Shaun Pye looks at the Bar Council report on overburdened student finance, and finds a profession unwilling to put its hands in its pockets to help. Let us start with the blindingly obvious. It costs a massive amount of money to train as a barrister. In a worst-case scenario, a non-law degree student will leave […]
A ruling on the limitation period governing lost items has implications for the art and antiques world, writes Roger Pearson A High Court ruling leaves little doubt that those who put items of art up for sale and fail to research their background do so at their peril. The case, held during the summer vacation, […]
Rebecca Towers says academic underachievement is not necessarily a bar to a legal career, but poor spelling could be. Winning a training contract is always going to be difficult with places so sought after. Last year, Lovell White Durrant received more than 2,000 applications for just 70 trainee positions. The story is much same for […]
Peter Weiss asks whether a new psychometric test for job applicants offers a fairer way of assessing candidates. Peter Weiss is a trainee solicitor at Nabarro Nathanson. IN An age that holds up psychology as the darling of social sciences, the use of psychometric testing is probably inevitable. Perhaps as predictable is the controversy that […]
Rugby-mad trainee Sam Rush, a new recruit at SJ Berwin & Co, tells what to expect from life in the City. Sam Rush is a trainee solicitor at London-based firm SJ Berwin & Co. A ride on the legal train is a lengthy affair even before the first stop of the the training contract. Having […]
Simmons & Simmons is set to become the first firm in the UK to link all of its IT systems and confidential information to an intranet. Simmons has emulated the BBC and NatWest Global Markets by buying the US Web-based IT system Open Text Livelink for a “significant six-figure” investment. By next summer, every document […]
British bosses do not regard the Government’s proposed legislation on trade union recognition as a threat, an Osborne Clarke-commissioned MORI survey has found. Seventy per cent of 140 directors and senior managers in facilities management, financial services and transport businesses rated highly their unions’ ability to see management’s point of view.
Clifford Chance securitisation partner Andrew Forryan is leading a 25-lawyer team on the $2bn Eurobond offering by Formula One – one of the largest securitisations this year. The team is advising investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the sole lead manager for the issue. The deal straddles eight jurisdictions, involving Clifford Chance lawyers in London, […]
You have read enough legal books to sink the Bismark – but what about real life? Matheu Swallow gives an insight into life in a variety of legal practice areas. Crime With confidence, criminal law can be as challenging and stimulating in practice as it is academically. Edward Caute, solicitor at west London firm Darlington […]
Management buy-out activity for the third quarter is down 16 per cent compared with last year and is expected to fall further in the fourth, as the difference between vendors’ and investors’ price expectations widen. The Centre for Management Buy-out Research has found that 255 transactions were completed between July and September with a gross […]
ABA president Philip Anderson says the profession must jealously guard its independence in the face of an onslaught from big business. Philip Anderson is president of the American Bar Association. Siegfried Sassoon wrote a paean to English country life in the late nineteenth century and published it as The Old Century (Faber & Faber, London […]
Susan Ward says a vast array of in-house work is available to young barristers who thrive on the cut and thrust of business. Susan Ward chairs the Bar Association for Commerce, Finance and Industry (Bacfi) with over 1,200 members. Student membership is available. Practice as an in-house barrister puts you right at the heart of […]