Linda Tsang reports Midlands firm Edge & Ellison has joined Clifford Chance, Denton Hall, and Jeffrey Green Russell, on the Internet. The move is believed to be the first by a Midlands-based legal practice. Senior partner Digby Jones says: “More and more of our clients are now established on the Internet, so it made sense […]
SJ Berwin consultant Jonathan Stone has been appointed as chair of the Barings Perpetual Noteholders Action Group (BPNAG), which seeks action to recoup losses to members following the collapse of merchant bank Barings. The BPNAG group represents more than 50 per cent of the 100 million bearer notes outstanding. Stone says: “A substantial fighting fund […]
The potential areas of liability under environmental law which affect businesses in this country are well known. The Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Water Resources Act 1991, provisions under the Environmental Bill and the legacy of common law provide the framework within which industry and commerce operate. There are very good reasons for operating within […]
LINKLATERS & Paines has brought in a second solely US-qualified partner only months after announcing plans to take on up to a dozen American finance lawyers by the close of 1995. The London-based firm has signed Peter Ruhlin, a former senior associate in New York practice Millbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. Ruhlin, who had been […]
OPERA lovers are applauding the performance of City firm Wilde Sapte after it succeeded in overturning a conviction for “noise nuisance” against the organiser of the Garsington Opera Festival. The victory by partner Brian Smith, lawyer Kate McDonald and QC Richard Beckett, means the much-publicised open air festival will go ahead at Oxfordshire’s Garsington Manor […]
John Malpas reports BAR Council chair Peter Goldsmith has defended the fees paid out to the silks involved in the Barlow Clowes fraud trial. Details of the fees were released by the Lord Chancellor’s Department just days before the publication of the Green Paper on legal aid reform. Complaining of “unwarranted and misleading” attacks on […]
Le Masurier Giffard & Poch has merged with Ogier & Le Cornu to form Ogier & Le Masurier, in a venture which will offer advice to clients at home and abroad. The new operation claims to have the “strongest team of business lawyers in the island” with 12 partners and a total of 30 lawyers. […]
Building society chiefs are set to provide more quality work to corporate law firms while continuing a tough line on poor standards, negligence and fraud among conveyancers. And Law Society efforts on default issues are seen as protectionist attempts to preserve work for an over-populated profession. Building Societies Association (BSA) deputy director general Ron Armstrong, […]
AN ARRAY of legal names made the short journey from the Inns of Court to London’s Brick Lane to open a new multi-ethnic chambers in the street famous for its market and curries. Tower Hamlets Barristers’ Chambers, the second set to open in Brick Lane, has six tenants specialising in immigration, housing and criminal law. […]
WELSH employees are far less active in challenging sex discrimination than their English counterparts, and those cases which do reach industrial tribunals are less likely to succeed, the Equal Opportunities Commission says. Commission chair Kamlesh Bahl says lawyers in Wales could benefit from using European law to expand the scope of UK legislation. She says: […]
During Lord Woolf’s review of the civil justice system it has been suggested that the current system of expert witnesses should be replaced by one of using a single court appointed expert. Questions have been raised about the cost of experts, the time which they take up in trials and their perceived lack of independence. […]
Barbara Hewson Barbara Hewson is in conciliatory mood: progress is being made, male colleagues are supportive and the Bar is not such a bad place for women after all. Her reassurances are at odds with the vociferous attacks which have identified her in the public eye as a champion of women’s rights in a chauvinistic, […]