City firm Penningtons this week returns to its Dashwood House premises, more than two years after its offices were damaged by the Bishopsgate bombing. The firm left its temporary base at Royex House at the weekend. Contact numbers stay the same.
CITY-based Simmons & Simmons has bumped up its partner list with a firm record of 18 newcomers. The figure is also believed to be the biggest batch of new partner appointments to be unveiled by any law firm this year. Simmons now has 137 partners, after confirming the 10 appointments to the London office, four […]
STATISTICS issued from the Lord Chancellor’s Department last month show that the number of divorces in England is down by 4.6 per cent and in Wales by 6.8 per cent. But the family department of Welsh firm Hugh James Jones and Jenkins, which now totals 17 family fee earners (see table), has seen little evidence […]
THE NUMBER of court actions brought over misleading “small print” in consumer contracts could escalate if a campaign by lawyers is successful. The Consumers’ Association is campaigning to make it easier for victims to seek redress through the courts. Association lawyers are challenging a government regulation which prevents anyone but the Office of Fair Trading […]
The Law Society will hold its second Special Event for the International Legal Community at Chancery Lane on 28 June. The event, established last year to encourage contact between the Law Society, foreign lawyers and UK solicitors interested in the field of international law, will include a speech from Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster […]
A GREATER number of Common Professional Examination students are passing the Legal Practice Course with distinctions than those who have a law degree, new national figures show. And CPE students who go on to sit the Bar Vocational Course are also outstripping law graduates academically. National CPE figures for 1993-94 show 87 per cent of […]
The Divorce Mediation and Arbitration Centre (DMAC) is a new concept in the provision of mediation services. It is the commercial centre of the newly formed Institute of Family Mediation and Arbitration which will train mediators and arbitrators who are barristers and solicitors with at least 10 years’ experience in family law. Those who complete […]
If asked whether I like a law firm’s brochure, I usually say: “Yes. What do you do with it?” We are shown a lot of brochures, and it is often apparent that a lot of work has gone into their preparation. The answers we get to my opening question reveal, however, that the use to […]
A RADICAL new system of State-funded student loans could be introduced if the Government adopts proposals put forward by the Trainee Solicitors’ Group. The TSG has voted in favour of abandoning the present “ad hoc” grants system, replacing it with a “sensitively designed loans scheme” devised by a group working party. The scheme would provide […]
LAWYERS hoping to gain a permanent right of establishment in foreign countries may be aided by the European Court of Justice following an oral hearing in Luxembourg last week. Italian authorities have asked the ECJ to interpret the 1977 Directive on Lawyers Services after German lawyer Reinhard Gebhard challenged the country’s right to ban him […]
THE FUTURE of the Bar Council in its present form may be cast into doubt after its two-year bid to establish a rule forcing barristers to pay subscriptions was rejected by the Lord Chancellor and the four designated senior judges. The Bar’s long-running battle for a mechanism enforcing payment was fuelled by the refusal of […]
A BILL to introduce a new criminal injuries compensation scheme has been welcomed by the Law Society “as a great improvement” on the Government’s last effort. The new scheme will replace the highly controversial fixed tariff system which was declared unlawful by the House of Lords in April. It will still be based on tariffs, […]