Linda Tsang reports Leading Edinburgh-based commercial firm Shepherd & Wedderburn is to install a state-of-the-art practice management system which will result in 250 users having a desktop PC. It is seen as a radical move for a Scottish firm. The firm has opted for the Precedent system, supplied by Miles 33, and its chief executive […]
Linda Tsang reports Sussex firm Wynne Baxter Godfree has just gone on-line with a dedicated high-speed link into HM Land Registry’s national computer at Plymouth. The link, via BT’s ISDN service, will reduce the time taken for searches and other registry inquiries, and also speed up the firm’s conveyancing and property services. It is envisaged […]
Linda Tsang reports When we started supplying computer systems for law firms in 1978, they were still surrounded by an aura of mystery cultivated by those who used them. Partners in firms knew little about their computer system other than it existed. General opinion was that it was a costly but necessary evil. So when […]
LAWYERS are “punks, weaklings, con artists and losers” and they are destroying the United States of America. At least that’s what you’re likely to believe if you’re an avid reader of the attorney-bashing US journal AntiShyster. Amid advertisements for ammunition and cartoons of barristers beating Lady Justice with hammers, nestle articles aimed at exposing the […]
JOHN HENRY JANES, 46, admitted 1977, practised as Howard Janes, Kingsbridge, Devon, struck off and ordered to pay £881 costs. Allegations substantiated he wrongly drew and used client money for own purposes, held himself out as practising solicitor in investment business when he had no authority to do so, failed to deliver accountants report on […]
David Knight is a barrister in Lovell White Durrant’s property research department. He was born in County Down in 1960 and now lives in London. What was your first job? Organising a snooker competition which featured a very youthful Alex Higgins. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £0.00 as a pupil barrister. […]
The Bar’s proposals to smooth the path for solicitors who switch to the Bar are like King Canute’s attempts to stem the tide. Faced with the growing competition of solicitor advocates, what does the Bar Council do? It proposes inviting them to join the Bar. The response – solicitor advocates in general have no interest […]
PINSENT CURTIS has hired former ICI lawyer Richard Thomas as a consultant to improve its business with large companies. Thomas was senior solicitor with ICI when he retired earlier this year at the age of 62. He had worked for the chemical giant for 30 years, handling mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, disposals, demergers and business […]
Former College of Law students have bought their old educational headquarters as apartments following the refurbishment of the college’s period-listed building in London’s Lancaster Gate. More than 70 per cent of the property, being converted into 21 luxury apartments, has already been sold in the Far East – much of it to solicitors. The apartments […]
A BLACK barrister has accused the Bar Council of racial discrimination over its decision to take disciplinary action against him. Jonathan Deve’s case was brought before an industrial tribunal in central London last week but was adjourned until August. Deve was brought before a Bar disciplinary hearing for allegedly misleading the court during a case […]
THE SOLICITORS Complaints Bureau has accused the Law Society of eroding its independence and undermining its staff. At the Law Society Council meeting last week the bureau’s policy advisory committee chair Tony Heywood defended the beleaguered bureau whose reform has become a key election battleground. “We resent the fact that the bureau has been used […]
EXPERT witnesses should not be paid on a contingency fee basis because their independence could be called into question if they have a direct financial interest in a case, say leading members of the judiciary. Law Lord, Lord Slynn, says solicitors should also be prevented from providing incentives of future work in order to obtain […]