department has convinced the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to keep two magistrates courts open after a string of closures across England and Wales. Now solicitor Nigel Roberts, who led Wychavon District Council’s successful fight to retain its local courts, is urging other councils not to accept court closures as a […]
Issues: Human Rights The Government is right to call for a British Human Rights Act but it should go one step further, believes Jonathan Cooper. Jonathan Cooper is legal director of Liberty. The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights was a central feature of the Labour Party’s manifesto. On 24 October 1997, that […]
Floyd and Lorraine Robichaux of Auckland, New Zealand, are suing Harvey Speakman, trading as Thames and Chilterns Letting and Management, of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, for more than £105,000 and damages. Their writ alleges they retained Speakman to manage property owned by them in High Wycombe from November 1994, and told him to put the central heating […]
Bevan Ashford’s leading local government partner, Malcolm Iley, has finally been able to join Nabarro Nathanson as head of its 10-strong public/private projects group. Nabarros set up the unit three months ago in readiness for Iley’s arrival. However, it is understood that Iley had to serve out his notice. Iley – eight years a partner […]
Elizabeth Davidson reports SEVERAL City firms are understood to be on the verge of buying a software program that will help them market themselves more effectively. The firms have been viewing Market Ease, the UK version of San Francisco company Cole Valley Software’s Legal Ease product which has sold to 130 firms in the US, […]
Roger Pearson looks at a Court of Appeal ruling that lender was negligent in failing to check two very different property valuations. A Court of Appeal ruling, in which damages and interest amounting to £1,049,853 awarded by a High Court judge in March last year in respect of admitted negligent property valuation were cut by […]
A leading legal auditor has warned law practices of a serious problem in the Government’s just-published prop- osals for limited liability partnerships (LLPs). Jersey has already introduced LLP legislation, and the latest proposals by the Department of Trade and Industry are aimed at encouraging large firms of lawyers and accountants to stay in the UK. […]
The Law Society election saga has taken a rather bizarre twist. Phillip Sycamore and Michael Mathews have invited Robert Sayer to join them on their slate. It is a breathtakingly audacious move and, indeed, a clever one. But what of Tony Girling, who is currently off on vacation? It seems the ides of March are […]
Titmuss Sainer Dechert acted for Sears Property Developments in the £40m forward sale of the 100,800 sqft Tandem Centre retail park at Colliers Wood to Hermes Property Asset Management. Maxwell Batley advised Hermes.
The news on rights of audience, when it came, was not good. Yes, employed solicitors could have wider rights of audience. But when the small print was unveiled, this did not translate into very much at all. Crown prosecutors will still not be able to appear in Crown Court trials. Local authorities will not be […]