15 September 1997

Property

Gordons Wright & Wright acted for Wm Morrison Supermarkets in its acquisition of a 10.6 acre superstore site at Brampton, near Rotherham, from Cortonwood Limited, represented by Dibb Lupton Alsop.

Property

Halliwell Landau advised a private trust company in the forward purchase of 5,000 sq m of office space being developed by PS Turner Construction Limited for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Northallerton, Yorkshire. Cobbetts advised PS Turner and the Government Property Lawyers acted for MAFF.

Flotation

Theodore Goddard acted for ARM Corporate Finance, which sponsored the introduction of printing and packaging machinery distributor Fairfield Enterprises to the London Stock Exchange. Rooks Rider acted for Fairfield.

A gifted family of juniors

According to solicitors in family law there is much talent to choose from among the younger members of the family Bar. Opinions differ as to whether family and matrimonial solicitors are spoilt for choice when looking for a good senior or middle-ranking junior. For the present it seems there is a whole raft of juniors […]

In brief: Scottish firms table

The following information was omitted from the table of Scottish firms in The Lawyer, 9 September 1997: Tods Murray WS, Edinburgh, total fee earners 74; Scottish partners 29, Scottish assistant solicitors 26; breakdown of work: commercial property 30 per cent; corporate 30 per cent; tax, wills & trusts 15 per cent; litigation 11 per cent; […]

Probate group forms to weed out dabblers

Probate and contentious trust lawyers have formed a new group in a bid to raise the standards within their specialism and act as a pressure group. The Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists wants to attract only highly experienced solicitors, barristers and legal executives to the group and only those who have devoted at […]

Manchester Law Soc calls for claims penalties

The Manchester Law Society has passed a resolution calling on Chancery Lane not to tolerate solicitors with bad Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) claims records. President Robin Ince said the society wanted increased contributions for the 400 UK firms with the worst claims records. “It may well have the effect that they cannot afford to carry […]

Bar course under threat as US company closes

WEST Bar Review, the US company which oversees one of only two London-based training courses for lawyers who want to sit the New York Bar exams, is being closed down by its owner, West Group. But Central Law Training (CLT), which runs the course under contract from West Bar Review, insists that its September and […]

In brief: Merger with accountants 'years away'

Jean-Bernard Thomas, senior partner of Paris firm Thompson & Associes, which completed a merger with Deloitte & Touche Juridique et Fiscal at the beginning of this month, has predicted a major alliance between a City firm and a firm of accountants “within the next few years”, not in a matter of weeks as reported by […]

Acronyms and acrimony in the property wars

And you thought Bosnia was complicated… Chris Fogarty reports on the confusion surrounding the solicitors who would be estate agents. It’s fast becoming the battle of the acronyms. A publicly well-mannered but privately bitter war of words is currently raging between solicitors’ organisations preparing to wade into the dangerous waters of property selling. Solicitors are […]

Get ready for Boardroom Blitz

OK, you second-year law students. Reckon you could run a company? And make strategic commercial decisions that will keep your company in the black? Now’s your chance to prove it. Piece together your dream team and enter the Berwin Leighton/ The Lawyer Boardroom Blitz. City law firm Berwin Leighton has introduced a novel way for […]

Assistant solicitors air their disquiet

US firms will be pretty pleased with the results of the ZMB/The Times survey. It reveals, among other things, that more than one in three assistants planning to change jobs in the next year would consider moving to a US firm. Not only that, but these same assistants are more interested in the reputation of […]