Trade unions are winning more in legal damages for their members than ever before, according to a TUC survey of union legal services. The report, Legal Services for the Union Family, estimates that unions won £323m for their members in 1995, an increase of £31m on the previous year, making unions the main source of […]
US firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue has recruited project finance expert Kaamil Ansar as a partner for its London office. He leaves the London office of another US firm, Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he was head of the Indian sub-continent practice. Steve Fiamma, partner in charge of Jones Day’s London office, […]
>The reported merger of Arthur Andersen’s Spanish legal arm and premier ranking Spanish firm J&A Garrigues, which is associated with Simmons & Simmons, has been finalised. The Madrid-based firm is discussing its referral agreement with Simmons following the merger agreement to form the “largest firm by far in Spain”. Simmons and Garigues have joint offices […]
Legal organisations are furious that Legal Aid Board proposals for high-cost legal aid cases were revealed for the first time in the press last week. They accused the LAB of “policy-making by headlines” and “trespassing into the political arena”. Lawyers were first made aware of the LAB’s plans when they appeared as a report in […]
Former Law Lord Lord Ackner bemoans the erosion of judicial independence in a pamphlet being released by the John Stuart Mill Institute this week. The pamphlet, The Erosion of Judicial Independence, is based on the 1996 John Stuart Mill Lecture which was delivered by Lord Ackner last November.
A delegation of three solicitors representing the Law Society’s international human rights working party has returned from a six-day mission to Kenya in support of the country’s law society. The visit was prompted following a request by the Law Society of Kenya for assistance in the face of a “great attack” against the “independence of […]
City shipping firm Sinclair Roche & Temperley made an out-of-court settlement to a second former assistant solicitor in its property department, it has emerged. It is believed Olienka Shaw was paid around £4,000 in settlement of a claim of race discrimination last November against the head of the commercial property department Anthony Hurndall. Two weeks […]
Sweeping solicitors’ offices and barristers’ chambers for bugging devices could become routine if the Government presses ahead with its proposals to allow the police to authorise their own surveillance operations without any exemption for legal professional privilege. Home Secretary Michael Howard is “considering his position” on the intrusive surveillance provisions after the Police Bill was […]
Martin Mears and Robert Sayer have accused the Law Society of trying to “muzzle” its staff and prevent council members from investigating its activities. The former president and his deputy, who are planning to contest the presidential elections again this year, say that new guidelines on staff disclosure of information, issued last week, are designed […]
The majority of the senior partners of more than 20 medium-sized City law firms agreed that multidisciplinary partnerships were inevitable at a meeting to discuss Law Society policy with the society’s president Tony Girling. The meeting, which took place last week, was called by Beachcroft Stanleys senior partner and former cabinet minister David Hunt who […]
Axxia is targeting in-house lawyers with its Arista case management application in a bid to expand its user-base. In the past, the company has concentrated on supplying law firms, but it is hoping to expand its market to include local government as well as corporate legal departments. Managing director Stuart Holden said the demand for […]
Theodore Goddard has appointed a non-executive director – Graham Wilson, the former managing director of United News & Media, the company that owns The Daily Express. Managing partner Simon Stubbings said Wilson would bring valuable management and strategic planning insight to the five-man decision- making committee. Wilson said: “I am very excited at the prospect […]