THE COLLEGE of Law has announced plans for a second preparatory course for US lawyers hoping to qualify as solicitors in the UK. The four-day revision course, which provides extra tuition for people intending to sit the twice-yearly qualified lawyers transfer test (QLTT), will be held at Manhattan’s Practising Law Institute from 26 to 29 […]
The Egyptian-born owners of Harrods, Mohammed Al Fayed and brother Ali, are set to take on the Government in the High Court. They have been given the go-ahead to challenge the Home Office refusal to grant them British citizenship. Their moves to seek judicial review of the refusal are expected to be vigorously opposed by […]
Linda Tsang reports JERSEY’S finance industry has launched itself onto the Internet. In a move believed to be the first of its kind, over 250 pages of text about the Channel Island’s offshore base has been produced in an electronic magazine format called ‘Jersey Offshore’. The magazine can be accessed by Internet users. The on-line […]
The Solicitors’ European Group is holding its annual conference in Brussels this week. The conference, being held at the Palais des Congres on Friday and Saturday, will include seminars on environmental law, developments in Central and Eastern Europe, the application of EC law in national courts, and mergers, joint ventures and collaboration. Further information on […]
The Bar Council’s problems in finding a legal way to force barristers to pay their subscriptions was due to become an issue at the council’s annual general meeting (AGM) over the weekend. Michael Blair, Bar Council treasurer, was due to include mention of the problem in his AGM address as The Lawyer went to press […]
THE ATTORNEY General’s office in Eire is at the centre of a new political crisis that is almost a carbon copy of the one which brought down the government headed by Prime Minister Albert Reynolds just seven months ago. The only casualty so far has been the senior legal assistant in charge of the Attorney […]
Lord Woolf’s and Lord Taylor’s recent recommendations show that there is a new spirit abroad in the judiciary. Hopefully this will lead to improved practices and to the more interventionist role of trial judges recommended by the Heilbron Committee. Certainly, the judiciary has been willing to improve its procedures to give more direction to litigation. […]
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 […]
Richard Smerdon, senior partner at Bristol firm Osborne Clarke: “I’m going to vote for Eileen Pembridge. She’s an outsider who’s got the courage to stir things up at the Law Society which has become an expensive dinosaur hanging around our necks.” William Galvin, solicitor in the civic law department at Hull City Council: “Yes I […]
A SOLICITOR who was jailed for defrauding the Legal Aid Board by making false claims for advice given to prostitutes was struck off the register last week John Shepherd, who ran two firms in Liverpool before serving his three-year sentence, appeared before the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal on 6 June. He claims the panel of two […]
THE LORD Chancellor’s Department has promised to be flexible over the tight August deadline for responses to its Green Paper on legal aid reform. A spokeswoman for the department says anyone having difficulty meeting the deadline who approaches the department for more time to respond will be treated sympathetically. “We’ll do what we can, we […]
Sir Michael Latham, when delivering a paper to the Society of Construction Law, said that if only one recommendation of his report could be implemented, he would choose adjudication. Latham recommends that adjudication should become the normal method of dispute resolution. This would in itself be revolutionary for a construction industry used to spending £250 […]