In a costs hearing last week, Amelans successfully rebuffed an argument which stated that an after the event (ATE) insurance policy provided by Temple Legal Protection should be regarded as a credit arrangement. It was the third in a series of similar cases involving Amelans and Temple and the latest attempt to find a loophole […]
Many is the parent who longs to give the gift of music to their child – to install in them a skill that will ensure artistic fulfilment, a wider social circle and the pleasure of sharing music. This is great in theory but then reality strikes when you hear little Jimmy massacring Fur Elise for […]
Allen & Overy’s (A&O) corporate department has scooped a major new client in the form of leading Croatian bank Zagrebacka Banka (ZB).A&O first met ZB on the other side of a deal in May 1998. A&O’s Andrew Wilson had been advising Daiwa and Merrill Lynch as underwriters on a global offering of shares in Pliva […]
Tulkinghorn is concerned that the legal community is getting rather obsessed with lap dancers. Not only has Tulkinghorn been inundated with calls from bored M&A lawyers explaining the finest nuances of the name Spearmint Rhino, it now transpires that Hammond Suddards Edge is part of a global conspiracy by the aforementioned ‘gentleman’s club’ to conquer […]
The Law Society has been subject to responsibilities under discrimination law since the early 1970s. These include controlling admission to the profession, offering services to the public, handling complaints about solicitors and its responsibilities as an employer. More recently its duties have broadened arising from the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. Under this act, the […]
Specialist industries face limitations on their special exemptions from certain competition rules following a ruling by the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.The ruling, which related to the shipping industry, is described as the most far-reaching in defining the scope of the exemptions governing shipping, airlines, cars, rail and inland waterways.Lovells partner John Pheasant acted […]
Jennifer Currie reports on how the RAE is good medicine for non-traditional law schools Steven Fitzpatrick has heard enough Ford Escort jokes to last him a lifetime. “People just hear the word ‘Essex’ and they immediately think of all the usual county stereotypes,” the third-year law student from Essex University sighs. “But people who do […]
As a nation, we are inclined to make things difficult for ourselves If keeping up appearances means working far beyond the call of duty, never taking a lunch break or taking work home, then so be it. Stiff upper lip and all that, what?You would think, then, that West Coast Americans would take the opposite […]
Firms are vying to boast the most impressive number of solicitor-advocates among their services. Jennifer Currie reports on the growth of these do-it-all lawyers and asks: where will this leave barristers? Matthew Newick gets a “real buzz” out of advocacy. “I like being the person who stands up in court and get results,” he says. […]
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) faces forking out more than £300,000 to Ashurst Morris Crisp after the firm defended a case in which the expert witness was “biased and irrational”.Ashursts partner Ian Starr is able to make the claim under regulations stating that, if a successful party in an action faces severe financial hardship if […]
A landmark judgment by an English court upheld a central principle of ancient Islamic funding after a unique challenge was made against it. The significance of the case is heightened as Islamic financing is becoming an increasing feature of large-scale deals in the Middle East, carried out alongside Western banks.Also, business finance company Datamonitor reported […]
The Law Lords came a cropper last week when it was discovered that they had failed to implement procedures for handling a costs dispute involving conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) (The Lawyer, 25 February).This House of Lords blunder came to light after a shrewd paying party’s decision to contest paying the other side’s CFA uplift as […]