An Ipswich law firm has won two five-year contracts to carry out conveyancing and commercial contract work for Westminster Council. Gotelee & Goldsmith, already acting for six local authorities, beat tenders from firms around the country. The successful team was led by partners Brian Morron, Mary Dolley, Howard Nichols and consultant Charles Twiss. The firm […]
Manches & Co acted for Saur (UK) in securing a £50 million loan from a syndicate of banks led by National Westminster Bank. Clifford Chance represented the National Westminister syndicate.
Allen & Overy advised on both sides of the £400 million facility for Racal Electronics. The firm advised the borrower and acted for NatWest and BZW as arrangers.
Only about two in five UK biotechnology companies would be able to prove successfully in a US courtroom that they had invented their technology at the time they claim, according to a report by Nabarro Nathanson. The report, conducted jointly with the Confederation of British Industry and launched last week, examined how UK biotechnology companies […]
GEORGE Carmen QC’s New Court Chambers has appointed Louise Seaton (pictured right) to handle its marketing. Seaton is the first marketing appointment at the chambers and will promote individual barristers as well as the set as a whole. The former Butterworths product marketing manager has been put in charge of advertising and the distribution of […]
A SUCCESSFUL campaign to preserve the wig-wearing tradition in the Irish courts was spearheaded by the younger members of the profession, according to the Irish Bar Council’s director general. The attitude of the more junior barristers has provided a surprising twist in the long road to the liberalisation of court dress in the Republic of […]
BERWIN Leighton’s 13-year experiment in running a US office has ended with the news that one of its American lawyers is being investigated over allegedly misappropriated office funds. The firm, which opened in New York in the boom years for UK investment and was staffed by US lawyers practising American law, announced the closure last […]
THIS YEAR’S weekend school of the Law Society’s Local Government Group will cover areas ranging from environment to education. The event, to be held at the University of Wales in Swansea from 28 to 31 March, will also deal with IT planning for local authority legal departments, plain English, and powers of local government. As […]
City University is holding a course for professionals who were made redundant during the recession. ‘Fresh options: a self-assessment programme for professionals’, running for four days between 15 March and 15 April, is designed for “highly qualified and experienced people” who want to move back into the workforce. The university says all the participants will […]
FAMILY lawyers have welcomed last week’s Government defeat in the Lords over pension splitting in divorce settlements. The measure, withdrawn from committee stage and deferred to a consultation paper, would offer both parties a guaranteed income on their retirement to the end of their lives. Ministers opposed pension splitting, claiming it could cost the taxpayer […]
Cheltenham sole practitioner Howard Ogden, Frederick West’s former lawyer, is appealing against his one-year suspension from practice following a disciplinary hearing into his conduct. At the solicitors’ disciplinary tribunal last week, he admitted acting in a way likely to bring his profession into disrepute and allowing a conflict of interest to arise. An allegation of […]
Boom time has come to the Moscow property sector and Guy Fitzmaurice finds UK and US firms are well placed to cash in Central and eastern Europe continue to offer opportunities for the more adventurous property market players and their advisers. Privatisation and restitution are keeping the region attractive, with properties that were restored to […]