Robert Roscoe, partner at Victor Lissack & Roscoe and the chair of the Law Society criminal law committee, was elected president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association last week. Roscoe had been acting president since May, following the appointment of Robert Winstanley as a circuit judge. He said that the association, which now has […]
The president of the Paris Bar has criticised the proposed European Rights of Establishment directive. Speaking last month at the opening of the Paris Bar year, Bernard Vatier said that it gave foreign lawyers and host state lawyers similar status in terms of professional activity and codes of practice, but gave them different titles. He […]
The Lord Chancellor has called on solicitors to improve client care, saying he shared concerns that clients are not being particularly well treated. In an address to the London Young Solicitors Group last week, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay, said he received many letters of complaints from dissatisfied legal clients. “My impression is that there […]
Prisoners had no legitimate expectation of home leave R v (1) Secretary of State for the Home Department (2) The Governor of HM Risley ex parte (1) Briggs, (2) Green and (3) Hargeaves (1996) Summary: No infringement of a legitimate expectation or breach of the European Convention on Human Rights by changes in the rules […]
“Stalking” has suddenly become an in-vogue legal term. It only emerged relatively recently, but it is now rare to pick up a newspaper without finding it applied to some legal action or other. One of the definitive rulings to emerge on the subject – and one in which the case began before the term was […]
Lawyers in the Netherlands are facing a new threat to their livelihood as the country’s accountants step up their fight for a chunk of the legal services market. Two accountancy firms, Price Waterhouse and Arthur Andersen, have begun court action against the Dutch Bar Association over its rules on multi-disciplinary partnerships. Meanwhile, Price Waterhouse has […]
Judgment is pending in a legal battle over a pair of candelabras which are said to form part of the artistic heritage of France. Mrs Justice Arden is currently pondering the ownership of the pieces. Nicole de Preval, an 80-year-old aristocrat, claims that in 1986 the gilt bronze candelabras were stolen from her country chateau. […]
The Irish Law Society is to curb “no win no fee” advertising in the Republic of Ireland. Under regulations to be introduced shortly, future advertisements will be required to explain to clients that they could be liable for costs and expenses awarded against them by the courts if they lose. The advertisements will also have […]
City firm DJ Freeman has produced an A-Z of legal language to help “demystify” the profession for clients. The Language of Litigation follows a series of highly successful books on the language of finance which saw well in excess of 14,000 copies snapped up by clients. “These books stay on the shelf – they are […]
Alison Laferla reports The Law Society is investing more than £100,000 in permanent IT staff following its recent admission that the Regis computer system has suffered from inadequate financial and project management which resulted in a massive overspend. In an IT services department shakeup, the society has advertised four key posts – IT projects manager, […]
Freshfields has pulled off a major coup as it prepares to enter the Italian marketplace, by scooping up a Milan firm and entering into talks with a Rome-based firm. It has taken over Milan-based Lega Colucci Albertazzi & Arossa (LCAA), a full service firm which will form the kernel of the Freshfields practice. This follows […]
Lord Woolf underlines the importance of public law, when he states in his recommendations that: “Many… public law proceedings… are of considerable constitutional significance, since they are the means whereby the lawfulness of decisions of public bodies can be examined by the courts.” It is also, therefore, of the utmost importance that the ordinary citizen […]