27 November 2000

Style will take over the position in January. For the full story see The Lawyer on Monday 6 December 199

De Otaola, who is also a Certified Public Accountant, has over 15 years of tax experience and specialises in acquisitions and company reorganisation. Cristina Bustillo, managing partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Madrid office says: “Isabel comes to us with strong credentials and extensive experience and will add significant value to the services we already offer […]

The merger comes just two months after Dunhills in Sydney saw a mass exodus of 27 partners and 125 lawyers to the legal branch of PWC. And earlier this month, David Nathan, the managing partner Dunhills’ Melbourne office who was charged with rebuilding the embattled firm, defected to Baker & McKenzie to head up its […]

The two firms had been locked in talks for several months. The UK practice will be known as Steptoe Johnson Rakisons for the first year; after that, Rakisons will be permanently dropped from the name. The US firm will not change its moniker. Steptoe & Johnson chairman Lon Bouknight, who will become chairman of the […]

Only 5000 law firms won contracts to offer legally aided initial advice and legal assistance in civil cases under the new scheme launched by the Lord Chancellor’s Department yesterday. Under the old system, more than 11,000 firms were entitled to offer such advice. The Law Society has reacted with fury to the cuts, claiming that […]

Jonathan Hoey, who has been made up to partner, replaces Judith Brown as head of the 12-strong recoveries team. Brown has moved over to head up the dispute resolution group. Associate, David Bird has been made head of the tax and estate planning team, replacing Dr Anne Burrows who retires next Spring. Head of the […]

This was the public spending watchdog’s first review of the £9 billion criminal court system which examined how the Crown Prosecution Service, Home Office and Lord Chancellor’s Department interact. The NAO found nearly 750,000 magistrates’ courts cases each year have to be adjourned because of errors by participants. This can delay cases by more than […]

Black joins White & Case from Jackson Tufts Cole & Black as partner. Roy Bartlett also joins as partner from the same firm along with Ellen McGinty King who joins as counsel. Steven Betensky brings the partner count in the new office to three. He joins from White & Case’s New York base. The US […]

Attorney General, Lord Williams QC has announced that the Government has asked the Law Commission to draw up plans to allow wider rights of appeal against adverse decisions of a judge. If accepted, the Government’s plans would give English and Welsh prosecutors a right of appeal if a defendant is acquitted by a jury on […]

Lord Irvine says he plans to introduce much tighter new criteria into the Criminal Legal Aid Regulations which must be met before an application to increase or alter the number or seniority of advocates is made to the Crown Court. In future, he says, it must be shown that the case warrants the assignment of […]

Haythe was senior partner of New York firm, Haythe Curley which recently merged with Canada’s Tory Tory DesLauriers & Binnington to form the 300-lawyer firm, Tory Hathe. It has not been revealed exactly what Haythe did at the party on 19 November, although a firm spokesman says his actions were directed against “more than one […]

In a 30 second hearing, senior Scottish judges ruled that decisions made by Scotland’s temporary sheriffs for the past 22 years were not invalid. The court pledged to provide reasons for its decision later. It was claimed in the case that the use of temporary sheriffs contravened the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971, which allows […]