OFTEL has appointed Department of Trade and Industry lawyer David Ingham as its new legal director. Ingham has recently been involved in the legal work for the privatisation of the coal industry and has helped with the new licensing regime. He replaces Alan Woods, who has returned to the DTI, and acting director Alastair Pitblado […]
City legal giants Simmons & Simmons, Freshfields, and Linklaters & Paines are advising on the major bidding process for shipbuilders VSEL. The deal is a large one, but lawyers say it is also unusual because the UK Government retains the right to consider competition issues that would otherwise be handed over to the EC. Simmons […]
LEGAL aid lawyers who are fighting this week for a better pay deal will point to the collapse of Deacon Goldrein Green to bolster their case. The 18-office Liverpool practice was seen as one of Lord Mackay’s flagship firms but fell victim to the biggest ever law firm receivership. Law Society negotiators who are due […]
FRESHFIELDS has been picked to act as legal consultant to environmental travel group Green Globe. The City firm will provide information on the changing legislative scene to members of Green Globe – the environmental awareness wing of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Head of Freshfields environmental group Paul Bowden sees the selection as […]
BARRISTER Robert Latham has called on the Home Secretary to drop his plans for a criminal injuries tariff system and restore the old system of compensation. Speaking at last week’s annual Victim Support meeting, Latham, head of chambers at 1 Pump Court, said that the new system was “mean” and “unfair”, and had been “introduced […]
THE TRAINEE Solicitors Group has elected Irwin Mitchell’s Richard Moorhead as its new chair. Moorhead, who is in his third training seat with the Sheffield firm, takes over from University of Northumbria lecturer Fiona Boyle. Moorhead, 25, says he decided to run for the post because “it is very important to get involved in issues […]
IT is a measure of how far the legal profession has travelled the road of commercial awareness that The Lawyer, in conjunction with others in the legal marketplace, can organise wide-ranging awards for excellence. Five years ago, such an event would have been unthinkable. Now, due to the rigours of the recession and an increasingly […]
Roger Alexander, aged 52, is managing partner at London firm Lewis Silkin. Born in Edinburgh, he currently lives in London. What was your first job? I was an articled clerk to accountants Blick Rothenberg. I lasted two weeks. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? Approximately u4 per week as an articled clerk […]
Linklaters & Paines has appointed a former commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission to act as full-time consultant, to be based at the firm’s New York office. Edward Fleischman will be adding a US securities law dimension to the firm’s international practice. The move is as a result of demand from clients for services […]
The recent Divisional Court decision in Charles and Others May 1994 (unreported) has resurrected the ghost of the statutory option conundrum, which Parliament and the courts had thought was laid to rest. After years of ingenious defences to drink driving charges, the Transport Act 1981 aimed to make it more difficult to get off by […]
Lawyers must fight to ensure that justice for personal injury (PI) victims is not “McDonaldised” in the wake of sea-changes predicted for legal services. Michael Napier, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, told delegates at the London conference: “PI is not a fast-food item. It’s not so simple. The issues are not always […]
The maximum award for compensation for unfair dismissal should stand at more than u31,000 rather than the current u11,000 ceiling, the Law Society’s employment law committee says. The committee, chaired by Simmons & Simmons partner Janet Gaymer, says now the limit has been lifted on sex and race discrimination awards, it is “highly anomalous” that […]