Issues

Ben Siddons

Leicester firm Ironsides Ray & Vials faces an industrial tribunal this week, accused of racial discrimination against former trainee Jenny Lindsay. Lindsay, now qualified as a solicitor, claims that as the only black trainee with the firm she was refused funding for her studies for the Law Society finals while the firm’s five other trainees […]

TWO young lawyers have been appointed managing partners of top City firms Wilde Sapte and Baker & McKenzie. Baker & McKenzie has elected 38-year-old Nigel Carrington, who created a special think-tank to develop the firm’s international strategy. The outgoing managing partner, Bruce Porter, will sit on the international executive committee. Wilde Sapte has appointed Steven […]

The Stock Exchange has failed to deny reports that its surveillance group is handling around 50 per cent more suspected insider dealing cases this year compared with last. “The exchange is considering proposals designed to underpin the markets it runs. We are looking at maintaining an orderly market,” says a spokesman. The exchange opened 116 […]

Leigh, Day & Co joint senior partner Martyn Day has asked the Legal Aid Board for funding to take a case against the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to Europe. Day hopes to apply to the Court of Appeal for referral to the European Court of Justice of an action involving the National […]

The independent Bar has been told to back the campaign by employed barristers for rights of audience. Sir Sydney Lipworth QC, deputy chair of National Westminster Bank, said there was a natural empathy between in-house barristers and chambers which was potentially a significant source of work for the Bar. If the number of barristers working […]

The Consumer Association (CA) is backing the Law Society’s call for regulation of will writing as the society prepares to launch Make a Will Week. A survey highlights the problems faced by will-writing companies which struggle when legacies are not “run of the mill”. The report emphasises the advantages of using solicitors who are professionally […]

NON-EU lawyers practising in Germany can now use their home title thanks to legislation passed by the German Parliament. The change, which has been effective since last month, was welcomed by foreign lawyers who have waged a long battle with the German government and bar authorities to have the situation changed. “We are now allowed […]

A eulogy to barristers in the Bacfi Bulletin was slammed as “palpable nonsense” by a leading in-house solicitor. Jyoti Munsiff, chair of the Law Society’s commerce and industry group, said the article, which compared the qualities of solicitors and barristers, did not tell the whole story. It read: “If a company wants to employ a […]

The massive hunt for £400 million in Maxwell pensions assets has renewed in the High Court with two separate cases involving claims of up to u88 million being run in the same court room. The cases are MGN Pension Trustees Ltd’s (MGNPT) u60 million action against Bank of America and Credit Suisse and the liquidator […]