Russ de Haney was born in Beighton, Derbyshire, on 8 July 1950. He now lives in Sheffield. He is a solicitor at the Chesterfield Law Centre and chair of the Law Centres Federation. What was your first job? Engineering apprentice. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £5,200 in articles at John Howell […]
China has announced the conditions it intends to apply to the establishment of foreign firms in preparation for negotiations on its accession to the World Trade Organisation. The conditions include allowing as many as 80 foreign firms to establish in 19 named Chinese cities. The offices will have to be headed by lawyers with more […]
Dickson Minto, led by partner Martin McNair, acted for members of the management team of rail leasing company Eversholt Holdings, which took a controversial profit of £57.3m on the £726.5m sale of their company to Forward Trust, the leasing arm of Midland Bank, represented by Norton Rose. The management, backed by venture capitalists, including Candover […]
Auditors are calling for an independent advisory panel to be set up to coordinate the public bodies involved in the investigation and prosecution of fraud and to review the laws and regulations pertaining to it. The audit faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants issued a paper proposing the formation of the panel last week […]
US firm Milbank Tweed Had- ley & McCloy has responded to the need for English law in the Far East by electing Caroline Angoorly as a partner in its Singapore office. Angoorly, who is a qualified barrister as well as a solicitor, will be responsible for leading the firm’s English law practice in Asia. She […]
At times, the Swedish legal market looks like the story of three firms: Mannheimer Swartling, Lagerlof & Leman and Advokatfirman Vinge. The three were formed six years ago as a result of domestic mergers. In the process, they created a huge gulf between themselves – at the time each had over 100 lawyers – and […]
A SENIOR Law Society council member, who has just withdrawn his candidature to be- come its deputy treasurer, is being investigated by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors. Robin ap Cynan withdrew from the deputy treasurer election contest last week, in a surprise move which leaves Robert Sayer free to continue in the post. […]
The legal profession has attacked Home Secretary Michael Howard’s proposed reform of the criminal justice system, accusing him of political posturing at the expense of the interests of justice. A report on delays in the criminal justice system published by Howard last week made 33 recommendations for “the biggest speed up in the criminal justice […]
Feeling sorry for lawyers is an unusual concept, particularly as I understand that our popularity ranks on the same level as tax inspectors and traffic wardens. Indeed, in the US, bookstores are rapidly selling out of a slim volume entitled Lawyers and Other Reptiles, a further indication of the low esteem in which we are […]
THE CONCEPT of solicitors running their own estate agents is proving a hard one to sell to high-street practices. An upturn in the housing market, statistics showing that solicitors still control 96 per cent of the conveyancing market, and the fact that establishing a property centre requires the agreement of dozens of firms, time, commitment […]
Tax specialist Miles Walton is set to move from Wilde Sapte, where he has been a partner since 1984, to join Allen & Overy later this year. Walton, who helped establish the tax department at Wilde Sapte in 1983, will be the fourth tax partner at Allen & Overy which has a relatively small tax […]
Imagine this: a politician, desperate for power, decides to make an issue of crime. Justice policy had been subject to cross-party consensus but, as time goes on, it becomes a thorny, contentious issue. Soon, every election becomes a battle over who can be tougher on crime. But all the attention does not decrease the problem […]