Three of 11 partners appointed worldwide by US firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey are based in the Prague office. Prague is the firm’s second largest European operation with more than 70 staff concentrating largely on telecommunications privatisation and financing work. One of the three appointees is Dr Lubos Tichy, the former president of the Czech […]
The International Bar Association has written to the Malaysian secretary general, urging him to support a call to the Malaysian government to prevent a libel action brought by two commercial companies in Malaysia against a UN special rapporteur. The companies have each pressed for RM30 million (approximately £7m) in an action which relates to an […]
US firm Dechert Price & Rhoads, which is allied to Titmuss Sainer Dechert, has poached six lawyers from the securities practice of Mcguire Woods Battle & Boothe in Washington DC. The move was led by Wallace Timmeny, senior securities partner at Mcguires and ex-deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, who […]
A series of independent reports which implicated solicitors at Westminster City Council in a £7m lessees bill blunder has been thrown out by councillors. Councillors from both the minority Labour party and majority Conservative Party are unhappy with two reports from consultants which said a failure to bill leaseholders for repairs and maintenance over a […]
David Smalley, former head of US firm Debevoise & Plimpton’s London office, has returned to the branch as managing partner. Smalley returned to the New York head office in September 1993 after three months as head of the London operation. “The way we tend to run our foreign offices is to staff them with people […]
Contrary to the sentiments expressed by John Hendy QC, I think we still have a lot to learn from our American counterparts. His plea that we should find UK solutions to UK problems carries the same hollow ring as the plea of the recalcitrant litigant for a settlement in the face of defeat. The UK […]
Challenge to alteration in VAT assessment arrangements R v Customs and Excise Commissioners ex parte Littlewoods Group (1997) QBD (Tucker J) 14/1/97 Summary: Unsuccessful challenge to Customs and Excise changes in the assessment of VAT on suppliers which accept payment for their goods by instalments. Application for judicial review of the commissioners’ decision contained in […]
Media and entertainment law has always had a touch of glamour about it, conjuring up images of lazy days spent by the pool, helping the stars negotiate their multi-million pound contracts. If the reality is rather more prosaic, it is only slightly so. This is an industry expecting good times and a practice area that […]
Human rights group Justice has called for greater powers of supervision and enforcement for the Data Protection Registrar, to balance a proposed increase in government control of personal data. In its response to government.direct, the Green Paper on providing central government services electronically to the public, Justice calls for adequate safeguards to protect individuals’ privacy. […]
One appeal which was scheduled to be heard in January and which was being watched closely in local government circles has now been abandoned. Welwyn and Hatfield Council was to appeal against a £49m damages award made against it in the High Court last July and reported in these pages. The award followed a finding […]
CUTTING edge legal teams are invited to enter Teampower Legal Challenge 97, the fund-raising team-building event sponsored by The Lawyer. Teams of four lawyers can enter the event, which is organised by development training company Whynot. To win the challenge teams must tackle a series of challenges over 30 hours that test their problem-solving skills. […]
A book on public sector leasehold management has been published by two senior London council officers. Managing Local Authority Leaseholds: A Good Practice Guide was written by Islington Council’s compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) development manager Steve Michaux and Mark Baptist, who manages a neighbourhood office in one of Lewisham Council’s CCT contract areas. The book, […]