John Malpas reports A MARKED shift of power away from barristers into the hands of solicitors will be caused by the proposed legal aid reforms, a leading legal pressure group has predicted. According to Roger Smith, director of the Legal Action Group, the plan to allow law firms to run block legal aid contracts will […]
Swedish insurance group Skandia has sold a development site near Heathrow to Whitbread for £5.8 million. Whitbread was represented by Field Fisher Waterhouse.
Nabarro Nathanson acted for Stat Plus on its off-market tender to buy back 15 per cent of its ordinary share capital for £8 million.
Fladgate Fielder acted for BATM
Ashurst Morris Crisp has been appointed to to advise Sumitomo Corporation
Ian Alldis Coutts, 52, admitted 1971, practising at material times as Coutts, St Peter Port, Guernsey, fined £1,00 and ordered to pay £890 costs. Allegations substantiated he failed to deliver accountants report on time and failed to comply with decision of conduct committee of adjudication & appeals committee of Solicitors Complaints Bureau ordering him to […]
John Malpas reports A CIVIL liberties barrister who provides families with free representation at inquests has launched a new bulletin detailing developments in inquest law. Leslie Thomas, of 2 Garden Court, plans to regularly update the newsletter Recent Developments in Inquest Law which he has produced in conjunction with Inquest, a support group to help […]
Alison Laferia reports PC users can surf the Net or produce electronic documents simply by talking, with a new version of speech recognition technology recently launched by Dragon Systems. DragonDictate for Windows version 2.1: British English, allows the user to access Netscape browser menus and dialogue boxes by speaking. It also lets the user dictate […]
Even if they have little interest in the music, it seems High Court judges can keep up-to-date with pop’s trends by the litigation coming before them. After a recent hearing before Mr Justice Rattee, counsel Gregory Banner revealed the all-out royalties battle between members of chart-topping group Oasis and their ex-drummer Anthony McCarroll is still […]
A MASSIVE five-year, £25 million project to put 7,000 pages of tax legislation into plain English has taken its first steps with the appointment of Ron Downhill, tax partner at Berwin Leighton, and two other tax experts as advisers on the project. Downhill said he and the other two advisers to the Inland Revenue would […]
THEODORE Goddard has sold its half share of its four Eastern European offices to its US joint venture partner Dewey Ballantine, ending its hopes for a merger. The offices, which TG opened jointly with Deweys in 1991, are in Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Cracow. TG’s Warsaw partner Bruce McGregor will return to the London office […]
THE BAR Council is reviewing the controversial cab rank rule requirement that barristers must accept legal aid briefs whatever the fee. The profession’s ruling body has finally got round to tackling one of the most controversial recommendations of Lord Alexander QC’s Bar Standards Review Body. His influential 1994 report on the future of the Bar […]