LAWYERS would most like to spend the night with one half of the UK’s most glamorous couples, Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley and Will and Julia Carling. For male lawyers the night would be accompanied by a bottle of “decent” burgundy and traditional English food. Women prefer nouvelle cuisine and champagne. A survey on the […]
London practice Harris da Silva is seeking damages from Technology for Business, of Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex and computer manufacturers Acer UK, of High Wycombe, over five Acer 486 DX2-66 computers which it claims had inherent faults.
PUBLIC sector contractors are one step closer to launching a £20 million legal action against the UK Government after a decision in Luxembourg ruled that wrongful implementation of EU directives was actionable. The Advocate General, handing down his opinion on a case over Spanish trawlermen suing the UK Government for the wrongful implementation of EU […]
London firm Rakisons has appointed former Hopkins & Wood partner Chris Hoyle to join its company department. Hoyle will rejoin his former litigation partner, Jane Jales, who also moved from Hopkins in June. A specialist in telecommunications and information technology, Hoyle will advise on all IT matters.
THE LAW Society has criticised the Government over the lack of Parliamentary scrutiny applied to its planned divorce reforms. The society claims the new Family Law Bill, given its second reading in the Lords last Thursday, suffers from a lack of detail about the workings of the proposed new system. The Bill contains no explanation […]
When an outraged official threatened reprisals, Groucho Marx waved his cigar and barked: “You’ll hear from my lawyer – when he gets out of prison.” For barristers and solicitors the possibility of prison is more remote than getting knocked down by a number nine bus outside the Law Courts; if a case goes wrong they […]
THE COURT of Appeal has hit back at a campaigning TV programme which accused it of putting the interests of the legal profession above the interests of justice. In a recent episode of Trial and Error, the programme alleged the court had refused to hear crucial evidence at the appeal of 64-year-old Sheila Bowler, convicted […]
PAUL Rhodes, managing partner of Dibb Lupton Broomhead and one of the profession’s most talked-about lawyers, surprised partners last week by deciding to step down on 31 December. He is due to retire from the firm in 16 months. Often caricatured in the press as the pugilistic handler of a pack of rottweilers, the Cambridge-educated […]
THE LEEDS office of national law firm Eversheds has taken its business into Eastern Europe by overseeing the purchase of the Belarus Embassy in London. John Foster, head of the commercial property team which acted for the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Belarus, said that the project was part of a general move into Eastern […]
SOUTH African president Nelson Mandela has accepted an invitation to head up a new human rights institute. The institute, to be established by the International Bar Association this week, will operate out of the association’s London headquarters. Volunteers around the world will observe trials and produce studies, research and workshops to support the work of […]
Recent High Court judicial review proceedings over a West Country farmer who died after being shot by police marksmen were overshadowed by Princess Diana’s Panorama broadcast and Rose West’s trial. In a quieter news period, however, the case would have attracted extensive media coverage. The incident at the centre of the action occurred in 1993, […]
Neil Addison argues the Bar Council should have gone straight to a ballot of the membership on the complaints issue. That would not have been the right thing to do because issues need airing in an open meeting before people should be asked to vote. In addition a section of the Bar wanted an extraordinary […]