THE LEEDS Building Society, which is doubling the size of its in-house legal department, first considered expanding more than two years ago. But practical business developments made it difficult to take on staff who were “desperately needed”, says head of legals, Ann O’Brien. The Leeds is now recruiting three specialist lawyers to deal with insurance, […]
LAWYERS campaigning against the closure of their courts are applying for an oral hearing for leave for judicial review following the failure of a written application. Sudbury is one of at least eight county courts which are being closed around the country. It shut in April after what local staff and solicitors regard as a […]
THE SOLICITORS’ Indemnity Fund (SIF) wants to appoint two new panel member firms, one in East Anglia and one in Yorkshire. The appointments will bring the number of panel members handling professional indemnity claims on behalf of SIF up to 20. Managing director John Speedman says the move is part of the fund’s policy of […]
LONDON firm Nabarro Nathanson has announced plans to open its new Sheffield office in October. The move, predicted in The Lawyer in June, is the first step in a two-phase project to expand the firm’s northern practice. Approximately 50 staff, including members of the company and commercial, em- ployment, commercial property and environment departments, will […]
MARK Sheldon, ex-Law Society President and former senior partner at Linklaters & Paines, retires from the practice this week. The move marks the end of 41 years with the firm he joined in September 1953, although he remains as a consultant. Sheldon was senior partner from 1988-91 and stay-ed on as joint senior partner until […]
When Simpson Curtis lost five partners and five associates to Garrett & Co’s new firm within Arthur Andersen, the Leeds legal community took notice. Many of Simpson’s competitors did not know whether to be pleased at the firm’s difficulties or concerned for the future. The practice is sanguine, with the official attitude being, as marketing […]
Four students rejected from Bar School have lost their legal battle against the Council for Legal Education’s selection process. They brought judicial review proceedings against the CLE on the grounds that the selection process was flawed because it failed to take into account degree results and post-graduate qualifications. A CLE spokesman said after the hearing: […]
A SOLICITOR who stole u66,000 from the accounts of deceased clients to pay his grandmother’s nursing home bills and to finance his life-style was jailed for two years. Liverpool Crown Court heard last week how Paul Edwards was caught out by his former bosses after stealing u8,500, which he repaid by taking from another firm […]
THE LAW Society’s Family Law Committee is renewing its call for the Government to establish a committee monitoring the operation of the Child Support Act and the agency which it established. The call comes in evidence submitted by the the society to the House of Commons Social Security Committee which is conducting a second inquiry […]
The charity Will Aid is calling for solicitors to join in its 1994 will-writing campaign. The campaign, which will run throughout November, involves solicitors around the country preparing straightforward wills free of charge for clients. People then make a donation (u35 is suggested) to support charities including Actionaid, Oxfam, and Save The Children. For further […]
A GOVERNMENT initiative to display information about court performance is attacked as “hollow” by Labour legal spokesman Paul Boateng. Boateng says that at the same time as the information is being published, the Lord Chancellor is cutting back on court staff and applying “Treasury-led” cuts to the service, “making a nonsense” of the notion of […]
CHARLES Elly is set to become the first Law Society president to campaign on the problem of alcoholism in the profession. A speech to the September meeting of the Lawyers Support Group may end criticism levelled at the society of sweeping the problem under the carpet. Elly has been campaigning on the subject for four […]