28 May 2001

Paper trials

Fending off legal attacks on The Sun newspaper is no easy task. But to News International lawyer Daniel Taylor, it’s a case of fight the good fight Covering the wall of Daniel Taylor’s office is a collection of metaphorical scalps. Among the News International company solicitor’s valedictory gallery are front pages from The Sun – […]

BLP double partner hire sparks corporate launch for Belgium

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has launched a corporate practice from its Belgian office following the hire of two new partners.`The hires are part of BLP’s strategy to add a Belgian and cross-border corporate and technology capability to its EC practice, which was brought to the merger by Berwin Leighton.`Jean-Pierre Brusseleers was a partner at Derks […]

Belgium backs down on law firm VAT exemption

Plans by the Belgian government to make all non-Belgian EU law firms VAT-exempt have been temporarily abandoned following a successful lobbying campaign. The ruling would have meant that while the law firms did not have to charge their clients VAT on their services, they would have to absorb any VAT costs on overheads.`The Belgian tax […]

Stop the press

The modern bar. Transparent, democratic and all the things a 21st century organisation should be. Or is it?`Well, Tulkinghorn was less than surprised to discover that the bar has yet to embrace the concept of freedom of information.`Following The Lawyer’s exclusive that the North East circuit could be thrown out of Bar Council membership if […]

Separated at birth

Tulkinghorn has been alerted by an anonymous source to the uncanny likeness that SJ Berwin financial services partner David Calligan bears to Ally McBeal star John Cage. Like Calligan, Cage – aka ‘the biscuit’ – is a lawyer. But after that the similarities end, as Cage is a litigator while Calligan is a financial services […]

A very very nice man

Last week, Tulkinghorn reported on the delightfully handcrafted piece of sentimental rubbish that Stephenson Harwood insolvency litigation partner Paul Gordon-Saker picked up for £505 at an auction.`It happened that this figurine of a little girl sitting on a bench formerly belonged to disgraced politician Jonathan Aitken and Gordon-Saker happened to have acted for his creditors.`After […]

Shaddap you face

On the subject of all-round good blokes, well this time it’s a woman actually, Tulkinghorn was delighted to encounter the truly wonderful Carolyn McCombe, solicitor turned barristers’ clerk.`Currently the senior clerk at commercial set 4 Pump Court, McCombe started her legal life reading law at Cambridge University. While there, she encountered Jonathan Hirst, who is […]

… and a cuddly toy

We have a winner. In fact, we have two winners of Tulkinghorn’s latest competition to find a suitable anagram for Patrick Farrant, Eversheds’ national head of biosciences and a dead ringer for Nigel Short.`While Tulkinghorn found the chess grandmaster could easily become ‘English rot’, a ‘loser thing’ or indeed an ‘honest girl’, he struggled with […]

Bar talk

In order to bring a claim for defamation it is necessary for the claimant to prove that the defamatory words or pictures could be understood by ordinary sensible readers to refer to him or her. It does not matter that the publisher of the defamatory material did not intend to refer to the claimant, or […]

Reforming the classes

In February 2001, the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD) issued a consultation paper called ‘Representative Claims: Proposed New Procedures’. The proposal has been issued in line with the Government’s aim to improve access to justice.`In private law cases, claimants must show that they have a legal right that they are seeking to enforce. But in public […]

Law central

Over the last 30 years, Washington DC has evolved as one of the key legal markets in the US, and indeed the world, and its emergence as a leading legal centre has shadowed the increasingly critical role the US government plays in the regulation of business and industry.`As the US’s capital, as well as being […]

Sweet home Chicago

Chicago is a major business centre for the US and has been long served by a core of law firms with Windy City roots. Chicago’s top firms – Kirkland & Ellis, Mayer Brown & Platt, McDermott Will & Emery, Sidley & Austin and Winston & Strawn – have the histories, geographical presence, client and deals […]