The former senior partner of law firm Binks Stern was guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation when he wrote a letter for disgraced tycoon Roger Levitt that helped him receive a £2.5m loan. The court of appeal last week overturned a High Court ruling, which had originally cleared William Binks. It ordered his firm – now part […]
Alliance with a private bank strengthens existing and potential client relationships, argues Simon Lough. Simon Lough is director at Cripps Harries Hall in London. Cripps Harries Hall has recently formed an alliance with Citibank International which is believed to be the first of its kind between a law firm and a bank. Citibank will provide […]
Dame Barbara Mills QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has called for a truce with the lawyer’s union at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which she accuses of undermining the service. Speaking to The Lawyer in her first major interview since the General Election, Mills urges the CPS section of the Association of First Division […]
PHILLIP Sycamore’s colleagues on the Law Society’s ruling council have reacted with sympathy towards the leaking of a document appearing to implicate him in a dirty tricks campaign against his presidential rival Martin Mears. A survey of 20 members of the council revealed that most accept that Sycamore’s campaign group, which was at the centre […]
Glasgow firm Bird Semple has lost its second department head this year following leading construction partner Lindy Patterson’s decision to move to MacRoberts. Patterson (right) takes her team of two lawyers from the Edinburgh office of Bird Semple to Edinburgh-based MacRoberts, where she will take the role of partner alongside a team of five other […]
UK firm Allen & Overy is to double its Czech law capacity with the recruitment of four lawyers in its Prague office. According London-based partner Alison Beardsley, the appointments are designed to increase the ratio of lawyers to partners in Prague, because of an increase in work across the board in banking and finance. Beardsley, […]
Why did a former prime minister’s adviser agree to help a potential president? In his minutes, Simon Baker notes “considerable enthusiasm” for an offer by Jonathan Hill and Andrew Last of Lowe Bell Communications to assist Phillip Sycamore’s campaign. He writes that such assistance would be informal and without payment, but on the basis that […]
Denton Hall has formed an association with the Spanish firm Bufete Lupicinio Rodriguez, expanding the membership of its Denton International Group of Law Firms to seven. Under the arrangement, the Madrid practice will retain independence, but trade internationally under the banner of Denton International. However, the two sides are not ruling out the possibility of […]
THE results of a controversial Law Society survey asking solicitors whether they want the rules on referral payments tightened up has been kept under wraps by the society for more than three months. Law Society staff received 1,000 replies at the beginning of April from a consultation on the Solicitors’ Introduction and Referral Code. It […]
While the Treasury reviews the regulation of financial services, legal groups are watching and waiting, ready to influence the shape of the predicted ‘super SIB”. As the Government puts together its review of the regulatory structures for financial services providers, law firms are preparing to put forward their side of the story. Financial services legal […]
A NEW pan-European group for personal injury lawyers has agreed to become a talking shop rather than a pressure group lobbying for reform. At its inaugural conference in Amsterdam last month, the Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (Peopil) decided to allow lawyers acting for both defendants and plaintiffs into the group. The decision prevents […]
A House of Lords ruling protecting councils from having to pay damages if they breach their statutory housing duties could affect other local authority services, according to the solicitor who won the case. London Borough of Camden senior housing solicitor Scott Dorling, who masterminded the council’s appeal, said that although last month’s ruling only concerned […]