Australian firm Minter Ellison has appointed a fourth lawyer to its London office. He is insurance lawyer Mark Doepel, a senior associate from the firm’s Sydney office. Michael Walley, Minters’ managing partner in London, said: “Mark is also an experienced litigation and insolvency lawyer. We will now be the only Australian firm able to offer […]
Allen & Overy has promoted six of its solicitors to partnership in its Far East offices. They are: litigation solicitor Mimmie Chan, property lawyer Philip Walden and corporate lawyer Neal Stender , at the Hong Kong office; Angus Duncan, international capital lawyer, who is being relocated from London to Tokyo; banking lawyer Fiona Rice, at […]
UK law firms are making more money than ever before but profits are being squeezed by a significant increase in staff costs, according to a joint survey by The Lawyer and accountants Coopers & Lybrand. The message is that firms need to manage business more efficiently if they are to improve financial performance. Robert Martin, […]
Law centres have received over £300,000 in funding from the National Lottery in its latest round of awards. Centres at Paddington, Salford, Wythenshawe, in Lancashire, and Harehills and Chapeltown, in Leeds, will get cash sums under the “support for low income” category. London’s Paddington law centre, which received the largest grant of £134,000, will use […]
Sinclair Roche & Temperly solicitor David Middleburgh is leaving the firm to head up the insolvency law group of Mischon De Reya. Middleburgh joins Mishcons this week as the firm strengthens its insolvency department which, to date, was run through the commercial litigation department. A spokeswoman from the firm said it was “pulling together different […]
Legal expenses insurers have welcomed the Government’s proposals on legal aid, which they believe will boost the legal insurance market . Bob Gordon, technical director of Greystoke Legal Services, said legal expenses insurance offered some hope to clients. “People need to know there are alternatives to legal aid which are available now,” he said. He […]
Norton Rose acted for Merlin Land and Rydon Holdings in the £17m acquisition and pre-letting of a 95,000 square feet retail warehousing development in Reading Town Centre. Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society, which funded the deal, was represented by Cameron Markby Hewitt. Part of the site was acquired from British Rail represented by Rees & […]
Women, yet again, are not making the grade. Or so the latest list of newly appointed Queen’s Counsels would have us believe. This year’s crop of silks reveals the same old story – four women are successful out of 40 applicants, representing a one in 10 chance of success if you’re a female. Males, on […]
A DRAMATIC £750 cut in individual contributions to the Solicitors Compensation Fund is planned by the Law Society. Sole practitioners and City firms alike will welcome the move, which will provide the largest firms with a one-off windfall saving of up to half a million pounds. The body’s ruling council will be asked to approve […]
ADVERTISEMENTS are appearing in the Irish Republic’s national media, inviting members of the legal profession interested in becoming judges to submit their CVs for consideration. So far, 15 vacancies have been advertised: three in the Supreme Court, two in the High Court, seven in the Circuit Court and three in the Disctrict Court. The first […]
A debate on conveyancing promises to be the lively centrepiece of an inaugural local law society one-day conference in May. The conference, hosted by the Surrey Law Society at Epsom Racecourse, will feature the Lord Chancellor’s parliamentary secretary Jonathan Evans as keynote speaker. The society was only formed two years ago when the three local […]
THE NEW chair of the Law Society’s Local Government Lawyers Group, Peter Urwin, officially took up his new position at the end of the annual weekend school. Urwin, who has taken over from David Carter, the county secretary and deputy chief executive at Warwickshire, has been director of administration and county solicitor at Northumberland County […]