FIFTEEN lawyers are expected to attend the first training event of the new Divorce Mediation and Arbitration Centre in London next month. The week-long course will provide the first step in qualifying solicitors and barristers for membership of a national panel of mediators and arbitrators. Open to family law solicitors of 10 years’ standing and […]
DEFUNCT south London partnership Graham Peries & Co has received another writ from a former client who claims the firm owes her almost u100,000 after it failed to return money lodged in support of a visa application. The firm, which has other cases pending against it, was last week also ordered to pay $69,979 to […]
AFTER 227 years, Staffordshire law firm Knight & Sons has moved from Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre to purpose-built offices on the outskirts of the town. The move was the result of months of planning and is considered a new chapter in the firm’s history. Senior Partner Tony Bell says: “Although it is with some sadness that […]
* Birmingham City Council confirms that its lawyers are not affected by the redundancy programme involving nearly 600 staff. The authority is being forced to shed jobs as part of a cost-cutting exercise.
SOLICITOR advocates are set to be given the go ahead to apply for silk by the Lord Chancellor. The Solicitors’ Association of Higher Court Advocates has written to the Lord Chancellor with details of 12 solicitors who have 10 or more years advocacy experience in the High Court. The group says the Lord Chancellor promised […]
FOOTBALL legend and former Tottenham Hotspur manager Ossie Ardiles has signed up to a law firm as consultant in sport and business. Ardiles, the high-profile Argentinian who came to the UK as a player in 1978, will be an “ambassador” for Soho-based Barnett Alexander Chart (BAC) and open doors for its growing sport and commercial […]
Anthony Robbins, the US “personal success” coach to a string of celebrities, is suing Business Age magazine for libel over stories it ran about him in its last two editions. Robbins’ solicitors, Davies Arnold Cooper, has issued a writ claiming aggravated damages against the editor, author and publishers. Senior partner David McIntosh says the stories […]
THREE partners at London firm Swepstone Walsh are suing former partner Ronald Pattison for compensation over a loan. Pattison, who ceased to be a partner last October, is being sued for u26,685 with interest, an indemnity for the amount of an outstanding individual loan, and a declaration that he is liable to pay the three […]
THE LEGAL profession has said farewell to a veritable Who’s Who of distinguished judges. From Friday judges over 75 were no longer allowed to sit. The result was that a number of top judicial figures from the past who have returned to the bench in their retirement must hang up their wigs for good. Among […]
In 1993 the London Borough of Croydon began to explore moving legal services to the private sector, encouraged by leading members of the Conservative council. According to council lawyer Miles Smith, some of its internal client business was “withering”. One example was Croydon College, a long term consumer of its services. Presented with a simple […]
Alistair McArthur
TRAINEE solicitors are being pressured into choosing between dropping their demands for an increase in the minimum salary or losing it altogether. Roger Jones, chair of the Law Society’s training committee, has told the Trainee Solicitors’ Group he will not press for a vote on the abolition of the salary later this month if the […]