Given that one of Shakespeare’s more quoted lines is: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” it seems generous of the Bar Theatrical Society to put on Hamlet. Yet this timeless saga of madness, murder and the need for alternative dispute resolution is the latest in a proud tradition of Shakespearean productions […]
The High Court has recently brought a little more certainty to the wavering world of local authority cross-boundary tendering and supply. On 18 December 1996, Mr Justice Owen, in R v Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation ex parte British Educational Suppliers, confirmed the lawfulness of a wide range of trading activities carried out across England by a […]
THE PRINCIPLE of barristers’ immunity from prosecution is to be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights. Solicitors for Mohammed Patel have confirmed they will go to the court in a bid to open the way for barristers to be legally challenged for their performance in court. Patel, a former banking official, claims he […]
Regional law firms can expect lucrative new work from alternative energy generators, according to energy partner Stephen Barnard of Herbert Smith, which represents the 12 Regional Electricity Companies (RECs) of England and Wales. Barnard acts for a jointly-owned REC company which has just signed contracts to buy power from 195 potential renewable power generators throughout […]
Gray’s Inn A-team has won the annual European Inter Varsity Debate after successfully opposing the motion that “the European race had got off to a false start”. A judging panel, including Cherie Booth QC, Jeremy Lever QC and Emma Nicholson MP, chose the Gray’s Inn team over opposition from the Inner Temple and UCLA. Sponsored […]
The Law Lords have given leave for SP Anastasiou (Pissouri) to challenge decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal in which declarations were granted that, pursuant to European Directives, it was illegal to allow the importation into the UK of produce originating from north of the UN buffer zone in Cyprus unless accompanied […]
Simmons & Simmons, Freshfields and Herbert Smith were the winners last year in private company acquisitions, according to Acquisitions Monthly. Freshfields has succeeded in ousting Slaughter and May from the number one slot in the league table. Slaughters moves from number one, where it had been for three years running, to number two. At number […]
There is little doubt that a Labour government would change employment law. But how radical and swift are the alterations likely to be, asks Danielle Kingdon? Danielle Kingdon is an associate at Osborne Clarke’s employment unit in London. The Labour Party has produced a framework document concerned with employment rights called Building Prosperity – Flexibility, […]
CONCRETE proposals to end the downward spiral of fees for conveyancers will be unveiled at a conference on solicitors’ property centres, according to the solicitor organising it. Michael Garson, a partner at Richmond firm Philip Hodges & Co, is expecting around 70 solicitors to attend the Defending the Residential Conveyancing Market conference, which is being […]
Cases of discrimination taken out by victims of HIV and Aids against employers are set to increase, according to Professor Avrom Sherr of London University’s Institute of advanced legal studies. Sherr, who is coordinating an EU-sponsored survey into HIV and Aids discrimination, said that there had been few HIV-related discrimination cases so far but this […]
The Bar has reacted angrily to a new set of league tables of the top 20 recipients of legal aid, claiming the figures are “guestimates” which paint a wholly distorted picture of their true income. Four “Top Twenty” lists, detailing the highest amounts received by firms and barristers in the year 1995/96 for crown court […]
Manchester law firm Donns has played a part in the first successful action for compensation brought by a British soldier against the US military. The case, which took place in Atlanta, saw a Donns partner, under the unusual title of English Co-Counsel, sitting on the counsel bench. Partner Hilary Meredith was acting on behalf of […]