Barristers spit their dummies01-Feb-2008Tantrums, hysterics and feet stamping – and that’s just the barristers. The row over the Legal Services Commission’s new contracts is reaching boiling point and if the bar grapevine is to be believed – and it normally is – then we can expect striking barristers on our streets very soon. Tantrums, hysterics […]
So there we were, having a quiet end-of-January Guinness in our local last night (Thursday 31 January), when we found ourselves spinning back 40 years to the Summer of Love. Believe me, it’s a strange sensation. Extremely unexpectedly, this quiet backstreet boozer turned out to be the venue for a charity gig by Mr Mellow […]
Old Square Chambers deputy senior clerk William Meade is to fill the position left by senior clerk John Taylor on an interim basis. As revealed by The Lawyer (28 January), Taylor is to take on the newly-created role of director of clerking at Fountain Court at Easter. With Meade running Old Square’s nine-strong clerking team, […]
Female barristers at 39 Essex Street have launched pressure group Bar Nursery Association (BNA) to try and get a creche based in one of the Inns of Court. Jess Connors, Kate Grange and Victoria Butler-Cole decided to initiate a campaign to get childcare facilities in Temple as the trio felt that more practical steps needed […]
Nabarro‘s partnership has voted to convert to LLP status, with the change expected to take place during the first half of this year. Senior partner Simon Johnston emphasised that LLP was “a modern, transparent business arrangement that is more suited to the current practice of law.” He emphasised however, that releasing publicly available accounts and […]
Bar chairman Timothy Dutton QC has warned that there is a risk of a second class system of legal aid in England due to the Legal Services Commission’s (LSC) new contracts. Dutton, addressing the European bar leaders at a conference in Vienna today (1 February) said that by creating block procurement of funding criminal cases […]
Manchester-based solicitors Rowe Cohen and a raft of other personal injury firms have come to a settlement in The Accident Group (TAG) litigation. The dispute, which some commentators said could have put scores of law firms out of business, came to an end when an agreement was struck with insurers Winterthur and National Insurance and […]
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Sullivan & Cromwell scooped lead roles on the $19bn Citigroup equity offering. The transaction is the latest investment bank equity offering to see sovereign and domestic wealth funds invest into banks since market volatility hit global banks’ profits worldwide in recent months. Lead partner at Cleary Gottlieb, Jeffrey Karpf, […]
US firm Brown & Rudnick has promoted its first UK associates to the partnership. Adrian Yeandle and James Shaw have become the first British solicitors to be promoted in the firm’s London arm, re-affirming its desire to develop an international client base. Scott Burns, managing partner, said: “These are the first guys to be made […]
Travers Smith has landed its third top flight football takeover in two years, acting on the acquisition of Derby County FC. The firm advised US marketing company General Sports and Entertainment (GSE) on the acquisition of the club in a deal thought to be worth around £25million. Travers corporate finance partner Philip Cheveley said the […]
I was flicking through some back issues of Lawyer 2B last week and stumbled across the perfect accompaniment to this week’s feature on how to survive your LPC tax module. I’m sure there are few among you who think of tax as sexy or cool. Indeed, Simon Lee wrote the poem below to prove it […]
A recent survey has revealed that people working in the law drink more cups of tea per day than those in all other professions. Seventy per cent of legal workers drink more than three cups per day, with twenty per cent drinking more than six cuppas per day. This makes the legal profession even larger […]