The letter from John Edge, of Edge Leyden Ellis to conveyancing solicitors across the country, which was widely publicised throughout the legal press, amounts to nothing short of a declaration of war. It runs something like this – solicitors are the victims of the housing crisis, forced to charge rock bottom prices for work. The […]
Green Form’s no windfall… With reference to “Green Form business – easy pickings?” (The Lawyer 1 August), in 1993 the Solicitors Complaints Bureau’s Special Investigation section launched an investigation into suspected fraud on the Green Form scheme and this resulted in interventions into three solicitors’ firms which had been closely involved with Peter Lane’s Clan […]
The row over selling accident victims’ names for £1 a time, which sparked apoplectic attacks in the heavyweight press about ‘ambulance chasing’ lawyers ‘Americanising’ personal injury litigation, raises serious issues: how is an accident victim expected to find a competent lawyer? Are personal injury lawyers really bringing transatlantic litigation to the UK and if so, […]
Kit Sorrell is a partner and head of the litigation department at Manchester firm Davies Wallis Foyster. Born in Liverpool, he now lives on the Wirral. What was your first job? Down the drains in rubber boots. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £80 per week. What would you have done if […]
Hammond Suddards advised Halifax-based engineering group FKI on the launch of a one-for-four rights issue raising £136.6 million. Freshfields advised underwriters NM Rothschild.
Roger Pearson finds Headcorn Parachute Club back in the news again Headcorn Parachute Club is on the receiving end of litigation issued by 24-year-old Elyse Gorham, who suffered devastating injuries when her first tandem jump with another parachutist went wrong. She blames the club for what happened. Gorham claims that she hit the ground at […]
UK foods giant Vestey Group has given its blessing to a merger in which the group’s former in-house legal team joins southern firm Osborne Clarke. The partnership of RA Roberts – formed a decade ago from Vestey’s in-house legal department – has joined Osborne Clarke’s London office, taking the group with it as its major […]
Many solicitors’ firms offering in-house investment management do not try to attract the person on the street, who is often dealing in small amounts of money and takes a disproportionate amount of time to decide what to do with it. Often the greater emphasis is on earning repetitive, annual fees from managing the paperwork as […]
A BRISTOL-BASED consultancy firm is marketing a franchise assessment service on the coat tails of the Lord Chancellor’s vigorously pro-franchise reform Green Paper. Management consultants Allery Scotts, which will carry out an on-site initial assessment to the Legal Aid Franchise Specification for £99, said that four firms had already signed up for a visit. “Most […]
THE LEGAL marketplace is competitive and lawyers need to make “client development efforts” to keep ahead of the game, the ABA’s advertising commission says. Staff counsel to the commission William Hornsby told lawyers the stigma attached to advertising was unfounded and theories that good lawyers did not need to advertise had been overturned by the […]
Boodle Hatfield says it is about to announce further appointments to its new Oxford office. The firm recently announced the arrival of partner Peter Webber and says further appointments are likely as the office approaches its first anniversary next month. Webber joined Boodle Hatfield after more than 20 years as a partner at Morrell Peel […]
A LONDON law centre described as a “non-hierarchical classic 1970’s collective” is finally to close after a long-running battle with the local council which funds it. Tottenham Law Centre has had its £200,000-a-year funding stopped by Labour-controlled Haringey Council. The law centre will close on 31 December with redundancies for its 10 staff and will […]