It was pleasing to read “welcome to the two-stop shop” (1 May). It may interest your readers to know the issue of conflict goes further. It is not just whether a practice may conflict itself out of further work by taking litigation instructions, or whether a partner’s appointment as an arbitrator creates more problems, but […]
Prisoners in the US, who can now turn to the guards trying to strap them into a “stun belt” or restraint chair and tell them that they are almost certainly violating the International Treaty Against Torture. A United Nations monitoring body has urged US officials to abolish these devices which are commonly used to transport […]
SJ Berwin acted for the British Land Company on its £27.5m purchase of freehold properties from Standard Life Investments. Both Broadgate House and Eldon House have leases up to 2011 and total 72,000sq ft of space. Property partners Stephen Willson and Lewis Myers acted with a team of three on the deal while Herbert Smith […]
Minutes of a meeting between Tom Henderson and Jack Pratchard at the Firm. Pratchard: Oh Tom, look. I’ve got an email saying “I love you”. Who could that be from? Oh no. My computer’s gone all funny. Henderson: For the last time Jack, stop opening them. It’s a virus and it’s already cost the legal […]
Belgian journalist Georges Ruggiu, who admitted that he had no defence against charges that his broadcasts helped incite the murder of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. Ruggiu, on trial before a United Nations court, now faces a 20-year jail sentence. Law professor and detective fiction fan Jacques Viguier. Despite his profession […]
Perhaps I was a little harsh on the Lockerbie prosecutor Colin Boyd QC two weeks ago when I referred to him as “the hapless Lord Advocate”. But the adjective is proving remarkably apt. Boyd had made it clear he was not ready to go ahead with the trial of the two Libyans accused of blowing […]
“We have people overseas and they probably met someone who recommended it over a gin and tonic.” – Hyder’s Geoff Williams on picking a good firm.
As the abolition of Sif gets closer Trevor Moss asks whether the qualifying insurers provide a viable alternative. With more of a whimper than a fanfare, the list of qualifying insurers was listed on the Law Society website last week. From 1 September, the Solicitor’s Indemnity Fund (Sif) will cease to exist and solicitors’ professional […]
The problems being faced by CMS Cameron McKenna as it pushes for full integration are symptomatic of many firms that want to merge with their European alliances. The problem, it would seem, is due diligence, or rather the lack of it. With the first European alliances there was no need to conduct a concentrated bout […]
CMS, the European alliance launched by Cameron McKenna that was heralded with such promise, has undergone a year of mixed blessings. Fiona Callister reports on where the firm goes from here It is a little over a year since Cameron McKenna launched its European alliance, CMS. With an April launch in Berlin, it looked very […]
The London office of Rogers & Wells is losing a second partner to Latham & Watkins only five months after completing its merger with Clifford Chance. The five-partner office witnessed the departure of corporate partner Michael Immordino to Lathams in October last year. His colleague Olof Clausson now joins him from the merged firm. Immordino […]
David Calvert-Smith. The Director of Public Prosecutions has been told to think again about his decision not to bring manslaughter charges in the case of a death in custody. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham (right) has ordered the DPP to reconsider bringing prosecutions against officers at Blankenhurst prison where Alton Manning was a prisoner […]