Kim Beatson specialises in family law and divides her working week between City practice Berrymans and Barnes practice Ashbys. Born in Sheffield, she now lives in Wimbledon. What was your first job? Selling cigarettes from a kiosk outside Sheffield Market. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £3,250 in 1982 (the Law Society […]
The case against, by John Woods, a consultant at Denton Hall and former director of the Serious Fraud Office In a speech to a seminar in Cambridge recently, the director of the Serious Fraud Office commented ruefully that the SFO had received more column inches in the newspapers than most others, testifying, perhaps to the […]
THE DEPARTMENT of Trade and Industry is calling a special meeting this week to discuss the crisis facing foreign lawyers in India. Officials will meet law firms on Friday to discuss how to ease the situation for foreign firms with offices in India. The Law Society has also been invited to attend. The move comes […]
When the Barings crisis first hit the headlines, there was a clearly identified villain to blame. One of the City’s great financial institutions had been brought to its knees by a champagne-swilling, yacht-owning, reconstructed Thatcherite yuppie who spent his life in Singapore barking instructions down a mobile phone in between mouthfuls of caviar. It is […]
Incidents of food and drink contamination, whether malicious or accidental, are never out of the news for long. Only recently it was reported that Marks & Spencer had launched a campaign to recall certain chocolate cakes on the same day that Sainsbury’s were recalling wafers because of possible contamination. The two incidents were unrelated. Such […]
Fiona Woolf, head of the utilities practice at McKenna & Co, plugs into the project’s history Demand for electricity in India far outstrips supply and there is simply not enough cash available in the public sector to invest in the power stations that the country needs. Five years ago the Indian government attempted to encourage […]
SJ Berwin & Co acted for computer software company Lightworks Editing Systems on taking its new offices at Ariel House, Charlotte Street, London W1. Landlord Britannic Assurance was represented by its in-house legal team.
FOOTBALL lawyers are set to examine the future of players’ contracts and transfers following the European Advocate-General’s decision in the case of Belgian Jean-Marc Bosman. The implications of the Bosman opinion last week will be on the agenda at the next meeting of the Premier League legal working party. Authorities also believe big clubs will […]
Cyril Dixon PARENTS who fraudulently obtain school places for their children could be prosecuted for perjury, a council’s lawyers have been told. Their children could also be expelled, according to counsel guidance given to the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Barking’s lawyers sought advice from barrister Nigel Giffin on how to deal with parents […]
THE BAR, Law Society and law teachers are falling down on ethical training, claims a legal academic. And he says the English bodies are putting out misleading information on the extent to which the subject is taught. Delivering a paper to last week’s International Bar Association conference, the University of Warwick’s Roger Burridge said English […]
Cyril Dixon SHROPSHIRE has app-ointed a new county solicitor to replace Eversheds recruit Stephen Matthew. David Brierley is promoted to the county council’s top legal job following a three-year spell as deputy county secretary. Brierley’s chief role will be to handle his division’s bid for contracts under competitive tendering. He has been with Shropshire for […]
The CCBE is still pondering the question of rights of establishment after Germany and the UK put forward new proposals to break the deadlock at a meeting in Brussels last week. According to Law Society head of international Hamish Adamson, the Spanish and French delegations did not reject the proposals out of hand. Further discussions […]