23 June 1997

Flotations

Linklaters & Paines advised Halifax Building Society on its £18bn conversion and flotation. Halifax was also advised in-house. Allen & Overy advised it on treasury and capital markets.

Flotations

Edward Lewis acted for loyalty card and swipe card machine manufacturer HTEC Group on its £10m flotation by placing on the London Stock Exchange. Garretts advised Greig Middleton

Property

Cameron McKenna advised Berkeley Homes on its purchase of the Harrods Depository at Barnes to redevelop it into luxury flats to be known as Harrods Village. Herbert Smith advised Harrods.

Feelings on Edge

In his article in The Lawyer on 10 June, John Edge again pulls out of the hat his argument about the Law Society doing something to ensure that mortgage lenders pay for the service they receive from the legal profession. If Edge was a mortgage lender in business for profit, I wonder what his reaction […]

Time for performance-related payback

Seven years ago I was elected to the Law Society’s Council. I joined, because like so many of my fellow practitioners, I had become disillusioned with the Law Society and wanted to do something about it. At the time, I was a high-street practitioner and I still am. Why am I now seeking election to […]

Time for a clear out

I fully endorse sole practitioners group chair Tim Readman’s comment in The Lawyer, 17 June that shoddy solicitors should be found and rooted out of the profession. After all, why should those solicitors who do their job properly have to pay for the sometimes deliberate sub-standard work of others when it comes around to what […]

The Lawyer Inquiry: Sally Anne Griffiths

Sally Anne Griffiths was born in Merseyside on 24 November, 1964. She qualified as a solicitor at Clifford Chance in 1991 and moved to Fox Williams, spending five years in the commercial litigation department. In 1996, she rejoined Clifford Chance as an analyst in the Business Development Department. What was your first job? Delivering telephone […]

Shipping firm's smokers sunk at tribunal

Shipping firm Waltons & Morse has been censured for going out of its way to favour smokers after a legal secretary successfully claimed constructive dismissal when she left because of the amount of smoke in her office. In an out-of-court settlement, the firm agreed to pay Jill Dorrington £3,000 after losing an appeal last month. […]

In brief: Pinsents parades three new partners

Pinsent Curtis has added three new partners – Joanna Higgins (right), Karen Eckstein and Tim Richards – to its national litigation practice. Higgins arrives from Ashurst Morris Crisp as a commercial litigator and dispute resolution specialist. Eckstein has left Nottingham firm Browne Jacobson to work in Pinsent’s tax department as a professional indemnity litigator. Richards […]

Work begins on UK and Japanese legal alliance

A steering committee has been established to set up a bilateral British-Japanese law association. Denton Hall partner Richard Playle, who is on the committee, said that the association aimed to encourage greater understanding between the two legal professions. He said it was hoped that the group would encourage training and education initiatives as well promoting […]

Firms remain sceptical about green form pilot

The majority of legal aid practices responding to the Law Society’s survey on the Legal Aid Board’s (LAB) green form pilot still have doubts about taking part. Of the 30 questionnaires returned last week from the 145 law firms that the LAB had chosen to participate, approximately six decided that they would definitely not go […]

Nuclear waste storage project for Simmons

Simmons & Simmons has teamed up with a scientific consultancy to win a two-year Department of the Environment research contract to work out ways to dispose of high-level radioactive waste. Stephen Tromans, head of Simmons’ environmental law department, who will work on the project with assistant James FitzGerald and nuclear energy consultancy QuantiSci, said Simmons’ […]