Archive

Sole practitioners and barristers most at risk from naming and shaming, France says

The impact of LeO's new policy of publishing the names of individual lawyers and firms could be particularly serious for sole practitioners and barristers, Liz France, chair of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC), has said.

Co-op will recruit 'large numbers' of family solicitors

New service will target clients earning between £15,000 and £40,000

Supreme Court backs common sense in contracts

Ruling will allow courts to 'ignore chunk of original wording'

Legal aid cuts will reduce family solicitors, Norgrove warns

Supply of 'properly qualified' lawyers 'vital to the protection of children'

Commercial property update

Magnus Hassett, James Noble and Amy France consider break clauses and vacant possession, uncompleted leases, superior landlord's consent and occupiers' liability

Up for debate

I recently had the dubious pleasure of attending a debate on the future of legal education at UCL. The event was entitled 'Do lawyers need to be scholars?' and was loosely based around the future of legal education and the continuing Legal Education and Training Review. It was certainly an esteemed panel, but unfortunately it was predominantly a panel of experienced academics. The opportunity to engage with those who were going through the process of legal education or with those who had just completed their academic and post-graduate experience was cleverly avoided or intentionally ignored by the academic (of course) chair. Sadly, the 'debate' didn't really get off the ground. It was more a series of generally well-intentioned statements, such as going back to the '3 Rs of law', namely research, writing and reasoning and introducing an additional two Es: ethics and economics.

The devil you know

The number of litigants in person is increasing – but remember they're not the enemy, you just need to know how to handle them, says DJ Tim Jenkins

Auto pilot

With several legal brands entering the market in 2012 – all likely to use some form of automated online documentation – firms must start to embrace automation to ensure they can compete, says Stuart Bushell