The Serious Fraud Office will interview Nick Leeson, the derivatives trader blamed for the £860 million collapse of UK merchant bank Barings. The move follows Kingsley Napley lawyer Stephen Pollard offering the SFO the opportunity of a “no strings attached” interview, which required no guarantee that extradition to the UK would follow.
US LAWYER John Klotsche will take over as chair of Baker & McKenzie’s executive committee when current incumbent John McGuigan steps down in October. McGuigan, who has served a three-year term, will also leave the firm’s Chicago headquarters to return to his native Australia. He will remain as a member of the firm’s executive committee. […]
BARRISTERS are set to enjoy a major international marketing boost this month from an unprecedented host of Bar Council initiatives at home and abroad. Solicitors should also benefit from the efforts of the Bar Council, which claims the initiative will focus as much on publicising the UK legal profession as a whole as it will […]
Successful relocation from one building to another can be a complex exercise, requiring careful management and planning by chartered surveyors. For the preliminary stages of the fitting out process, a space audit of existing accommodation, detailing specific requirements, should be prepared. Following this, the links between departments can be reviewed to establish which need to […]
THE lawyer who pioneered claims over deaths and injuries linked to the contraceptive pill Femodene has been chosen by the Legal Aid Board to spearhead the group action. LAB officials awarded the certificate to co-ordinate claims to the newly-merged Hereford firm Carvers Lewis & Tomkins. The task of organising subsequent actions will fall to solicitor […]
Nabarro Nathanson is the latest law firm to open an office in the Lloyd’s building. It says the move is to support its growing shipping work and the office will act as a City base for the firm’s shipping lawyers. This follows the hiring of a Norton Rose specialist litigation team led by partners Dominic […]
FORMER clients of a wealthy Dublin solicitor, who killed himself as his accounts were being investigated, have lodged compensation claims with the Irish Law Society totalling £l0 million. It is the largest amount claimed in relation to one legal practice since the Solicitors’ Compensation Fund was established. Now the society has begun an action against […]
After two decades in which to ponder the question, abandonment of North Sea oil and gas facilities is headline news across Europe. Short of Liz Hurley being dropped on to the Brent Spar it is hard to see how this once dry and esoteric topic could become more newsworthy. The time has come to review […]
The main consideration for those organisations with a lease expiry or an option to determine in the next 12-18 months is timing. The amount of available accommodation has been declining steadily over the past few years from the peak of 3.5 million sq ft that was seen in the fourth quarter of 1991. Today, approximately […]
The 950 members of the Irish Bar are to decide by secret ballot whether the wearing of wigs in court should be optional rather than compulsory. A resolution to that effect was endorsed at a recent Bar Council AGM and the ballot will be held over the next five weeks. Barristers are not empowered to […]
The Bar is calling on the Government to reform a section of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 to end complications and confusion to consumers. The Bar’s law reform committee says section 18 of the Act only benefits lawyers who have to draft lengthy documentation and should be repealed. Committee chair James Goudie QC says: “The […]
CITY firm McKenna & Co has won crucial breathing space for waste management clients by persuading the Government to slow down the implementation of new environmental laws. McKennas convinced the Department of the Environment that it should put back the deadline for applications for waste management licences for effluent plants by eight months. The previous […]