EX-WATSON Farley & Williams partner Deborah Clark has been appointed as a partner in the Paris office of Norton Rose. Clark, an aviation specialist, came over as a lateral hire at the end of March and was among six solicitors made up to partnership earlier this month. A former barrister she practised as a criminal […]
Earlier this year, Bar chairman Peter Goldsmith visited the Department of Education to express concern about the worsening funding situation facing trainee barristers. With less than six per cent of students getting their full fees paid by local education authorities and only 17 per cent getting some form of assistance (compared with 47 per cent […]
Young solicitors, accountants and chartered surveyors have joined forces to form the London Young Professionals Group (LYPG). The group, formed to promote co-operation and understanding between younger members of the three professions, will publish papers and articles and liaise as a united organisation with professional bodies. Members will also meet for lectures, discussions and social […]
Ian Muirhead The rule of thumb for UK residents considering investing offshore, as opposed to investing overseas through UK collective investment vehicles, is the same as that for investing in investment bonds: don’t, except in a small number of specific situations. The reason for this caution in relation to investment bonds is that they are […]
THE LORD Chancellor has hit back at critics of working conditions in the legal world telling lawyers they are in a “healthy and expanding profession”. Speaking at the College of Law in London, Lord Mackay said: “Statistics continue to suggest that your choice of profession is by no means as unhealthy as detractors would have […]
“THE Need to do better in getting over our message to the profession,” is cited by Law Society secretary general John Hayes as a key reason for the Chancery Lane administrative shake-up. But Council member Martin Mears, the anti-Chancery Lane presidential candidate, is unimpressed. “It’s a mere bureaucratic reshuffle without any significance whatsoever,” he says. […]
Life office AXA Equity & Law has appointed Vanessa Carver as national accounts manager with sole responsibility for developing business within the legal profession. Carver returns to AXA after several years previously spent with the life office. Graeme Laws, who heads AXA’s marketing to the IFA sector, says: “Being a company originally founded by lawyers […]
PRIVATE pupillage arr-angements are to be investigated by the Bar Council following allegations of misconduct against Cherie Booth QC by a right-wing pressure group. The professional conduct committee has cleared Booth, of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, of professional misconduct following the Freedom Association’s claims she risked “bringing the Bar into disrepute” in bypassing her chambers’ […]
The Lawyer and Coopers & Lybrand will hold their fifth annual financial management conference – Improving Profitability – at the London Marriott Hotel on 5 July. The conference will observe the economic outlook for law firms and discuss subjects such as on-line time recording, fee earner billing systems and partnership tax changes. Speakers will include […]
THE BAR is infuriated by a Law Society attack on the level of legal aid fees paid to barristers denouncing “excessive” QC fees of up to £300,000 a year. Law Society president Charles Elly has moved to steal the Lord Chancellor’s legal aid thunder by announcing a blueprint for reform to restore public eligibility without […]
A legal battle over patents for plastic nets may go to the House of Lords. In 1992 the High Court ruled that two nets patents held by PLG Research were invalid as no inventive step had been used to arrive at their design. But, last November the Court of Appeal held the nets were covered […]
THE LEGAL Aid Board has attacked the Law Society, claiming it named a London law firm whose franchise was suspended. But society head of professional policy Russell Wallman says the accusation is a bid to divert attention from the board’s “disgraceful” behaviour over the suspension. Evans Butler Wade is threatening the LAB with legal action […]