Young Bar nets u100,000 for Eurotwin scheme

THE PROLIFIC lawyer-writers of Booth & Co in Leeds have penned or contributed to more than one dozen books over the past year.

The family law department has proved particularly industrious, coming up with eight books, two yet to be published.

One of them, the first book by family lawyers on pensions, had to be code-named 'Operation Llama' in correspondence to stop the opposition hearing about the subject matter.

One of its authors, family department associate Helen Jeavons, says: "We identified pensions at that point as being an area of law for family lawyers that was going to become very topical. At the time we didn't want other publishers to know what was being written."

The pensions department contributed to the book, which has sold more than 1,500 copies, and wrote a couple of its own at the same time.

Jeavons says it is unusual for a single firm to have so many writers and contributors working there at one time. "It's a very big time commitment."

THE EUROPEAN Young Bar Association is to receive more than u100,000 from the European Commission to help build on its plan to twin international law groups.

The association, formed last year, represents 35 young lawyers' groups across Europe, and aims to link groups in Central and Eastern Europe with their Western counterparts.

EYBA chair, Howard Kennedy partner Andrew Greenfield, says the award is the first of its kind to be presented to a young lawyers' organisation.

"Young lawyers are the future of democracy in Europe, particularly in the newly-liberated Central and Eastern European countries. The EYBA exists to support those young lawyers and the merit of our work has been recognised and justified by the European Commission grant."

The association's publicity officer, David Edwards of Richards Butler, says that the funds - awarded to the group earlier this month - will primarily be used to expand the twinning project which has already linked organisations such as the London Young Solicitors' Group and the Bucharest Young Advocates' Association.

"The EYBA can now extend this project to fund properly planned twinning links between member groups.

"The EC funding will also allow us to launch our own legal journal and to publish a guide to law in Europe," says Edwards.

"We are also working on a quality of life survey in conjunction with a Danish legal university which will hopefully produce the first comprehensive comparative study of the working conditions of lawyers across Europe (see lifestyle survey on page 14).