Issues

Lovell White Durrant advised electronics company Vero Group on its London Stock Exchange listing by way of a placing and intermediaries offer. Slaughter and May advised sponsors SBC Warburg.

Ashurst Morris Crisp is advising ING Bank as arranger and underwriter of the $97 million project financing for the Gul Ahmed power project in Karachi

A DELEGATION of Chinese lawyers visiting the UK were welcomed to the North West by Exchange Chambers and Davies Wallis Foyster. The UK lawyers co-hosted the visit of the deputy directors from the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which develops legal policy in China.

A CRUNCH vote this week on conveyancing threatens to blow apart any semblance of unity within the Law Society Council as it struggles to respond to the clamour for higher fees from the profession. Law Society president Martin Mears says a motion to exclude cut-price conveyancers from the indemnity insurance scheme, to be put before […]

THE HIGH Court has granted magistrates committees leave to judicially review the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor over the transfer of police enforcement duties. The action is being taken by the Central Council of Magistrates Courts Committees (CCMCC), an organisation which represents the 105 Magistrates Courts Committees around the country. Duncan Webster, general secretary of […]

CORNWALL-BASED Helen Davies has swept on to the Law Society Council with massive support in the first by-election since Martin Mears was elected to the presidency. At 31, Davies, who works for the Launceston firm Parnall Langsford, will be the youngest member of the council when she takes her seat at next week’s council meeting. […]

Iliffes Booth Bennett and Paynes Hicks Beach acted for Lands Improvement Holdings in its £50 million contract to acquire 19,500 acres of farmland together with associated farming subsidiary British Field Products from Royal Insurance Asset Management in what is claimed to be the biggest agricultural property deal so far. Linklaters & Paines acted for Royal […]

THE HIGH Court judge who helped raise the profile of the Law Commission is stepping down as its chair. Mr Justice Brooke’s term of office at the commission has come to an end and his position is being taken next month by Mrs Justice Arden, a High Court Chancery judge since 1993. The commission has […]

CITY firms are gearing themselves up to take on the Bar in the higher courts. That was the conclusion drawn by Young Solicitors Group chair Lucy Winskell after an open meeting to encourage more solicitors to apply for rights of audience. She said around one third of the audience at the meeting at Chancery Lane […]

FEWER than half the law firms operating in conveyancing work are making money out of it, the Law Society’s annual statistical report has confirmed. The report, released on Friday, predicts that the profession may be on the brink of a recession and makes particularly gloomy reading for sole practitioners and high street firms. It says […]

THE JUDICIAL Studies Board (JSB) plans major improvements to judge training in response to Lord Woolf’s proposals for judicial case management, rapid changes in criminal law, and the public’s expectations of a better service. More training for all levels of judges as well as magistrates and tribunals are in the pipeline. More regular reporting of […]

Leeds firm Brooke North & Goodwin is relocating to new purpose-built offices this week. The firm, which has spent the past 30 years in its Yorkshire House offices, will move to Great George Street’s Crown House.