21 July 2003

Time crisis

The Government has proposed time limits on legal aid immigration work, heralding it as an attempt to improve quality. But Alison Stanley says it’s all about the money On 5 June 2003, a bombshell was dropped on legal aid immigration lawyers. The Lord Chancellor’s Department (now the Department for Constitutional Affairs) published a consultation paper […]

The Home boys

Home Office lawyers are critical to the Government’s new initiative on unfounded asylum applications, says the Home Office Immigration Team When the Home Secretary makes statements about ‘fat cat’ lawyers and dodgy immigration lawyers milking the system, he is not talking about the lawyers who advise on immigration in his own office. There are 13 […]

Foul play

Do the astronomical wages of footballers justify their lack of control over their choice of employer? Sean Dempsey examines the current legal situation facing the next David Beckham The average employee is relatively free to move between employers. Footballers are not so lucky, but in the past decade, their salaries have risen to a point […]

Burn it up

The High Court’s ignorance of popular culture was highlighted again by Confetti Records v Warner Music. Stephen Gare and David Harmsworth warn of the potential pitfalls in record deals ‘Court says rap is a foreign language!’ screamed the headlines – making Mr Justice Lewison look like a judge in need of a jukebox jury. His […]

Image scrimmage

Real Madrid’s capture of David Beckham highlights a thorny issue that the English judiciary has had to thrash out – ‘image rights’. The commercial and legal logic of David Beckham’s move to Real Madrid has the potential to confound both seasoned observers of the game and lawyers alike.In particular, there are two such issues that […]

Accident plan

The Government is hoping to dig itself out of a hole with its new £30K NHS redress scheme. But will victims of negligence get short changed? In the fanfare surrounding the unveiling of the Government’s proposals for a new system of handling clinical negligence claims last month – and the accompanying media umbrage about the […]

Legal Widow

After months of trying to find out from the Lawyer where the rest of his holiday had got to (I kept receiving replies like: “They’re being very tough on time off at the moment,” and “I can’t just take off at a moment’s notice, you know.”) I actually rang the personnel department and found out […]

Fail mail

The Law Society has taken a shock piece of decisive action with a vehement and determined stance with regards to its – wait for it – post. Earlier this month it tried to hold elections for seats on its ruling council, but failed to get the ballot papers to members on time. Chief executive Janet […]

Legal Eagle

Tulkinghorn would like to congratulate Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards for achieving a 2:2 in law. The UK’s most loved Olympic ski jumper has just graduated with a law degree from De Montfort University in Leicester and, like all his fellow graduates who are aspiring to become the new Tulkinghorn, is now weighing up his options.The […]

Running off at the mouth

It’s a brave lawyer who mentions their profession in public, as several Nicholson Graham & Jonesers discovered last weekend. A team of runners from the firm, which was sponsoring and acting as legal adviser to the British 10K Road Race, hit the streets of London the weekend before last to raise money for the Teenage […]

Lawyer advised on flotation

If you’re packing for your summer hols at the moment, spare a thought for poor old Charles Martin of Macfarlanes. While it’s considered okay these days for your kids to beat you at Nintendo, that simply doesn’t apply when it comes to watersports. The thinking chez Martin, though, is that Daddy is letting the family […]

Short and sweet

Tulkinghorn caused a stir in the insolvency world last month with his revelations about a certain high-profile practitioner who once got up on stage at a sex bar in Malaga to be fellated by a dwarf.Now he hears that the management at this man’s firm was so alarmed that this titbit had entered the public […]