THE JUDICIARY is not representative of the community over which it presides, with 87 per cent of judges holding Oxbridge degrees and a large number hailing from public school backgrounds, a new survey claims. The study by Labour Research magazine says Britain’s judges remain “elderly, white and overwhelmingly male”. A survey of 641 judges at […]
Leading personal injury lawyer Stuart Henderson, who won record damages in the Leung case, has joined Irwin Mitchell from Robin Thompson & Partners. Henderson, known as the u3.4 million man, will head the PI team at the firm’s Birmingham office after 16 years with Thompsons. “My decision to leave Thompsons was not easy but this […]
The Law Society has joined the Immigration Law Practitioners Association and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants in condemning the Government’s new immigration rules. The groups claim the rules, which came into force on 1 October, are incompatible with human rights and procedural fairness, and make it even more difficult for potential immigrants […]
Lloyd’s is to abolish its members’ hardship committee as part of a new ‘get tough’ policy to recover u1.3 billion from indebted Names. Announcing the move, Lloyd’s executives also unveiled final plans for the new financial recovery department headed by Dibb Lupton Broomhead solicitor Philip Holden. Dibbs will receive a flat fee for the work. […]
Founding partner of London firm Scates Rosenblatt, Steven Scates, has separated from the practice in an “unamicable split”. Scates, who set up the firm with Ian Rosenblatt more than five years ago, has joined Nicholson Graham & Jones as a partner. The City firm says it is also recruiting Scates’s assistant Loretta Peddell next month. […]
A report out this week argues that judges should be granted the discretion to pass fixed sentences instead of being forced to hand out mandatory life sentences for murder. The report, published by the Penal Affairs Consortium, an alliance of 23 organisations concerned with the penal system, says that life imprisonment should no longer be […]
The Law Society cannot be all things to all men and it is plain from the pre-conference comments in this week’s issue (pages 12 and 13) that it certainly is not all things to all solicitors. Society-bashing is often endemic and disillusion with the body the accepted pose of lawyers, from both big and small […]
Criminal lawyers vigorously denied the existence of a “guilty plea culture” and rebutted suggestions that they failed to act in the best interests of clients. Delegates at the conference heard Lee Bridges, author of Standing Accused, paint a picture of poor quality defence work. But the criminal specialists said it would not make financial sense […]
THE SECRETARY of State for Social Security Peter Lilley has confirmed his ability to use discretion in deciding whether or not to enforce child maintenance orders after a Birmingham law firm won leave to seek judicial review of the Child Support Act’s discretion rules. The firm, DH Walton, received a letter from the Secretary’s head […]
The issue now for a firm like my own is how to maximise our investment in technology and not to fall into the trap we did several years ago of purchasing a platform that was unsuitable for the commercial climate. As a practice with 22 fee earners and 30 staff, we must grasp the technological […]
Gerald Shamash, 47, is a constitutional expert known for his human rights work. Born in Manchester, he now lives in London and is a partner at Steele & Shamash. What was your first job? An emergency break-down service for the Automobile Association. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? In those days I […]
THE FIRST Bar training courses to operate outside of the Inns of Court School of Law could run from as soon as 1996, according to Bar Council chair Robert Seabrook. Seabrook says that although numbers have not yet been finalised, it is likely four or five additional courses will be validated at institutions around the […]