Issues

Helen Sage reports Local authority legal work is stressful and destroys lawyers’ private lives, according to the local government lawyers who answered a major lifestyle survey conducted by The Lawyer. Ninety five per cent of local government lawyers who responded to The Lawyer’s Attitudes to the Profession survey, published earlier this month, said their work […]

Freshfields partner and former Westminster deputy chief solicitor, Robert Lewis, was one of three people to be cleared of wilful misconduct at the conclusion of the ‘home for votes’ inquiry. Lewis, the council’s deputy chief solicitor between 1986 and 1988, said after the release of district auditor John Magill’s report last week: “These disgraceful allegations […]

THREE London firms are issuing judicial review proceedings against the Legal Aid Board (LAB) in a dispute over the use of non-solicitors on a duty solicitor scheme. An application for leave will be made in writing soon. Hickman & Rose, Steven Fidler & Co and Hughmans are taking action after a decision by the City […]

Helen Sage reports A sharp increase in the use of locums in local authority legal departments has led to the demise of the public sector image of short hours and a job for life, it has been claimed. Specialist local government legal recruitment agency Badenoch & Clark has recorded a 30 per cent increase in […]

The valuation of insurance company assets on a consistent basis throughout the European Union is tackled in a new publication by the European Group Valuers of Fixed Assets (Tegovofa). A European directive on the Annual Accounts and Consolidated Accounts of Insurance Undertakings establishes a new definition of market value and requires all EU insurance undertakings […]

The Law Society is confident that it can win its fight against compulsory mediation in the Family Law Bill, after two rebel Conservative MPs tabled an amendment against the clause last week. Edward Leigh and Teresa Gorman’s amendment could mean a vote on the issue, expected this week, will swing in favour of scrapping the […]

“DYNAMIC,” a “high flyer” and “likeable” is how the Solicitors Complaints Bureau’s new head Peter Ross was described by Law Society officials. Ross, an assistant chief crown prosecutor at the CPS, will take up the post of SCB director on 24 June. His first task will be to oversee the relaunch of the bureau as […]

The legal department at Kirklees Metropolitan Council has snapped up the Law Society’s annual award for equal opportunities. The award which is designed to promote the interests of equal opportunities within the solicitors profession was won by Kirklees for having the best model equal opportunities policy. Also commended were the African, Carribean and Asian Lawyers […]

London firm Charles Russell is expanding again by snapping up Surrey practice Fordyce & Co, bringing its partner tally to 47. Earlier this month Charles Russell announced it had taken on a number of fee earners from Compton Carr, based in London’s West End. Comptons has disbanded, with half its staff going to Charles Russell, […]

Lovell White Durrant has landed another bumper deal in connection with a Private Finance Initiative to build a £290 million motorway between the M1 and A1 in Yorkshire. The City firm is advising lenders to a consortium of Trafalgar House and BICC, contracted to build the motorway by the Government’s Highways Agency. Lovells acted for […]

The number of fee earners abroad among all sizes of firm has increased this year, though in general additional lawyers are not being hired, and the growth has been caused by redeployment. The largest proportional increase in fee earners posted overseas is at Nabarro Nathanson, which doubled its lawyers abroad to 22, while largest UK-based […]