A SPECIALIST defamation firm which counts Private Eye among its clients is merging with well-known media practice Davenport Lyons. Four partners and five fee earners from Wright Webb Syrett’s litigation department will make the short trip from Soho Square to the Davenport Lyons Old Burlington Street offices, also in the West End, on Monday next […]
URGENT action to lobby the Lord Chancellor’s Department on conditional fee arrangements will be the first task of a new association for personal injury barristers launched this week. The Personal Injury Bar Association holds its inaugural meeting on 7 March, and organiser Matthias Kelly expects barristers country-wide to converge on the Gray’s Inn arbitration room […]
GA Properties, advised by Cobbett Leak Almond, has bought for u3.75m 12.8 acres of development land at Birchwood Science Park, Warrington, from Digital Equipment, advised by Vaudrey Osborne & Mellor.
THE LAW Commission has called for urgent reform of mental incapacity law following its exhaustive five-year study. A nine-point plan has been put forward to plug the “glaring gaps” in the current law on substitute decision-making. And it has come up with a string of other recommendations to protect vulnerable people from harm. Commissioners claim […]
The consequences of getting the introduction of conditional fees wrong are dire, so why is Lord Irvine rushing to introduce them? ask Richard Fox and Richard Evans. Richard Fox is honorary secretary of the London Solicitors Litigation Association (LSLA) and a partner at Kingsley Napley; Richard Evans is president of the LSLA and a partner […]
FORMER London solicitor Geoffrey Beccle has been arrested in connection with a series of alleged property frauds involving former clients and four leading mortgage lenders and worth at least u1 million. No charges have been brought but the police and the Solicitors Complaints Bureau (SCB) are investigating his activities, which are also the subject of […]
Those who practice in the Commercial Court are usually litigating on behalf of one of the top one thousand companies over vast sums of money. By comparison, the legal costs may represent just a small percentage of the sum in dispute. But how cost-effective are some practitioners in doing the best job for their clients? […]
THE JAPANESE criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul, according to the leader of the international barristers’ group. Professor Ross Harper, president of the International Bar Association (IBA), is putting pressure on Japan to reform custody procedures which he says contravene the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The professor has recently returned from […]
DIBB Lupton Broomhead faces possible legal action or a complaint to the Solicitors Complaints Bureau (SCB) from a client. The complaint centres on the Leeds-based firm’s decision to terminate a lawyer’s involvement in a case weeks before a major High Court trial involving millions of pounds. The action is against a company, Milton Medes, over […]
SOUTH Holland Council’s legal section merges with its finance department at the end of the month as the authority divides up into business units. The Lincolnshire council is undertaking a wholesale re-organisation in the run up to the tendering of white collar services, although legal work will not be contracted out. Conveyancing and litigation was […]
A consultation document on privity of contract has been published by the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD). The paper seeks views on whether additional changes should be made when Law Commission reforms on landlord tenant law are introduced. Copies of the paper are available from the LCD, 4th Floor, Southside, 105 Victoria St, London, SW1E 6QT.
NORTON Rose has recruited a leading in-house lawyer from France to head its new international securities group. Gilles Thieffry has joined the firm from BNP Capital Markets where he headed the legal department. Thieffry, who has extensive experience in the eurobond markets will spearhead the development of the firm’s business in international capital markets and […]