Women lawyers can now wear trousers in court following the Bar Council’s receipt of a letter from Lord Chief Justice Taylor approving the practice. The Bar has welcomed the move, which is described by many women as a practical step. The Association of Women Barristers has operated a long-running campaign to end the skirt-wearing mandate […]
Why the change? The system is failing because “clients and money are directed to solicitors” leading to court-based lawyer-led services. Solicitors are able to run cases the way they want which is “often not the way that either the client or the Legal Aid Board would choose”. The cost of legal aid is rising at […]
McKenna & Co’s venture capital team has had a busy start to 1995 including advising Legal & General Ventures on the management buy-out (MBO) of the yarns and fabrics division of Coats Viyella which had a total funding value of £102.5 million – easily the largest buy-out of the first quarter. This was in contrast […]
The Public Law Project is challenging a council’s power to evict trespassers such as New Age travellers. Last year’s Criminal Justice and Public Order Act gave authorities the right to order trespassers off private property, with magistrates granting an eviction order if they refuse. Lawyers for the travellers, supported by the project, will argue the […]
SENIOR lawyers and politicians will be among scores of people to pay tribute to Lord Goodman at a special thanksgiving service next month. The retired lawyer and government adviser, who died last week aged 81, was buried on 17 May at the Liberal Jewish Cemetery, in Willesden, north-west London. About 150 friends, clients and business […]
LOCAL authorities want to see the relaxation of legal restrictions on Sunday trading, a new survey has revealed. Research by property consultants Healey & Baker shows that nearly one third of councils favour increased deregulation of the law. Some want to remove the restrictions altogether and are planning to encourage the trend towards full Sunday […]
Since the advent of forensic DNA testing less than a decade ago, DNA profiling has become an integral part of a number of areas of the legal system. DNA profiling is an umbrella term which covers a growing range of practical technologies, but as complex as these techniques may appear, DNA testing in any of […]
Just as there is a lively debate on ways in which litigation lawyers can or should be remunerated (many involving contingent or conditional fees, dependent upon the result of the case), lawyers are seeking ways in which the remuneration of experts can be made similarly dependent. Some proposals relate to an uplift in case fees, […]
The Solicitors Benevolent Association, the United Law Clerks’ Society and the Holborn Law Society are among groups organising this year’s Legal Charities Garden Party. The party, to be held at Lincoln’s Inn North Lawns on 21 June, is also being run by the Barristers’ Benevolent Association, the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks Benevolent Fund, the Institute […]
The Lord Chancellor’s Department has been bombarded with inquiries about vacancies for judges which were advertised last week in the largest judicial recruitment campaign yet. Officials said 80 people asked for information packs in the first two days of the campaign. The department wants to recruit 32 circuit and 16 district judges. This year is […]
SOLICITORS Complaints Bureau head Veronica Lowe says that she knew she was writing herself out of a job when she drew up plans to reform the bureau. Lowe has told staff she expects to resign in summer 1996 with the conclusion of the Law Society’s two-year review of the bureau, which she believes will require […]
Clifford Chance wishes to point out that the figure it provided for its litigation department for 1995 in The Lawyer Top 100 feature (25 April) was incorrect. The number of fee earners in that department is 204. The entry under the firm name ‘Hill Dickinson’ should have read Hill Dickinson Davis Campbell. The entry for […]