South Africa’s long exile from the global stage does not mean its legal market is a pushover, says Ravinder Chahal. Ravinder Chahal is a freelance journalist. The abolition of apartheid saw South Africa reopen its doors for business with the world once more. After years of being sidelined, its lawyers are now playing in the […]
THE OPEN University is on course to become the largest single provider of law degree courses, according to the head of its new degree course. Gary Slapper, formerly director of Staffordshire University’s law degree course, offic ially took up his post this week, but has been working with the College of Law’s director of academic […]
Herbert Smith was paid £3,256,000-worth of taxpayers money in fees for the sell-off of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) married quarters – twice as much as the MoD budgeted for. The National Audit Office’s report on the controversial £1.6bn sell-off of 57,000 married quarters homes to Nomura-led consortium Annington Homes, in the UK’s largest ever […]
Top Chancery chambers 13 Old Square has chosen the traditionally quiet summer break to raid three neighbouring sets of its junior tenants to appoint six new barristers. The move by 13 Old Square, the chambers of Michael Lyndon-Stanford QC, coincides with a similar poaching spree by Birmingham’s 5 Fountain Court, and has prompted one senior […]
Robert Lindsay assesses lawyers’ attitudes to Labour’s draft Bill which proposes to give the OFT extended powers to regulate competition Labour’s draft Competition Bill, published two weeks ago, went virtually unnoticed by the media. But it will make John Bridgeman, the director general of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), one of the most powerful […]
AN ENGINEERING company has been fined £125,000 and is likely to face more than £1m costs for deliberately trying to hide confidential documents during a court-ordered search by Linklaters & Paines. The High Court held the company, steel mill producer VAI Industries (UK), in contempt last month after Linklaters’ lawyers arrived at its headquarters to […]
In an innovative commercial move, tax specialist set Gray’s Inn Chambers is outsourcing three of its junior barristers to at least six City and commercial solicitors’ firms with over-stretched tax departments. The trio – Conrad McDonnell, Hugh McKay and Aparna Nathan – charges an hourly rate, effectively acting as assistant solicitors. The three attend meetings […]
Ravinder Chahal reports on the experience of the few South African firms that have opted to build an international presence Although much attention has recently been focused on domestic activity, several South African firms have chosen to cast their nets further afield. There have been three South African firms operating in London since the late […]
Manchester personal injury firm Donns has launched a medical negligence department. Solicitor Alexandra Hill (pictured with Donns senior partner Raymond Donn) joined Donns last week as an associate partner and is to head the firm’s new department. She joins from Cottrill Stone Lawless, also in Manchester, where she was the sole solicitor in the medical […]
CRIMINAL lawyers have welcomed the appointment of a police think-tank which will investigate whether or not certain controlled drugs should be decriminalised. The Police Foundation’s committee of inquiry, which will examine the effectiveness of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, is due to meet for the first time on 30 September, and reports back in […]
Dibb Lupton Alsop has recruited UK lawyer Keith Berman of Bermans in New York, formerly the US office of Bermans in Liverpool, as a consultant for its New York office. Berman’s consultancy position will see him working as a general commercial litigator for Dibbs. According to Dibbs partner Andrew Chappell, he will bring his own […]
A small London-based mortgage company is pioneering free title insurance for its customers in a move that will herald less work and lower fees for conveyancing solicitors. Under the scheme, Kensington Mortgage Company, which works with about 5,000 new borrowers each year, will offer clients free title insurance for mortgages or remortgages on properties up […]