THE EUROPEAN Parliament last week banned observers from its public gallery as members of the Legal Affairs Committee debated the establishment directive. Last week MEPs ousted observers – including the representatives of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union – while they discussed the working document on rights of cross-border establishment which had […]
Women in the insolvency and company restructuring sectors have set up a UK branch of the the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC). The new network is part of an organisation started by New York lawyer Selinda Melnik of Rogers & Wells last year, and now boasts members in 20 countries. Particularly strong in […]
The mega fraud trials of recent years have failed to net results. Grania Langdon-Down examines what can be done Five years ago, the first Guinness trial raised the curtain on a series of expensive marathon fraud trials intended to serve as a high-profile crackdown on the commercial excesses of the 1980s. Today, the latest in […]
Andrew Page, the firm associated with McClure Naismith Anderson & Gardiner in Glasgow, is acting for Guardian Newspapers Ltd and two Observer journalists in a libel action launched against the newspaper group by six PowerGen directors. Last week’s issue of The Lawyer incorrectly stated the firm was acting for the PowerGen directors, who are suing […]
Motorola has developed an all-in-one Internet system for easy access to the information superhighway. The system, known as the Internet Solution, provides a modem, cabling and software in a single box and provides access to the full range of Internet services, including: email; browsing business, and entertainment information; access to and use of information stored […]
With the alternative investment market (AIM) opening for business this month, Theodore Goddard has produced a spoof prospectus. Its intention is to demonstrate the workings of AIM, its rules and potential difficulties. The spoof details the operations of a fictitious brewery called Spoofbrew plc, looking to raise money through an issue of shares to be […]
Legal experts predict the Maxwell trial could cost the taxpayer up to £25 million, placing it among one of the most expensive cases to come to court. It has taken nearly three years from the arrest of Kevin and Ian Maxwell following a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the Maxwell media empire to reach court […]
Grania Langdon-Down asks veteran court reporters for their impressions of the stars in the Maxwell trial legal cast list The high-profile, but so far low-key Maxwell trial has inevitably attracted the premier league of white collar crime legal experts. Now into the second month of the estimated six month long trial, veteran court reporters who […]
Allen & Overy partner Christopher Walford has been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Walford, Lord Mayor of the City of London, has been with the firm for more than 25 years.
Chair of the Bar Peter Goldsmith has strongly criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for its failure to check the details of Treasury Council remuneration prior to briefing the Attorney General. Sir Nicholas Lyell was forced to retract his claims that two Treasury counsel earned more than £400,000, one of whom earned more than £500,000 per […]
A programme teaching Russian legal practices how to run a law firm is to be launched this week by the Law Society of England and Wales and the Law Society of Scotland. Forty lawyers will take part in the four-week training programme, organised in conjunction with the Russian Academy of Jurisprudence and the International Union […]
Westminster City Council is calling on MPs to approve its legal bid to curb the growth of “clip joints” on the streets of Soho. The authority made a fresh plea for support after three policemen were stabbed following a row which broke out when a customer objected to a £190 bar bill last month. Licensing […]