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International Edition

Pupillage advice: read the blogs, don't make excuses - and pimp everything

Pupillage Portal has just opened and hundreds of aspirant barristers will be applying for pupillage all across the country. Many will be disappointed and will receive correspondence containing the (in)famous line "the standard was exceptionally high". The standard has been "exceptionally high" for many years now though, which makes you wonder when it's going to stop being the exception.
9 minute read

International Edition

Olswang advises Spurs as club mulls Olympic Stadium decision challenge

Olswang is advising Tottenham Hotspur as the football club considers legal action over the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United. The Premier League club has sent letters before action to the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Newham Council seeking clarification over the decision and "raising concerns with the processes which led to the award". Olswang real estate litigation partner Cameron Lawes is taking the lead role for the City firm.
2 minute read

International Edition

Supreme Court overturns immunity for expert witnesses

The Supreme Court has ruled that expert witnesses are longer immune from being sued for negligence in a landmark decision that will see longstanding legislation overturned. The ruling means that experts providing advice on cases are now liable if their advice is deemed negligent, removing the immunity from suit for breach of duty.
2 minute read

International Edition

MoJ backs Jackson litigation reforms in overhaul of 'no win, no fee' CFAs

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is to overhaul 'no win, no fee' conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) in a bid to reduce high payouts to lawyers and prevent unnecessary litigation making it to courts in England and Wales. Measures announced by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke will see the abolition of the recoverability of success fees and associated costs in 'no win, no fee' CFAs, with claimants to pay their lawyers' success fees instead.
7 minute read

International Edition

Skadden takes key role as tribunal blocks $16bn BP-Rosneft alliance

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has won an arbitration victory for the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) group in its dispute with BP over its proposed $16bn (£10bn) strategic alliance with Russia's Rosneft. The arbitration tribunal ruled last week (24 March) that BP will not be allowed to enter into an alliance with Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, which would have involved an equity-linked partnership to pursue joint projects in the Russian Arctic shelf.
2 minute read

International Edition

Why aspiring barristers should try life as a solicitor first

I know a great many people who have tried but failed to establish careers at the Bar. I know of virtually no former solicitors who have tried but failed. I believe that only those with supreme confidence in their ability to make it through the lottery of the Bar's recruitment process should try to do so direct. Everyone else should be a solicitor first. There are many advantages to the solicitor route. First, there is the experience: would-be barristers learn what their (professional) clients need. They learn about funding and, in particular, the demands of legal aid. They see, first hand, which barristerial working practices work and which do not. They learn what annoys. They learn about forms, about letter writing, and about litigation tactics.
5 minute read

International Edition

Slaughters instructed by Linklaters for Credit Suisse and Gianni claims

Linklaters has instructed fellow magic circle firm Slaughter and May to advise in relation to the firm's professional negligence dispute with banking giant Credit Suisse and Linklaters' subsequent related claim against former Italian alliance partner Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners. Linklaters has appointed Slaughters dispute resolution partner Deborah Finkler to defend the firm against the €136m (£115m) claim brought by Credit Suisse earlier this month, which relates to advice given by the magic circle firm to the bank on a bond deal with Italian food company Parmalat nearly 10 years ago.
2 minute read

International Edition

Bar stats show marginal increase in female barristers over five years

The percentage of women at the bar has increased only marginally over the last five years according to new research compiled by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Bar Council and issued yesterday (22 March).
3 minute read

Legal Week

Libel reform - too timid, too dangerous, too bad

Too much expectation can sometimes be a bad thing. Take libel reform. Given that campaigners have for years sought substantive changes to defamation laws, the emergence last week of a draft bill delivering reform should have been a good thing. Instead, the reforms have managed the neat track of leaving many practising lawyers grumbling that it merely codifies current case law (a debatable point) while supporters of the status quo have howled with indignation.
7 minute read

International Edition

Libel reform - too timid, too dangerous, too bad

Too much expectation can sometimes be a bad thing. Take libel reform. Given that campaigners have for years sought substantive changes to defamation laws, the emergence last week of a draft bill delivering reform should have been a good thing. Instead, the reforms have managed the neat track of leaving many practising lawyers grumbling that it merely codifies current case law (a debatable point) while supporters of the status quo have howled with indignation.
4 minute read

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