EIGHT new lawyers are to be recruited because of a restructuring programme in a local authority legal department. The additional staff at Hounslow Council in Middlesex are being employed to deal with an increased workload generated by competitive tendering. Borough solicitor Mike Smith is expanding his team with four senior solicitors, three assistant solicitors and […]
Gary Philpott has recently become a partner in the Property Services Department of Bristol-based firm Veale Wasbrough. He is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Arbitrators and an Associate of the Institute of Indirect Taxation. What was your first job? Electrical Goods Salesman (Saturdays only) What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? […]
Congratulations! You have completed your academic training and are set to embark on professional practice. But a word of caution for the naively optimistic – success at one does not guarantee success at the other. Assuming similar backgrounds and capabilities, some candidates will shoot straight to the top, leaving colleagues far behind. This is because […]
Enterprise Oil was advised by Herbert Smith in relation to a syndicated £400m revolving facility
As UK universities churn out law graduates at a far greater rate than the profession can handle, many would-be lawyers ask whether the needs of students and trainees are adequately represented by the Law Society. Each year approximately 7,000 people graduate from the Legal Practice Course (LPC) while students face the dismal prospect of competing […]
LAWYERS at Denton Hall are mourning the death of corporate group head Andrew Britton in a car crash. Britton’s funeral was held last week following the accident on 22 April. Colleague Simon Brown says he “had a rare combination of intellect, inventiveness and wit”. He describes Britton as “a brilliant lawyer whose sense of fun […]
KARAMAT HUSSAIN RAJA, 56, admitted 1982, practised as KH Raja Luton, struck off and ordered to pay £2,272 costs. Allegations substantiated he wrongly withdrew and used client account money for his own purposes, and failed to comply with book keeping rules. Tribunal told minimum cash shortages in excess of £150,000 were established by investigation accountant, […]
Roger Jones, chair of the Law Society’s training committee: I chair the Law Society’s training committee but I am writing in a personal capacity. The Law Society cannot do much more than it already has done in putting pressure on the Government to extend mandatory grants to the vocational course and persuading local education authorities […]
SWINDON solicitor Michelle Howard has been elected as the new chair of the Law Society’s Group for Solicitors with Disabilities. Howard, who takes over as GSD head from local government lawyer Richard Dunford, was admitted as a solicitor in 1992 and works as a plaintiff personal injury and medical negligence lawyer at Townsends. A tetraplegic […]
Four hundred years ago, Francis Bacon wrote in his preface to ‘The Elements of Common Law’: “I hold every man a debtor to his profession.” In the 1990s, those words may be considered prophetic as the obstacles facing most students entering the legal profession continue to be lack of funding and lack of places in […]
RICHARDS Butler admiralty lawyer Frank Coles has left his City base to move to the Hong Kong office of Stephenson Harwood. Originally from Zimbabwe, Coles moved to the UK at the age of 17 and spent 13 years in the merchant marine before studying law. The Nautical Institute awarded Coles its first scholarship to study […]
John Doherty The use of offshore centres by UK legal firms still focuses on the traditional realm where legal advice and financial advice are most closely linked – that of trust formation. This is not only due to the higher cost of offshore services. The repertoire of financial advice offered by the UK solicitor has […]