Finance
Speechly Bircham advised Scottish Life Assurance Company on a £125m Eurobond issue made through its subsidiary Scottish Life Finance. The parent insurance company guaranteed the issue. Linklaters & Paines advised Kleinwort Benson
Corporate
Linklaters & Paines advised Opraf in awarding a 15-year rail franchise to Cross Country Trains/Virgin Rail
Finance
Cameron Markby Hewitt acted for Lloyds Bank and The Chase Manhattan Bank on a £300m facility for United News & Media to enable UNM to purchase Blenheim Group. Allen & Overy acted for UNM.
When the merger honeymoon is over
When it came, the McKenna/Cameron Markby merger made not so much a bang as a whimper. After months of frenzied speculation about the tri-partite merger which lost one of its participants, Denton Hall, on the way, the two firms are now officially preparing for life together. The indications are that it will not be an […]
Insuring everybody's access to justice
The debate about legal aid rumbles on. Commitments are few, platitudes are plenty, but of solutions there are none. For those who have a continuing and sincere interest in access to justice, after stripping out all question of vested interests, the position is dire. Leaving aside, for one minute, those who do qualify for legal […]
Setting Mears straight
Mr Mears’ Viewpoint article on the Law Society’s Disbursement Funding Scheme fundamentally misunderstands its practicalities, which we have designed with the Law Society to meet the clearly articulated needs of many of its members. Mr Mears is also wrong when he states that under the Financial Services Act a solicitor would be required to advise […]
Education in PFI projects
In the report entitled “Herbert Smith tops PFI projects league” (The Lawyer, 17 December 1996), you say that “education projects have yet to see the light of day”. In fact there is at least one completed PFI project in the higher education sector, the University of Greenwich’s Avery Hill Student Village. This project has been […]
Restrictions put on hold after pressure on China
China has delayed the implementation of a package of rules to prevent foreign firms from employing Chinese lawyers and legal assistants, following intense lobbying by the international community. The Chinese government was understood to be poised to announce the new rules just before Christmas when it was rumoured they would be taking effect as early […]
Family Finance and Tax, Martin Kaye and David Salter, Sweet & Maxwell £36
Martin Kaye and David Salter’s book cleverly consolidates in one publication the ever-widening aspects of family fiscal matters. The work is aimed at lay people as well as financial and professional advisers. It is divided into nine concise and well-structured chapters with each chapter being further divided into Key Points, Rules in Outline and Rules […]
Survey looks at attitudes to Aids patients
LEGAL aid lawyers in England and Wales are being asked this week to take part in a survey to test how people with Aids and HIV are being treated by the legal system. All 10,000 legal aid firms are being sent the forms as part of a European Union project to examine ways of ending […]
Court union in call for Justice Councils
The Association of Magisterial Officers is calling for the creation of Community Justice Councils as part of its campaign to improve the quality of justice in magistrates courts. AMO, an independent trade union representing magistrates courts staff up to the level of deputy clerk, is concerned that the Magistrates Courts Service is not sufficiently representative […]