Richard Ward Slocombe, 50, admitted 1972, practising at material time in partnership with Bird Franklin, Oxford, fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,121 costs. Allegations substantiated he was guilty of inordinate and inexcusable delay in conduct of professional business, failed to reply to correspondence from client and from Solicitors Complaints Bureau. Slocombe told tribunal he […]
Four solicitors admitted bringing the profession into disrepute at a disciplinary tribunal hearing last week. A total of £8 million was plundered from clients’ accounts at Hastings firm Durnford Ford, which collapsed in 1992. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that the fraud was masterminded by former senior partner Graham Ford and that three senior equity […]
You could call it ‘the son of Mr Whatsisname’: it is related, it will bear similarities and it will almost certainly have an identical effect in dividing the profession. The offspring in question is the Law Society’s proposed advertising campaign to raise the public profile of solicitors. And in its aims it follows the same […]
Law Society presidential challenger Tony Girling will quit the council if he loses the election to president Martin Mears because he is worried Mears will become “dictatorial” if he wins a second term. Girling told The Lawyer: “I don’t think I could sit on a council led by Mears with what he would see as […]
High Court moves are being brought by the Vale of White Horse District Council in a bid to curb the activities of one of Oxfordshire’s most established pig farmers. The moves follow public complaints about smells and pollution said to amount to a health hazard. The council has issued a summons seeking a court order […]
John Malpas reports A group for practice managers has been established to act as a forum for the exchange of information and ideas. The Practice Management Group already has around 20 members but it is keen to expand and will be holding an open meeting this month. The group is chaired by Christine Kings, of […]
CRIMINAL barristers have launched an investigation into a controversial Crown Prosecution Service scheme to restrict the number of chambers which regularly receive briefs. Under the “preferred sets” system the CPS passes the bulk of its work to a restricted number of chambers. The CPS argues the scheme, which operates on the South Eastern circuit, is […]
Christopher Causer, former senior assistant solicitor at Lovell White Durrant, has joined City firm Rowe & Maw as a partner in the banking and projects team. Causer, a former assistant director at Lloyds merchant bank, joined Lovells in 1990, where he helped extend the firm’s PFI practice. Richard Powles, Rowe & Maw’s managing partner, said: […]
Advertising is a phenomenon which came late to the legal profession and although embraced by some, it is still widely treated with suspicion. The profession’s rumour mill circulates stories of Californian lawyers advertising two divorces for the price of one, or of a TV commercial in the US which featured both a lawyer and his […]
City solicitors are being asked to dig deep into their pockets in support of the human rights organisation Liberty. Michael Skrein, from Richards Butler, and Maggie Rae, from Mishcon de Reya, have initiated a campaign to raise funds for the organisation’s legal department. The two partners, who were involved in setting up the City Firms […]
US firm Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has appointed a new chair. Mel Immergut, a partner in the firm’s corporate and banking department since 1980, succeeds Francis Logan who has retired. Partners Trayton Davis, from the capital markets group, and Frank Puleo, co-head of the firm’s banking and institutional investment group, have been elected to […]
Alison Laferla reports THE CHAMBERS at 12 King’s Bench Walk has invested £100,000 in a major IT overhaul. The set, which has 36 tenants, has spent the money on networking its entire chambers in a bid to improve speed and efficiency. The Ace Infinity network will link clerks and barristers in the chambers for the […]