THE ROW between two leading criminal silks has resurfaced 20 months after Roger Levitt’s fraud trial ended in uproar over his lenient sentence. Media attention has been focused on the allegations made by prosecution counsel David Cocks QC and Jonathan Goldberg QC, who led the defence, about each other. In November 1993, after the trial […]
GIBRALTAR firm Marrache & Co has announced plans to establish a presence in New York, only weeks after opening a London office under the direction of former Richards Butler lawyers. Managing partner Benjamin Marrache confirms the practice, which incorporates both barristers and solicitors under Gibraltan fused profession rules, is talking to a “top five” commercial […]
City-based Lawrence Graham is in merger talks with national firm Alsop Wilkinson. If successful, the merger would create a firm with over 400 fee earners and 129 partners placing it 12th in size in The Lawyer Top 100 listing. Alsop Wilkinson was most recently in merger talks with the now-defunct Turner Kenneth Brown and latterly […]
BAR Council chair Peter Goldsmith QC outlined a dual role for the Bar of asserting itself in the debate over changes to the justice system while adapting to the threat of professional competition. Speaking at the Bar’s AGM about proposed changes to the system, he singled out the Lord Chancellor’s legal aid Green Paper and […]
A new cross-party think tank was launched last week to focus on proposed constitutional reform. The Constitution Unit is pooling the knowledge of lawyers, academics, civil servants and parliamentary experts to scrutinise any reforms and to make sure they are workable. Funded by the Nuffield Foundation and other trusts and based in the law department […]
MCKENNA & Co’s environmental team has won a year-long contract from the European Commission for work expected to contribute to a future EC environmental directive. The job is to undertake a study of member states’ law and relates to the 1992 EC Green Paper on ‘Civil liability for remedying environmental damage’. The study is thought […]
The collapse of the Kwelm companies has given rise to the world’s largest insurance insolvency. Through HS Weavers, their underwriting agent, the Kwelm companies underwrote insurance risks situated mainly in North America and have suffered massive losses in respect of pollution, asbestos, professional indemnity, medical malpractice and other claims. These claims have a “long tail” […]
A NEW world-wide grouping of prosecuting lawyers is set to be officially launched in Budapest next April. Planning for the International Association of Public Prosecutors has already begun and an organising committee has been established. Committee member Eamonn Barnes, Director of Public Prosecutions for the Republic of Ireland, says the proposal for the formation of […]
THE LORD Chancellor’s conditional fee proposals were cleared by the House of Lords last week despite a massive wave of protest which split the vote virtually down the middle. Only 105 Lords agreed the plans in their unamended form as 100 backed a radical amendment tabled by Lord Ackner. Ackner wants the uplift charged on […]
LEGAL Practice Course students at the University of Westminster have formed a new organisation aimed at fostering links with the legal community in and around London. The organisation, LPC Links with Legal London, is described as a “self-help group” for students without training contracts. Designed to secure work for those on the 1994/95 intake, the […]
Ipswich firm Birketts has brought in former Cameron Markby Hewitt partner Andrew Bryce as a consultant in its environmental law division. Formerly the head of environmental services at Cameron Markby Hewitt, Bryce also runs his own specialist practice. He joins at the same time as Penningtons’ planning specialist Andrew Shallish. Birketts managing partner Bob Wright […]
Chambers have finally succumbed to the business ethic, finds Richard Budworth Gone are the days when the senior clerk of a chambers would disappear for a long, working lunch and not return to the diary until after four. Such a practice would not be seen as business-like these days. John Bowker, chair of the Institute […]