City firm Kingsley Napley has settled a dispute with a former employee over a laptop computer which contained confidential information. The partnership withdrew a writ against Nicholas Greenfield seeking to retrieve the device and any sensitive commercial material. The firm said last week the two parties had agreed terms for a settlement.
ONE of the leading lawyers at the Serious Fraud Office has called for an extension of plea bargaining as a means of curbing the soaring cost of prosecuting City fraudsters. Chris Dickson last week told a conference on white collar crime that the US plea-bargaining system might lead defendants to admit guilt earlier. Dickson, senior […]
Former Standard Chartered Bank company secretary Gay Welch has been appointed as legal director of investment company Stalwart Group. She will be the first legal director at the firm, which specialises in providing home income plans for the elderly. Welch will also be company secretary for the group, which was admitted as a member of […]
LOVELL White Durrant is making its first major move into the aviation finance market by acquiring a specialist partner-led team from Sinclair Roche & Temperley. Sinclair Roche partner Robin Hallam, head of the firm’s aviation team, and solicitors Guy Liddle and Keith Wilson will move to Lovells shortly. Lovells aims to build on the team’s […]
TRAINING commercial lawyers need not be a priority for a Labour government and the party should ensure that any increase in funding for law students does not end up “in the coffers of big City law firms”, according to the Young Labour Lawyers (YLL) group. In the YLL’s recent response to Labour’s ‘Access to justice’ […]
THE LAW Society has singled out medium to large-sized firms for significant cuts in their insurance despite claims of discrimination against small firms and sole practitioners. Under the measures approved at the Law Society Council meeting last week, firms earning more than £500,000 in gross fees will receive a professional insurance indemnity premium reduction of […]
‘MANAGING to survive and succeed’ is the theme for the Legal Education and Training Group’s sixth annual conference to be held in London later this month. The conference, being held at the Langham Hilton on 23 June, will include keynote speeches from Price Waterhouse’s Matthew de Lange and John Stevens from the Institute of Personnel […]
THE EVIDENCE against four teenagers accused in a private prosecution of murdering black teenager Stephen Lawrence is to be tested at an old-style committal hearing. Magistrates at Woolwich, south-east London, will begin hearing the case on 23 August. Proceedings are expected to last between five and seven days. News of the hearing came as the […]
FAMILY lawyers across Europe have supported the Lord Chancellor’s decision to include mediation in his reform of divorce law, recommending an international instrument in the field. Last week’s third European conference on family law agreed with the decision to scrap the requirement for grounds for divorce, and endorsed Lord Mackay’s proposals for family mediation. Speaking […]
BEAUTY parades may be on the way out, with in-house lawyers using their own networks of contacts to choose external lawyers, according to a survey of in-house lawyers. Uxbridge-based legal consultants Coleman Newman Consulting says a survey of 16 legal directors has left the debate on the merits of beauty parades wide open. Although a […]
THE COUNCIL of Legal Education has come under fire from a group of former students who claim CLE solicitors have threatened them with high cost orders in an effort to avoid appeals against the council’s assessment system. The CLE could face actions from up to 40 students who have notified the Visitors to the Inns […]
SIR NICHOLAS Lyell is to become the first attorney general to face a judicial review of one of his decisions in a landmark case to be heard in the High Court next month. Lyell is to be challenged over his failure to prosecute newspapers for contempt of court for their coverage of a murder trial. […]