14 April 1997

Property

Frere Cholmeley Bischoff acted for the Department of Transport in the £18.2m sale of its 250-acre research site at Crowthorne, Berkshire to Legal & General. Lawrence Graham advised Legal & General.

Flotations

Simmons & Simmons acted for Charterhouse Development Capital in the £17m placing and open offer of new shares by Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. Charterhouse will take £8.5m of new shares in the placing, to hold between 20 and 40 percent of the club – the largest single investment in an English football club by a […]

Aid for an ailing system

“A proper system of criminal justice requires prosecutions to be put strongly, but fairly, and defences to be conducted efficiently and fearlessly. For this, it is critical that an experienced, professional and independent Criminal Bar, capable of undertaking the most demanding work, is maintained,” said Lord Irvine of Lairg at the 1996 Bar Conference. Whether […]

Advocates' Immunity. The immunity system

It might be ridiculous to sue your school because you failed your A-levels, or your local hamburger store for not warning you that the coffee was hot, and some might rightly argue that plaintiffs and their lawyers have now reached limits of what is actionable. But there is one group of professionals, who until recently […]

New regulator Opra jumps swiftly into the pensions fray

The new pensions regulator Opra, which opened for business last week, has already received its first case. It is to look into the collapse of a South Wirral pension fund that left pensioners with as little as 14 per cent of the funds. The Department of Trade and Industry referred the case to the Occupational […]

Home: where the work is

Never mind sole practioners working in chambers (The Lawyer, 25 March), let them work from home with electronic connections if necessary. The economics are indisputable. Imagine a life with no partners, profits more than 90 per cent of turnover, no employees, visiting clients at home, few meetings, and so on. Anyone contemplating this should read […]

The Lawyer Inquiry: Andrew Paton

Andrew Paton was born in Birmingham on 15 March 1957. He is the head of the insurance litigation team at Pinsent Curtis in Birmingham. What was your first job? Cleaning a metal-rolling factory during the summer shutdown. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £2,500 as an articled clerk with Cripps Harries Hall, […]

Fighting over Forte heralds tightening of takeover laws

Bidders in takeover battles will have to be much more explicit when they promise to improve their target’s profits, following a new rule introduced after the Granada takeover battle for Forte. During the battle, led by Granada chairman Gerry Robinson, the company, advised by Lovell White Durrant, issued a circular saying it could improve Forte’s […]

The tomorrow people

With a number of the juniors mentioned last year taking silk recently, special qualities are needed to stand out from the pack. Again, this list is by no means exhaustive. The juniors to keep an eye on are, at 2 Garden Court, Henry Blaxland, Courtenay Griffiths, Simon Farrell and Anthony Jennings. Another set with a […]

BBC barrister jumps into PR

Experienced BBC lawyer David Williams has been poached by a London public relations company planning to compete directly against law firms in the lucrative field of media relations. Williams, a senior assistant in the BBC’s programme complaints unit for 14 years, has joined John Stonborough & Co to advise corporate clients on regulatory and legal […]

Survival will require strength in diversity

The whole area of client care is preoccupying the agenda of many firms and barristers chambers at the moment. Pinsents, as we see on page three, has addressed the issue by appointing a partner to specifically look after client services. Many others are dedicating marketing resources to the matter and are putting systems in place […]

Monkey business

I think you may have solved a mystery which has worried me for many decades. Long ago, when I was a minnow at Freshfields and the firm resided in Princes Street, the loos were labelled Freshfields ladies, Freshfields gentlemen and Freshfields partners. I used to think the distinction had something to do with gender and, […]