THE GOVERNMENT has confirmed the profession’s worst nightmare by announcing it will withdraw legal aid from the bulk of civil actions while delivering the rest of it through cash-limited block contracts. Its plan to substitute a large swathe of legal aid with conditional fees was widely leaked, but practitioners assumed the Government was bluffing. Law […]

Baker & McKenzie announced record annual revenues of US$700m for 1997 at its annual partnership meeting in Toronto last week. This represents an 8 per cent increase on the 1996 figures. The firm said that net profits also reached record levels, although it declined to give exact figures.

Lawyers in Poland have launched a last-ditch attempt to halt a radical plan to allow tax advisers, who form a separate profession in the country, rights of audience before the courts. Earlier this month, Polish president Alexander Knasniewski vetoed changes to the law which would have given tax advisers limited appearance rights. He had been […]