THE LEADER of the solicitor advocates’ group has left his firm’s partnership to set up an independent practice in association with the practice. Paul Hampton, chair of the Solicitors Advocates Association, says his decision to break away from London firm Piper Smith & Basham will give him the flexibility he needs to prosper as a […]
TWO City firms have bolstered their Asian presence with new strategies in Hong Kong and Thailand. Clifford Chance last week opened an office in Bangkok to advise major financial institutions, investment houses and multinational corporations with existing business or proposed business in Thailand. It will be run at first by seven lawyers, five of whom […]
There is basic, common-sense advice from both professional art consultants and the lawyers who have the job of finding the right piece of art to buy. One partner says, as a rule of thumb, that good pieces need space – don’t crowd the walls. There are several other pieces of advice: take plenty of time […]
No one will ever know for sure whether businessman Krishna Maharaj killed father and son Derrick and Duane Moo Young. What does seem certain is that the system which condemned him to death for their murders was rendered unfair by the prosecution’s failure to disclose relevant evidence. Unless the Florida Supreme Court intervenes to order […]
In Newcastle, according to one observer, the legal hierarchy is set in stone. Everyone knows their place. Dickinson Dees is at the top, and everyone else follows. This may be a simplistic and superficial view; it means the initial perception is that all the other practices in Newcastle are tilting at Dickinsons. In reality, the […]
A NEW standard fee system for Crown Court trials is heavily barrister-biased and goes against the spirit of the Courts and Legal Services Act, according to a senior Law Society official. The warning comes from David Hartley, of the Law Society’s legal practice directorate, who is negotiating with the Lord Chancellor’s Department over the planned […]
VIRTUOSO violinist Damian Falkowski has given up his full-time career in the performing arts to pursue a living which still relies on a great deal of performance. The musician, who played regularly for the London Symphony Orchestra, has signed up as a tenant at London-based set Barnards Inn Chambers. He spent 15 years as a […]
City firm McKenna & Co has appointed Robin Nott from Herbert Smith as an intellectual property partner. Nott was a partner at Herbert Smith for 15 years and is qualified as both a solicitor and a patent agent. McKennas reputation for intellectual property goes back to the origins of the firm, whose founder Theodore McKenna […]
The Society of Labour Lawyers is holding a conference in Manchester this weekend, called ‘Access to justice – can Labour do better?’. Keynote speaker will be the party’s front bench spokesman on legal affairs, Paul Boateng, and other speakers include Steve Orchard, chief executive of the Legal Aid Board, and Legal Action Group director Roger […]
MARTIN Mears has pledged to launch an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the circulation of a “deeply damaging” internal memo to the press by Chancery Lane staff. The president’s decision to hold a formal investigation confounds the desperate pleas by other Law Society leaders for Mears to call a halt to his public criticism of […]
Liability for injuries received in a horrific fire at a ski resort hotel in Andorra is the subject of a High Court row. Three women, two of them South Africans who had to jump for their lives from a 40 foot high bedroom window, are suing Top Deck Ski, trading as Top Deck Travel Agencies, […]
A member of the legal team of the Association of British Travels Agents has joined the specialist travel and leisure law unit at City practice Nicholson Graham & Jones. The firm says the appointment of Fergus Collins is the first time an ABTA lawyer has moved to private practice. Collins said of his move: “One […]