SOLICITORS acting for England football coach Terry Venables are expected to issue a second libel writ against the BBC after last week’s ‘Panorama’ documentary. Nick Trainer, partner in two-man City practice John Bowden Trainer & Co, says a second libel writ is likely to be issued this week following the programme’s allegations that Venables unlawfully […]
International firm Baker & McKenzie has revised its system of dismissals to make it simpler to shed unwanted partners. The new procedure, unveiled at the firm’s annual partners’ meeting in Hong Kong last month, means lawyers can be dropped from the partnership by global ballot rather than waiting for the yearly gathering. The majority vote […]
Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd will address a dinner celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, which allowed women to enter the professions. The black tie dinner, to be held at the London Guildhall on 9 December, has been organised by the Association of Women Solicitors.
American law firm Coudert Brothers has received approval from the Vietnamese Government to open offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Couderts joins UK firms Freshfields, Sinclair Roche & Temperley, Lovell White Durrant and Clifford Chance, and international practice Baker & McKenzie, which all operate Vietnamese practices. The firm, which now has 10 offices […]
Canary Wharf Ltd will appeal against the findings of a preliminary hearing held earlier this year in an action being taken against it by a group of Docklands residents. The residents, represented by multi-party action firm Leigh Day & Co, are claiming damages for alleged interference with television reception which they claim was caused by […]
An initiative has been launched aimed at in-house lawyers’ continuing professional development (CPD). Scottish firm Maclay Murray & Spens will run a programme of seminars to help lawyers in the employed sector reach this year’s CPD requirements. Seminars will tackle executive dismissal, agency agreements, employee benefits and commercial contracts. More than 50 in-house lawyers have […]
THE IRISH Republic’s Law Reform Commission has recommended that court proceeding be televised. But the commission warns of “dangers and difficulties” in letting television cameras in and suggests it should be done on a pilot basis and carefully monitored. The commission, an independent body headed by a High Court judge which makes recommendations to the […]
CITY firm Wilde Sapte has bucked the market trend by taking on a team of US lawyers to run its new Lloyd’s office. Investigative insurance law-yer Adrian Mecz has been recruited as a partner from New York firm Bigham Englar Jones Houston. Wilde Sapte takes on the US firm’s entire London team including litigator Christopher […]
The Law Commission has warned that personal injury victims who win compensation claims often lose out because of poor investment decisions over compensation funds. Accident victims are generally pleased at the time of settlement when faced with large sums of money. But this satisfaction fades “when the reality of long-term ill effects and reduced capacity […]
COLLAPSED 18-office Liverpool practice Deacon Goldrein Green is at the centre of the biggest ever law firm receivership after the Manchester High Court appointed accountants Pannell Kerr Forster to take over the running of the business. The firm collapsed suddenly two weeks ago when talks with the Royal Bank of Scotland over possible individual voluntary […]
SLAUGHTER and May and Freshfields have soared into the list of the world’s top 10 law firms. Last year Slaughters had 581 fee earners and was the world’s 18th largest firm, according to International Financial Law Review. This year the publication reports that the firm has 692 and is ninth in the table. Freshfields increased […]
MENTAL health group Mind has set up a legal advice network for referring clients to solicitors across the UK. Six hundred lawyers are taking part in the scheme which is an extension of the charity’s free legal help line. Legal officers Kate Harrison, Camilla Parker and Rhys Davies answer correspondence and two afternoons a week […]