The last couple of years have been relatively quiet for the legal department of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC). But that has probably come as a relief after the long-running wrangle with 327 sacked dockers, which started in 1995 and went on until January 1998. The industrial dispute began after the dockers were […]
Stuart Simpson, former finance director of the Old English Pub Co in Potters Bar, is suing the company and four directors for damages over an allegedly untrue trading statement. Simpson says he was concerned the company’s accounting practices were of doubtful validity and he told chief executive Barry Warwick he could only permit the practices […]
In an action heading for the Queen’s Bench Division, London Philharmonic clarinettist Robert Hill is taking the management of Glyndebourne to court in a damages claim. The claim stems from a fall he suffered during a performance. He broke his wrist in the accident just 20 minutes before a performance last May and claims it […]
I was disappointed to read the macho language of Virginia Glastonbury. She may be married to the firm, but for many women solicitors, their first priority is their children. Law firms and companies seem to have an inflexible policy demonstrated by Ms Glastonbury who states that women “just have to be available”. I would be […]
Secret agents with an identity crisis. Global giants MGM cinemas and Sony were due to go to battle in a terse courtroom thriller over who gets to make the next James Bond movie. The fight ended with a $5m (u3.12m) settlement giving MGM a licence to film – leaving Sony shaken not stirred, perhaps. Law […]
Your article on barristers’ fears about Conditional Fee Agreements (The Lawyer 29 March) suggests that “if their income is riding on the outcome of cases, barristers will not be objective in the advice they give”. So what’s new? Under the old legal aid system which is now being dismantled, barristers’ incomes were also dependent on […]
What was your first job? Saturday checkout girl at Bejam, Haywards Heath. What subject(s) did you fail at school? None, though I was awful at physics and home economics – all that weighing and measuring I suppose. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? u18,000 as a trainee at a West End firm. […]
Controversial former Director of Public Prosecutions, Dame Barbara Mills QC, has resurfaced as independent adjudicator to the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. Mills, who ran the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), has been out of the public eye since resigning from her post in June last year on the eve of Sir Iain Glidewell’s damning […]
Mental health lawyers are expressing relief that the Lord Chancellor has finally announced action on mental incapacity law – they say he has been dragging his feet on the issue for far too long. The Government last week published a consultation paper seeking views on the draft Hague Convention on the Protection of Adults, which […]
A senior crown prosecutor whose application for a junior management post was rejected by the Crown Prosecution Service has been deemed fit by an independent board to take up a post five levels higher. Delhi-born Maria Bamieh, 40, is taking her case against the CPS to an employment tribunal for racial discrimination over her interview […]
The Bar Council has accused the Government of dragging its feet over introducing a system of fixed fee contracting for high-cost cases. A Bar Council spokesman says that a working party was set up to look into the matter by the Lord Chancellor’s Department early last year, but a decision has still not been made. […]