Irish firm McCann Fitzgerald has opened a new office in the City, 10 years after becoming the first Irish law firm to open an office in London. The office, in Lombard Street, has two full-time resident partners, John Cronin and Barbara Judge. “Our success is principally due to the success of Irish corporates and banks […]
Whether it is freeing dogs held under the Dangerous Dogs Act or trying to get citizenship for the Fayeds, it seems that public law – and judicial review, in particular – is, in legal terms, the new rock and roll. As in other areas of law, there is a certain cross-over and blurring of the […]
The Law Society is predicting an upsurge of clients willing to take up cases after the announcement of a major funding scheme to manage legal costs. Merchant bank Guinness Mahon and Co is to offer a Disbursement Funding Loan at an annual percentage rate of 14 per cent. The scheme was developed by Richard Pearce, […]
President of the Law Society, Tony Girling, has supported calls for radical reform of the society’s financial and management structures following a damning report on its Regis computer project. An interim report by a Law Society inquiry into the project has found that inadequate financial controls and poor project management have dogged Regis ever since […]
In a recent issue, we said that Slaughter and May closed down in Tokyo due to problems with the local Bar. The firm has asked us to point out that this is not true and they in fact closed down for strategic reasons.
City lawyers are trumpeting innovative share issues which allowed their clients to slash underwriting fees and which are likely to set the pattern for the future. Lovells corporate partners Nigel Read and Marco Compagnoni led a team of six which advised hotels group Stakis on its £327m acquisition of Metropole Hotels and its £222m rights […]
Pressure on Lord Mackay to introduce a civil justice council is growing following his rejection of a Law Society sponsored amendment to the Civil Procedure Bill, the first step in implementing Lord Woolf’s reforms. The Shadow Lord Chancellor, Lord Irving of Lairg, and the Law Society are publicly adding their voice to Lord Woolf and […]
Law firms can learn from the mistakes of other solicitors under a scheme being set up by a chartered accountants firm to distribute the results of Law Society investigations into law firms. Geo Little Sebire & Co’s legal services division is planning to send participating lawyers anonymous extracts from Law Society Monitoring Unit reviews of […]
The Law Society issued a practising certificate to a young lawyer just days after three prominent firms informed it he was a devious conman who had lied about his legal qualifications, it has been claimed. Jeffrey Doss-Lindsey was admitted as a solicitor on 3 April 1995 after he had duped Slaughter and May, White & […]
The Accounting Standards Board has deferred making a decision on changing accounting standards for employee share schemes following a plea from share scheme solicitors and other groups. As reported in The Lawyer last week, representatives of around 70 solicitors belonging to the Share Scheme Lawyers Group wrote to the ASB’s Urgent Issues Task Force asking […]
Herbert Smith has hired as a partner the first Hong Kong solicitor who is also a People’s Republic of China citizen. The appointment of Jeremy Xiao will be made once registration formalities are concluded at the Law Society of England and Wales, and in Hong Kong.
The Legal Aid Board is “delighted” and “reassured” by the response to its appeal for applications for block contracts in the not-for-profit sector. Almost 300 organisations have submitted statements of intent to apply for contracts in the second-phase pilot scheme. The contracts will be to provide advice and assistance in social welfare law in the […]