SEVEN lawyers, four of whom are associates, have left the property department of Birmingham firm Wragge & Co in just three months. Frustration at the lack of partnership opportunities and improvements in the property law job market have been cited as reasons for the departures by lawyers leaving the firm. But senior partner John Crabtree […]
Insolvency lawyer David Hinchliffe joined Leeds commercial firm Walker Morris as a partner this month. Hinchliffe, formerly a senior solicitor at Eversheds in Leeds, is joined by his assistant John Roche and secretary Sharon Dawson. Philip Mudd, head of banking and insolvency at Walker Morris, said: “Our banking and insolvency group, with four existing partners […]
Corporate finance teams at Nabarro Nathanson’s Sheffield office have clinched three deals since the office was opened by Environment Secretary John Gummer a month ago. Sheffield is the headquarters of the firm’s north of England operations which had previously been centred in Doncaster and Hull. The office, which boasts 220 fee earners and support staff, […]
On Statistics alone, the action in which accountants Ernst & Young faced potentially devastating negligence allegations warrants a high place in the league of costly and complex trials. The action, brought by Nederlandse Reassurrantie Groep Holding (NRG) after its ill-fated £122 million acquisition of Victory Reinsurance in 1990, began in January last year and drew […]
The Law Society has just published guidelines to help solicitors advise clients who want to draw up an “enduring power of attorney”, whereby clients appoint someone to manage their property and financial affairs should they become mentally incapable. The guidelines were prepared by the Law Society’s mental health and disability sub-committee in response to frequent […]
Three Law Society ex-presidents are to decide whether the society’s treasurer Mike Howells should resign after revelations that he has been “severely rebuked” by the Solicitors Complaints Bureau. The SCB found he had failed to furnish a client with adequate professional services and ordered him to pay £1,000 compensation. The issue is threatening to overshadow […]
Paul William Donovan, 61, admitted 1978, practising at material times as Davies Donovan & Co, Twickenham, struck off and ordered to pay £5,280 costs. Allegations substantiated he used client funds for his own purposes and those of other clients, misappropriated client funds, failed to keep proper accounts. Tribunal told that claims totalling £57,600 so far […]
A pioneering fast-track scheme aimed at making medical negligence cases fairer and quicker has been launched in Birmingham. Two leading Birmingham medical negligence firms are behind the scheme which was inspired by Lord Woolf’s civil justice inquiry. Partner Stuart Knowles and litigation manager Fiona Hawker, from the Lewington partnership, and Richard Follis, a partner at […]
Pictures of bomb-damaged buildings and injured bystanders are again making the front pages. No-one can fail to be moved by the pain and suffering that has been caused as well as relieved that there were no fatalities, this time. The unfortunate fact is that disaster planning now has to be put back on many agendas, […]
Matthew Joynes was born in Kent on 6 November 1967. He now lives in London and is company lawyer at publishers Northern and Shell. What was your first job? Ice cream salesman. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £3,000. What would you have done if you hadn’t become a lawyer? Something artistic, […]
I could not let Gerald Funnell’s letter (The Lawyer 4 June) over conflict in conveyancing go unanswered. In reply I would point out: Unless and until the Law Society’s own rules completely restrict solicitors’ ability to act for more than one party in all circumstances, then attempts by the Law Society at persuading the Lord […]
The legal rights of transsexuals will loom large in the courts after applications for judicial review were granted in two separate actions. In one, a 30-year-old man is seeking judicial review of Gloucestershire Health Authority’s refusal to provide NHS funding for gender reassignment surgery; in the other, a 26-year-old man is challenging the right of […]