In the wake of the Roger Levitt trial scandal, complaints will be lodged at the Bar Council over the alleged professional misconduct of all three prosecution barristers in the 1993 trial. Levitt’s former solicitor John Perry, a partner at Goldkorn Davies Mathias, and John Marshall, Conservative MP for Hendon South, are drafting formal complaints against […]
DERBYSHIRE Magistrates Courts Committee (MCC) has been told to improve its “inappropriate” arrangements for dealing with prisoners and security arrangements for the safety of court users. Conditions in “many” of the MCC’s 11 courtrooms “are very poor,” according to a report by the Magistrates Courts Service Inspectorate (MCSI) published last week. These include magistrates having […]
Berwin Leighton acted for Oasis Stores in its flotation on to the Official List by way of an institutional placing valuing the company at £77 million. Linklaters & Paines acted for sponsors Robert Fleming & Co.
FIRMS have been flocking to join up to the Law Society’s £85 no win no fee insurance scheme, according to Chancery Lane officials. Nine hundred of the 1,300 Accident Line offices had signed up for insurance by the time the Law Society’s Accident Line Protect scheme was launched last week. David Hartley, of the Law […]
ALSOP Wilkinson will integrate its Hong Kong business with its main UK practice following a decision by two key partners and their teams to join the Hong Kong office of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert. The two firms released statements within an hour of each other last week. Barlow Lyde & Gilbert expressed pleasure at the […]
Maclay Murray & Spens has topped Scottish Business Insider magazine’s Lawyers Dealmakers table after completing 18 successful deals during the second quarter of 1995. Deals masterminded by the firm include the creation of the first start-up company to trade shares on the new Alternative Investment Market.
London firm Bircham & Co has lost two key members of its financial services department with the departures of Charles Galbraith and his assistant Chris Brown. Galbraith and Brown, who came from Lloyds Bank Stockbrokers to set up Birchams’ department at the beginning of the year, have returned to Lloyds. Birchams has replaced him with […]
THE COUNCIL of Legal Education has ordered a new inquiry into why black students continue to fare worse than white students on the Bar Vocational Course. Figures released by the council last week show this year’s pass rate among ethnic minority students fell to 74.6 per cent from last year’s 80 per cent. Among white […]
It was a classic conundrum for the legal department. Company A sold product X to Company B. The transaction went smoothly until Company C, the previous owner, claimed a proportion of the selling price. The flurry of faxes was the everyday stuff of lawyers’ lives. The difference was that product X was an international footballer […]
CLIFFORD Chance is saying nothing over the embarrassing £20 million failure of its client Mowlem in a long-running legal action, which resulted in profuse apologies to the defendants and an offer to pay all parties’ legal costs. Other London lawyers are speculating how such a large case could go so wrong, at such expense, and […]
LEGAL AID contracts could solve the cash flow and overheads problems under which firms are labouring, says the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association. In its response to the Lord Chancellor’s reform Green Paper the London group also argues contracts could allow the Government to lay down minimum quality standards. “The association does have concerns about […]
A LEADING US employment attorney has urged law firms to take action to prevent clients from sexually harassing their lawyers after recent cases in the US showed the practice was on the increase. LA lawyer Karen Kaplowitz told ABA delegates a growing number of actions involving sexual harassment by clients, opposing counsel and judges had […]