“The suicide last year of a senior local authority solicitor who felt unable to cope with the demands placed on him following a 30% cut to his department’s budget shocked the profession.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 21st June 2012
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“As the lines blur between the work of solicitors and barristers , Joshua Rozenberg asks whether a cheaper service provides better value for money or is it leading to poor representation in court and ultimately miscarriages of justice? He discusses the issues with Baroness Deech of the Bar Standards Board, a solicitor advocate Sundeep Bhatia and Elisabeth Davies, Chair of the Consumer panel at the Legal Services Board. He also speaks to senior appeal court judge Lord Justice Moses and asks about the best way to assess quality and what dangers lie ahead if suffers.”
BBC Law in Action, 19th June 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Examining the LSB’s commitment to standards and to quality; the LSB decision to continue to permit referral fees; and a meeting with the new Chief Executive of the Legal Services Commission.”
Full story (PDF)
The Bar Council, June 2012
Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk
“Champerty used to be a crime. Now it is known as third-party litigation funding and has developed into an investment industry backed by up to £500m of investor cash looking for lucrative courtroom opportunities.”
The Guardian, 25th May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Today I am talking with Professor Gary Slapper, Director of NYU. We have a wide ranging discussion on the fabric of law in society, the College of Law sale, the proposed new ‘practice oriented’ degrees and their value, if any, and consider the quality of judges. Gary also introduces a few unusual cases towards the end.”
Charon QC, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.charonqc.wordpress.com
“Charon QC” is the blogging pseudonym of Mike Semple Piggot, editor of insitelaw newswire.
“A pillar of postwar society has been shattered by the legal aid cuts: that’s why a strike is now on the cards.”
The Guardian, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Social exclusivity is increasing in the legal profession, according to a new analysis of lawyers’ schooling published today.”
Law Scoiety’s Gazette, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“The adversarial criminal justice system will survive only if practitioners embrace modernisation, the attorney general warned solicitors last week.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 10th May 2012
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“Competition reform, secret courts and changes to defamation pricked the ears of lawyers during the Queen’s Speech yesterday.”
The Lawyer, 10th May 2012
Source: www.thelawyer.com
“If lawyers are preparing David Cameron for his appearance before Lord Justice Leveson, they are on perilous ground.”
The Guardian, 8th May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“In the legal profession’s workaholic culture, achieving work/life balance has always been a struggle – and still is. The term ‘work/life balance’ has such negative connotations in private practice that some firms have banned it from their vocabulary. At Ashurst, for example, they refer to ‘work/life fit’. Speaking at the International Women in Law Summit last month, Ashurst senior partner Charlie Geffen said how one ‘fits home life into work’ was ‘a more honest’ description of what was realistic in law firms, particularly in transactional work.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 26th April 2012
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“UCL Centre for Ethics and Law hopes to create a culture where lawyers do more than complying with the minimum they can get away with.”
The Guardian, 5th April 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Eldon Lecture on workforce diversity (PDF)
Lecture by LSB Chairman David Edmonds
Legal Services Board, 22nd March 2012
Source: www.legalservicesboard.org.uk
“We have launched a consultation on a new Code of Conduct for barristers, which includes our proposals for regulating new types of business structure.”
Bar Standards Board, 20th March 2012
Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk
“Just 20 per cent of the people nominated for the honorary QC title in the past three years were women, The Lawyer can reveal.”
The Lawyer, 20th March 2012
Source: www.thelawyer.com
“The Legal Services Board (LSB) today welcomes the publication of the Social Mobility Toolkit, a resource aimed at creating a step-change in social mobility across the professions. The proposal for the publication emerged from an LSB- chaired group bringing representatives from the professions together to discuss the implications of the Milburn Report on Fair Access to the Professions for regulators and professional bodies as they seek to improve access for non-traditional candidates, as well as to ensure they become better represented at higher levels of industry.”
Legal Services Board, 2nd March 2012
Source: www.legalservicesboard.org.uk
“Not a single solicitor was among the 88 new Queen’s Counsel appointments announced today. Of the 214 applicants, only two came from solicitor advocates; neither was successful. Since 2008, six solicitors have been made QC. Last year two out of the five who applied were successful, while in the previous competition one from the 10 who applied succeeded. Dame Joan Higgins, chair of the QC selection panel, said: ‘The panel is concerned that there appears to be considerable hesitancy on the part of solicitor advocates to apply for silk, even where they may be well qualified to do so.’”
Law Society’s Gazette, 29th February 2012
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
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