Conveyancing has come back to haunt the legal profession. The healthy growth of the property market, which should have been joyful news for all, comes in a poisoned chalice with the news that not only is estate agent Hambro Countrywide preparing to tackle the marketplace but the building societies are also looking at innovative ideas […]
Denton Hall has managed to limit the damage from a poaching attempt by US firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius of two of its highest-flying litigation partners. Leading fraud litigation lawyer Robert Goldspink is negotiating a reduction of his nine-month notice so he can make an early start at Morgan Lewis. His colleague, rising intellectual property […]
Mark Humphries was born in Bath on 5 February 1962. He is a solicitor-advocate and partner at Linklaters & Paines. What was your first job? Warehouseman at Marks & Spencer in Bath. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £3,300. What would you have done if you hadn’t become a solicitor? Become a […]
SJ Berwin advised on the establishment of car finance company On-Line Finance. Clifford Chance advised Merrill Lynch
Manches & Co acted for computer software developer Eidos on its £21.95m listing of 3 million American depository shares on Nasdaq. Lead underwriters to the offer were JP Morgan Securities and Volpe Welty & Company, advised by Linklaters & Paines. Norton Rose advised the Eidos sponsor Charterhouse Tilney Securities.
Tony Holland (The Lawyer, 7 January) comes up with a useful suggestion about funding access to justice through expenses insurance, but the problems are likely to be more difficult than he admits. In our system, the losing party pays the costs of the winner. There are sound reasons for this, but it does not sit […]
The Court of Appeal has appointed its first batch of pupil barristers and trainee assistants to fill its controversial new “judicial assistant” posts. Of the six that started work last week only two are solicitors and only one, Graeme Johnston, is from a City firm, Herbert Smith. The other four are appointed from the Bar. […]
The Law Society and the Bar Council have offered their backing for amendments to the Police Bill tabled by the Labour Party which are designed to preserve legal privilege. The move follows a flurry of lobbying from the legal profession. The proposed amendment, drafted with help from the Law Society, states that surveillance of normal […]
A recent review of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) concluded that it required greater flexibility to meet the needs of different types of practice more closely. But will the inevitable changes to the LPC set out in the review and now approved by the Law Society meet the needs of all practices when recruiting suitable […]
A BARRISTER who accused her former set of racial discrimination has won leave to have her case heard by the Court of Appeal. Joy Okoye’s case against Staple Inn Chambers was struck out by circuit judge Quentin Edwards QC last September when he described her claims against the chambers variously as frivolous and out of […]
Judith Mayhew, Wilde Sapte’s director of training, has been elected unopposed to the leadership of the City Corporation, one of the world’s richest local authorities. Deputy chair of the corporation’s policy and resources committee for the past four years, she succeeds Michael Cassidy, senior partner of City law firm Maxwell Batley, as its chair. This […]
Penningtons has recruited Richard Price, a partner with Wedlake Saint for 27 years, to head the family law department at its Newbury office, as an associate. Price’s “cross-office team” consists of a senior assistant at Newbury and a junior assistant based in Basingstoke. There are plans to recruit one more assistant. Julian Chadwick, managing partner […]