The Association of Solicitors in Investment Management (Asim) recently held a strategy meeting to draw up plans for the organisation and its members. Top of the agenda was the issue of how firms could increase the amounts of money being invested through their firms. A spokesperson said it was fairly easy for firms to get […]
The Lord Chancellor’s Department has published a consultation paper on proposed new rules of court relating to costs. Comments on the paper, which does not include draft rules relating to Lord Woolf’s proposals for fast track or fixed costs, are invited by 31 October.
Roger Pearson looks at how a ruling in a housing case has reversed an earlier decision which left tenants unprotected by law. A Court of Appeal ruling has given tenants who live above business premises good reason to celebrate. The decision in the three-case appeal of Wellcome Trust v Alhammad, Ebied & anor v Hopkins […]
The Law Society is sponsoring its second visit to Kazakhstan with its Book Bus and Bar Leadership project visiting the Central Asian country this week. The project involves a team of 19 young UK solicitors, trainee solicitors and law students running workshops on comparative UK and Kazakhstan law. The group will also be distributing free […]
The NatWest is in negotiations with a number of US law firms interested in taking several floors of its newly-renamed International Financial Centre, the tallest building in the City. Ashurst Morris Crisp has been advising NatWest on leasing the tower, which was closed three years ago following damage caused by an IRA bomb. A NatWest […]
The Middle East Association (MEA) has published a directory of its law firm members for use by businesses and organisations working in the UK and the Middle East. The MEA was set up by British companies to promote trade between the UK and the Middle East. It is the largest organisation of its kind. The […]
Former Bar Council chairman Peter Goldsmith QC has been appointed as the new chairman of the Financial Reporting Review Panel. He replaces 39 Essex Street head of chambers Edwin Glasgow QC who retires after completing his five-year term. The panel examines the annual accounts of public and large private companies to see if they comply […]
The Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) has ended an 18-month investigation into Scotland’s solicitors’ property centres by clearing them of anti-competitive behaviour. The MMC’s long-awaited ruling, announced last Friday, said Scotland’s property centres enjoyed a monopoly but acted in the public interest. Law Society of Scotland president John Elliot said the MMC’s decision was a […]
A former Norton Rose secretary, Cheryl Pascal, is claiming unfair dismissal and racial discrimination against the firm, its head of personnel Celia Staples and director of administration Patrick Stone. Stratford Industrial Tribunal heard how Pascal had worked at the firm for eight years before her dismissal in February last year. “There was a systematic attempt […]
TEN King’s Bench Walk head of chambers Jan Paulusz has left the set, which has also lost its senior clerk and two barristers. Paulusz, a recorder and long-standing member of the common law set, has joined nearby 8 King’s Bench Walk. His former chambers has reconstituted itself and voted in a new head, Claudius Algar. […]
The merger of Edinburgh firm Dundas & Wilson with Dorman Jeffrey & Co to join the Arthur Andersen network looks set to go ahead this week – marking Andersens’ largest acquisition so far in the UK legal marketplace. The move, as Dorman Jeffrey partner Brian Dorman told The Lawyer last month, will involve his firm’s […]
Linklaters acted as both US and UK counsel for private equity financier BC Partners in the creation of its ECU1.1bn ($1.2bn) European private equity fund by a series of private placements in one of the largest ever private equity raisings in New York