BOSSES who discriminate between heterosexual and gay employees will be in breach of the law if an action being taken by a staff member of South West Trains is successful. Telephone enquiry bureau supervisor Lisa Grant claims SWT has contravened the provisions of the Equal Pay Act by refusing to provide her lesbian partner with […]
Jon Cooper is a barrister at 7 Stone Buildings. Born in Wolverhampton in 1960, he now lives in London. When not being a lawyer, he writes TV scripts. What was your first job? Driver’s mate. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £40 per week as a driver’s mate, having qualified as a […]
The Law Society Working Party on Standards is playing a valuable role in exploring options to ensure professional standards are maintained. However, the Trainee Solicitors Group (TSG) has some concerns about the recent proposals for the introduction of another layer of entry tests to the profession. The maintenance of standards in the profession is in […]
THE COLLEGE of Law has been sidelined at a crucial stage in the Bar Council’s move to end the Inns of Court School of Law’s monopoly by farming out training to other institutions. The college is absent from a list of eight institutions drawn up by the Bar. These institutions, according to the Bar, have […]
LAWYERS defending the former president of Malawi against conspiracy to murder charges have condemned the country’s new government as “bent on revenge” against the ousted leader. Memery Crystal partner Harvey Rands, who acted for Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda and two others following their 1995 arrests, saw them acquitted last month on charges of conspiring to […]
Paisner & Co acted for Ascot Holdings in the £10 million disposal of its interest in the Hotel Burstin.
SJ Berwin & Co advised British Land Co in its placing and open offer to raise £222.5 million. Allen & Overy advised brokers to the issue
Lovell White Durrant advised Texaco in financing oil exploration in the Captain Field in the UK sector of the North Sea. Slaughter and May advised Abbey National Treasury Services
McKenna & Co is celebrating its client’s success in its bid to win the first government contract for the private sector to build and run a prison. Brigend Custodial Services won the contract to build the south Wales prison in Brigend which will house 800 prisoners after 12 months of negotiation with the Government. The […]
“DETENTE time” was the plaintive pre-Christmas cry of the Law Society’s own journal, The Gazette. In an editorial, the magazine called for unity and a constructive approach in the society’s dealings with the Government over such crucial issues as legal aid and divorce reform. The president’s column followed. In it Martin Mears succeeded in insulting, […]
GRAHAM Durnford Ford, who stole millions of pounds from the estates of dead clients, is guaranteed a special place in the legal profession’s gallery of rogues. Sadly, lining his own pockets at the expense of clients, colleagues, and ultimately his profession, has further eroded the public’s trust in the high street solicitor. Ford’s unprecedented fleecing […]
CHICAGO law firm Mayer Brown & Platt has recruited London-based Rogers & Wells partner Eric Bettelheim as a member of its derivatives practice. Bettelheim, who has worked in Rogers & Wells’ UK office since 1986, starts with Mayer Brown in London this week. The Mayer Brown move takes him to his fourth law firm since […]