Canada’s proposed reforms to its civil justice system is indicative of the pressure on lawyers worldwide to become attuned to client needs. The Canadian Bar Association, in an effort to make the law accessible, has come up with a report which mirrors Lord Woolf’s thinking. Many ideas in the report are already in force here […]
Solicitor Brian Marson warns that if solicitors expect to be paid something by lender clients they could well lose conveyancing work altogether (“Are we pricing ourselves out?” The Lawyer 6 August). It really is rather demeaning to suggest that any labourer (including a solicitor) is not worth his or her hire. I sometimes wonder whether […]
SJ Berwin & Co acted for Plasmon
Herbert Smith acted for NatWest Securities
In the 13 August issue you quote Karen Aldred of the Law Society as saying that the society “favoured the principles of the schemes but attempts to create them had proved unviable in the past” (“Call for Scots-style housing groups”). Unfortunately, Ms Aldred’s negative statement is wholly redolent of the “no-can-doism” which has been so […]
Mills & Reeve advised Oceonics Group on the flotation of its subsidiary
Alison Laferia reports Eight of the top Irish law firms have unanimously opted to install Arista case and practice management systems. The deal provides the supplier, Axxia Systems, with a major foothold in the Irish market. The firms grouped together to assess case and practice management systems in order to boost their buying and negotiating […]
Linklaters & Paines played a key advisory role in the first offering by an Egyptian company of global depository receipts to international investors. The receipts enable foreign investors to hold shares in Egypt’s Commercial International Bank, in which the Egyptian government has reduced its holding for the second time in two years. In the latest […]
New York firm LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae has recruited a government lawyer to head its international maritime and land boundary team in Washington DC. David Colson was the deputy assistant US Secretary of State for Oceans and former assistant legal advisor for oceans, environment and science.
Six years ago Parliament passed the Courts and Legal Services Act and Section 58 promised nothing short of a revolution in access to civil justice. It allowed the introduction of conditional no win, no fee arrangements, and the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 1995 brought in conditional fees for insolvency work, European Court of Human Rights […]
When asked what he thought of Canada a laconic Texan once replied that he tried not to. Sadly, that attitude exists in the UK too. The Canadian province of Newfoundland was England’s first overseas colony, Nova Scotia was Scotland’s first, Canada was the first colony to become a self-governing dominion and the country stood by […]
Blue chip merchant bank Schroders has recruited in-house lawyer James Watkins from shipping company Trafalgar House, which was recently taken over by Norwegian group Kvaerner. Watkins, 50, will be group legal director at Schroders, a post he held at Trafalgar House. He was articled with Linklaters & Paines and qualified as a solicitor in 1969. […]