5 November 2001

Opinion

So finally the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has published its elusive consultation document on amending the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (Tupe). The Acquired Rights Directive was amended back in 1998, and the UK had until 17 July this year to implement the changes. The DTI has periodically promised a […]

Leader

Over here, there’s all sorts of speculation about how firms are affected by the downturn, including one persistent rumour that one particular major firm’s corporate department is working at 40 per cent utilisation. If that was replicated, the effect on bottom line would be immense. Law firm overheads – accounted for entirely by salaries and […]

Doing the rounds

Tulkinghorn hears from his colleagues who were teenagers in the 1980s that a great night out for a 14-year-old was to be spent at the local ice rink. With the possibility of meeting members of the opposite sex who were not in your school and thumping tunes from the rickety sound system, the local rink […]

Gibson Dunn resolves Polestar debt

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Allen & Overy (A&O) have pulled off a landmark European debt restructuring for printing company client Polestar.The London office of the Los Angeles firm scooped the work advising the company when it ran into difficulties at the start of the year. Polestar is owned by private equity group Investcorp, a […]

Camerons instructed on Imperial Wharf scheme

CMS Cameron McKenna is advising St George, the developer of London’s Imperial Wharf, and has just completed the first major step towards the construction of a Marks & Spencer food store and a major hotel on the site.These are the first major commercial transactions to be exchanged for the 32-acre site on the River Thames, […]

Named and shamed

In an idle moment, Tulkinghorn has been introduced to a new website called the Carlos Work Nickname Generator. It does fairly much what it says on the tin: you put in your name and then it tells you what your work colleagues call you behind your back.Just for fun, Tulkinghorn ran a few of his […]

Model behaviour

Tulkinghorn’s scout was out mixing with the glitterati last week at the Trainee Solicitor Awards and was most overcome by the charm and elegance of the 60s model and cultural icon turned human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger. (And Tulkinghorn is most overcome by the charm and elegance of his scout Julia Cahill, on the right.) […]

Stranger than fiction

Well, here’s a turn-up for the books. Tulkinghorn received a missive this week from HartBrown solicitors (“the largest firm based solely in Surrey”, according to its website) about how its lawyers had been travelling the country handing out presents to unsuspecting folk.Tulkinghorn was a little concerned at such unlawyerlike behaviour and feared that the next […]

Bearing up

Sometimes life in a law firm is tough and lawyers have to grab what comfort they can. It seems things have got so bad at Bevan Ashford that people are forced back to childhood comforts in the form of teddy bears. Deal going pear-shaped? Tell Ted, he’ll listen. Partner giving you a hard time? Set […]

The impostor

Tarlo Lyons’ Nigel McEwan says he’s never really understood law. So it’s just as well that the role of managing partner is right up his street Nigel McEwan is, he claims, a rubbish lawyer. The managing partner of Tarlo Lyons just never got a handle on how to analyse a legal problem, which may give […]

Westminster Council felled by Beachcrofts

Beachcroft Wansbro-ughs last week successfully defeated an appeal by Westminster City Council to the House of Lords, arising out of the principles of recoverable loss in nuisance.The Lords ruled that local authorities must act quickly on residential complaints or risk harsher treatment in the courts.Beachcrofts partner Rachel Bolt, who heads the firm’s London household property […]

The Anorak

Failing to make time to exploit IT is like failing to keep up with the latest case law Let’s face it, if you are reading this column, the chances are that you are already using IT as part of your work. Either that or you are a closet Wired-reading geek, secretly syncing your palmtop and […]