The Patent Office is reducing its trade mark fees with effect from 1 October. The application fee will be reduced from £225 to £200, the renewal fee from £250 to £200, and the renewal fee (additional class) from £200 to £50. A number of other applications, including requests for registration and requests to merge applications, […]
Eleven former staff of disintegrating 14-partner London firm Franks Charlesly, including two ex-salaried partners, are taking the firm to an industrial tribunal claiming unfair dismissal. The legal action is the latest event in the firm’s acrimonious demise, which was triggered several months ago when Jack Franks decided to dissolve the firm – some 60 years […]
Lawyers could find themselves facing prosecution if they do not report suspicions of fraud among their clients. Keith Nuthall reports IF any professional legal malpractice could be labelled taboo, it would surely be breach of confidentiality, with all its consequences of undermining the basis of the solicitor-client relationship. But with the growth in sophisticated frauds […]
Cameron McKenna has expanded its US energy regulatory practice by acquiring two-partner, six-lawyer niche Washington firm Morley Caskin. The acquisition, completed last Wednesday, doubles the number of partners in Cameron McKenna’s existing Washington office and brings its total number of lawyers to 10. Morley Caskin, like Cameron McKenna, specialised in regulatory electricity and gas matters, […]
DIBB Lupton Alsop associate Makbool Javaid has accused an extreme Islamic group of exaggerating his links with it in order to gain credibility. Javaid, who is still discussing his future with senior partners at Dibbs, hit the headlines last month because of his alleged close involvement with the London-based al-Muhajiroun group, which supports the international […]
Robin de Wilde QC – the veteran campaigner for greater democracy at the Bar – is set to stand for vice-chairman of the Bar Council in this month’s elections. So far one barrister, Jonathan Hirst QC, has confirmed he will be standing. It is believed that two others, Julian Malins QC – who like Hirst […]
The chairman of the Sole Practitioners Group (SPG) has called on its members to shop fellow sole practitioners who provide an “incompetent, not to say negligent” service. Fay Landau, writing in Solo – the SPG’s quarterly magazine for its 5,000 members – said that because of the need to reduce the massive cost of indemnity […]
Clayton Utz has seized on a newly published Australian legal directory to claim it is the best national firm in Australia. The firm, which is the fourth largest on the continent with 173 partners, wins the highest number of top ratings in the influential Legal Profiles for the 30 practice areas Clayton Utz has identified […]
Human rights are once again high on the IBA’s conference agenda. But can such organisations make any real difference to abuses throughout the world? Had a bad day at the office? Colleagues or clients been on your back? Train late? Traffic heavy? had to work late? For Turkish defence lawyer, Tahir Elci, his “bad day” […]
Marlene Winfield says that solicitors must be more transparent about exactly how much their services are going to cost the consumer. Marlene Winfield is senior policy officer at the National Consumer Council. Last year, I was having problems with a bowing wall in my Victorian semi. The surveyor thought it might be a drains problem. […]
Almost two years on Denton Hall is trying again. Its merger talks with Richards Butler and Theodore Goddard – revealed in The Lawyer last week – are its second attempt to build a truly global law firm after it pulled out of the Cameron Mckenna deal in November 1996. If the merger goes ahead it […]
The French Ministry of Justice has organised two round table discussions on “The right of the family under European law and justice” and “The fight against organised crime and European law and justice”. They will be held on 16 October at the Centre international des Congres du Palais des Papas in Avignon, France.