I note attempts are being made by the Bar to allow on-line access to UK statute law and statutory material (The Lawyer 9 January, ‘Bar calls for on-line statute law’). A big problem is, of course, the question of Crown copyright. On the continent, statute law is public material, the thinking being that citizens should […]
THE GOVERNMENT’S new Housing Bill has been greeted with dismay by the Law Centres Federation (LCF). The Bill, which the Government says gives wider choice and better quality of life to home owners and tenants, has been criticised by the LCF as “damaging” many people’s rights and security. The LCF’s housing development project worker Matthew […]
Eversheds advised Century Inns on its London Stock Exchange flotation. Dibb Lupton Broomhead acted for sponsor Rothschilds. The placing and intermediary offer was worth £24 million and market capitalisation was expected to rise to £47 million.
Taylor Joynson Garrett acted for The Canada Life Assurance Company in its £4.6 million acquisition of a freehold investment property at Bury House, 31 Bury St, EC3. Paisner & Co advised vendor Ascot Holding.
LOVELL White Durrant’s reputation for hostile bid work will be further enhanced by its client Granada’s successful £3.9 billion bid for Forte. A merger of Forte’s in-house functions could also spell a job change for its legal director David Stevens, appointed to the newly-created post less than a year ago. Granada sources suggest the job […]
A picture of sperm and chromosomes is an unusual and unlikely work of art to be found on display in a professional office, especially a City law firm. In fact law firms appear to be helping to reverse the rule noted by the late Lord Pearce “that artists do not live in the purple, they […]
The opening of the latest Harvey Nichols store in Leeds later this year may attract Absolutely Fabulous’ Patsy and Edina, but has the city’s affluence brought in work for lawyers? According to those both within and outside the legal profession, Leeds has managed to ride out the recession rather well. Some insiders say the local […]
CONSERVATIVE MP David Hunt, who was dropped from the Cabinet after last July’s reshuffle, has become senior partner at City firm Beachcroft Stanleys. Hunt, the only solicitor to serve in the Cabinet since the 1970s, returns to Beachcrofts after five years. He became a partner with Stanley Wasbrough & Co in Bristol in 1970. The […]
A recent High Court £1.425 million medical negligence settlement attracted little media attention but probably rates as one of the most moving cases of its kind to reach the courts. Holly Williams, the 14-year-old at the centre of the action, was left grievously disabled after suffering oxygen starvation at birth. She was initially still-born following […]
Andrew Craig Larman, 44, admitted 1981, practised at material time in partnership with Williams Mann, Bristol, struck off and ordered to pay £882 costs. Allegations substantiated he wrongly drew and used client money for own purposes and those of other clients and failed to keep properly written accounts. Total claims of around £27,000 expected to […]
Slaughter and May and Ashurst Morris Crisp are leading the City elite in the mergers and acquisition stakes so far this year, with respective roles in Unichem’s £514.2 million bid for Lloyds Chemists. Robert Stern is heading the Slaughters team, with Mark Wippell leading for Ashursts. The Unichem deal puts the two firms well out […]
THE BUSINESS community is being caught unawares by unworkable immigration reforms which will place a heavy burden on companies, says a leading immigration lawyer. Cameron Markby Hewitt partner Julia Onslow-Cole, who heads the firm’s immigration group, said her business clients are increasingly concerned about the Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently at committee stage in Parliament. […]