Josh Butler explains the difficulties involved finding lost heirs in modern America. Josh Butler is president of the International Probate Research Association. Fifteen years ago, a man in Texas wrote to me, telling me that my great grandfather had invested in an oil well in 1917. I was a missing heir to a modest amount […]
Los Angeles firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker is looking to take on its first UK-qualified partners as part of a major expansion of its fledgling London office. Keith Ott, resident partner at the office, said that the firm wanted to bring on partners in telecoms, capital markets and transaction finance and was planning to […]
I refer to the Top 100 table which appeared in the student supplement of The Lawyer (28 October). I am writing to point out that the information that we provided for the table made it clear that Macfarlanes provides course fees and maintenance for both the CPE and LPC. The maintenance is currently £3,500 per […]
Former McGrigor Donald partner David Baylis is now a partner in the corporate finance unit at Hammond Suddards. Baylis, who was at Allen & Overy for 10 years before joining McGrigor Donald, is being appointed as part of the firm’s programme of growth in the corporate finance field.
CITY firm Charles Russell has opened an Internet cafe within its New Fetter Lane premises. Lawyers and visitors can now access cyberspace at the firm’s fourth floor cafe where two Internet links and PCs were installed last week. Marketing director Simon Slater, responsible for setting up the cybercafe, said that the move means lawyers can […]
The Court of Appeal last week upheld a county court ruling that barrister Joy Okoye’s racial discrimination claims against tenants and a clerk in her former set, Staple Inn Chambers, should be struck out. In his judgment, Lord Justice Gibson delivered a stern rebuke to Okoye for jeopardising her colleagues’ careers by levelling unfounded allegations […]
The Legal Aid Board (LAB) has admitted to getting its sums wrong in the amount of costs it is seeking to recover from a divorcee six years after the costs were taxed. Pauline Fawzi divorced her husband Mohamed Faisal Fawzi in 1987 but racked up legal aid costs of over £12,000 in dozens of court […]
The new president of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), Andre Gervais, has highlighted the increasing threat his 34,000 members are facing from the creeping presence of big-six accountants in the Canadian legal market. Gervais, who made his inaugural speech at last week’s CBA annual conference, said there was a “growing concern among Canadian lawyers about […]
The Legal Aid Board (LAB) has now extended the deadline for green form block contract pilot applications in the wake of a poor turnout for the scheme. The pilot scheme was originally due to begin on 1 September, but an LAB spokesman said last week “it would be no skin off our nose” if applications […]
The Law Society is sponsoring its second visit to Kazakhstan this month with its Book Bus and Bar Leadership project, which visits this week. A team of 19 young UK solicitors, trainee solicitors and law students will run workshops on comparative UK and Kazakhstan law, and will distribute free law books to the Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan […]
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the concept of barristers’ immunity extends beyond the courtroom door following a case against family lawyer and Labour MP Jean Corston. In a significant decision, the the Appeal Court has ruled that in some instances lawyers who negotiate pre-trial or mid-trial settlements are protected from any subsequent negligence […]
Edinburgh firm Turcan Connell, the private client offshoot of Dundas & Wilson, is to launch an in-house investment management service later this year. The seven-partner firm, which opened its doors last month and which has remained in the same building as its old firm, has appointed Peter Rintoul as its investment director. Rintoul, a chartered […]