Magistrates will have to declare if they are Freemasons, under a policy introduced by the Magistrates’ Association. In a council meeting last week, members of the association voted that would-be magistrates should have to declare membership of the Freemasons on their application forms. But they had no objection in principle to Freemason magistrates. Existing magistrates […]
Applications for a share of the £7m donated by the European Union to help lawyers learn more about international law have begun to flood in. More than 80 applications have already been received by the Commission for the Grotius programme, named after the man who invented international law, since it was approved by ministers last […]
Despite continued publicity, the pervasive problem of advance fee fraud is still a very real one for the legal profession in England and Wales. Advance fee fraud can be as simple and blatant as the common “Nigerian letter scams which are well known to the Serious Fraud Office. The fraudsters ask for the victim to […]
London firm Hickman & Rose says it has received “overwhelming support” for its fight against the suspension of approved representatives from the local duty solicitor scheme. In June this year the firm was granted leave to judicially review a decision taken by the Legal Aid Board and its committees to suspend the use of approved […]
Judicial review may be its own worst enemy. The exponential growth of administrative law challenges since the inception of the ‘new’ procedure in 1981 has led to concern on two fronts. First, the clash between citizens and the executive has resulted in some notable defeats for the Government in general and Michael Howard in particular. […]
THE BAR Council looks set to give up its constitutional independence from the profession following a democracy working party’s conclusion that it should obey the results of national ballots of barristers. The working party, chaired by treasurer Michael Blair, also concluded that Bar Council proposals to significantly change its constitution or code of conduct must […]
At least two law firms have expressed interest in joining with Big Six accountants Ernst & Young in a cross-disciplinary alliance to provide a one-stop advice service to the oil and gas industry. Ernst & Young last week teamed up with UK oil and gas field exploration consultants Hannon Westwood Associates and international geoscience consultancy […]
THE CPS is to disband the elite team of special casework lawyers who are responsible for handling the service’s most sensitive cases, an internal report seen by The Lawyer has revealed. Although the report recognises that the 45 special casework lawyers in the service are highly specialised and skilful “at use and control of counsel”, […]
Watson Farley & Williams has lost Geoffrey Wynne, a senior banking partner. It is understood Wynne has left to join a bank. Michael Reid, chief executive of Watsons’ London office, said: “We hope to maintain close relations with him and he left on amicable terms.” He could not confirm whether the firm would be taking […]
As many leading solicitors say, when one barrister takes silk there is a scrabble to find the silks-to-be who are still juniors. They add, however, that with many of the specialist sets in the area of public law headed by public law heavyweights, there is generally sufficient strength and depth in those specialist chambers to […]
A sentence in the story “Accountants on the brink of taking law into their hands” of 1 November mistakenly referred to Price Waterhouse taking over Spicer & Pegler it should have referred to Touche Ross merging with Spicer & Pegler.
Nabarro Nathanson acted for the Chase Manhattan Bank in its purchase of the freehold interest in its former London headquarters building Woolgate House from Scottish Amicable and PPGM. The freehold was simultaneously sold on to MEPC for £75m. Scottish Amicable was advised by Cameron Markby Hewitt, PPGM by Simmons & Simmons and Linklaters & Paines […]