Litigation Legal News Coverage

Legal Week

New anti-doping body gets legal injection

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 19, 2008

A clutch of senior lawyers have been appointed to the newly-established National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) to oversee doping cases brought against athletes. One Essex Court's Peter Leaver QC has been appointed as president of the 16-strong panel, while Farrar's Building tenant Patrick Harrington QC will act as vice president.

3 minute read

International Edition

New anti-doping body gets legal injection

By Charlotte Edmond | March 19, 2008

A clutch of senior lawyers have been appointed to the newly-established National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) to oversee doping cases brought against athletes. One Essex Court's Peter Leaver QC has been appointed as president of the 16-strong panel, while Farrar's Building tenant Patrick Harrington QC will act as vice president.

2 minute read

International Edition

BSB unveils far-reaching complaints overhaul

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 18, 2008

The Bar Standard Board (BSB) has unveiled a raft of new measures designed to improve chambers' complaints-handling, including the introduction of a mandatory protocol for all barristers sets. The BSB unveiled the measures today (18 March) as part of a bid to usher in greater transparency and fairness after concerns were raised at apparent inconsistencies in the way complaints had been dealt with by different chambers.

2 minute read

International Edition

Charman divorce deadlock looms as top Cayman judge issues rallying call for trusts

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 13, 2008

A leading Caribbean judge has launched a staunch defence of trusts, fuelling expectations that there will be an unprecedented stand-off between offshore and onshore judges over the landmark Charman v Charman divorce ruling.In a keynote speech at the Legal Week Trust and Estates Forum, Mr Justice Smellie, chief justice of the Cayman Islands, railed against what he described as the "entirely misguided" criticism of offshore trusts by onshore authorities.

2 minute read

International Edition

US duo celebrate key Lords extradition ruling

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 12, 2008

White & Case and Jones Day are celebrating after the House of Lords blocked an attempt by the US to extradite a British citizen accused of price-fixing, bringing to an end one of the most high-profile white-collar crime investigations of recent years. The Lords ruled this morning (12 March) that White & Case client Ian Norris could not be extradited over his alleged involvement in the price-fixing of carbon products before the Enterprise Act 2002 made price-fixing a criminal offence in the UK.

2 minute read

International Edition

McDermott in for F&C on £13m Switalski claim

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 12, 2008

McDermott Will & Emery is advising F&C Asset Management as the company appeals a multimillion-pound sex discrimination claim upheld by an employment tribunal earlier this year. McDermott City chief David Dalgarno is leading the team advising F&C as it attempts to overturn the tribunal's decision last month to uphold a discrimination claim brought by F&C's former head of legal services, Gillian Switalski.

2 minute read

International Edition

Commercial and Chancery Bar: First response

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 05, 2008

The Bar Standards Board's paper on the future of the profession may run to 50 pages, but the prospect of major change at the Bar has girded senior barristers into responding - and they are taking a conservative line, as Alex Aldridge reports

13 minute read

International Edition

Commercial and Chancery Bar: The law of the game

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 05, 2008

An interview on a TV chat show in 1981 produced legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly's famous quote: "Someone said 'football is more important than life and death to you' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'." Few will deny the importance of football in the national psyche. But football is now no longer purely a sport. It is an enormous business, with well-known Premiership clubs receiving and spending vast sums of money. The aspiration of every club in each league is to be promoted to the league above; and the dread of every club is the prospect of relegation to the league below. League position determines a club's profitability, as well as its corporate value. To some extent, we are now in a new age where, for the first time, commercial interests threaten to distract the game of football. It was largely because of the onset of the age of professionalism in 1885 that football became a disorganised mess, with games being called off because clubs had arranged more lucrative games elsewhere. It was in this climate (and to bring order to the game) that the Football League was founded, in the Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street on 22 March, 1888, the brainchild of William McGregor.

8 minute read

International Edition

Commercial and Chancery Bar: Centre point

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 05, 2008

In an article entitled 'Starting from Scratch' on 29 March, 2007, Legal Week reported on the ambitious plans for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and its Court. In the subsequent year the world's leading financial institutions have continued to pour into the centre and the list of law firms with a presence in the DIFC now include Akin Gump, Allen & Overy, Al Tamimi & Co, Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Conyers Dill & Pearman, Denton Wilde Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Lovells, Maples and Calder, Norton Rose, Reed Smith Richards Butler, Simmons & Simmons and Walkers. In addition, the UK law firms Kennedys and Clyde & Co, which are based in greater Dubai, have also been active in the DIFC Court. It is notable that in January the International Bar Association (IBA) established its Middle East office in the DIFC. The opening of the office was timed to correspond with the IBA's Arab regional forum's conference on Islamic finance in the Middle East. The DIFC has set its sights on becoming the world centre for Islamic finance and is itself an active investor. In June 2007, DIFC Investments listed a $1.25bn (£630m) sukuk on the Dubai International Financial Exchange, taking the total value of sukuk listed on the exchange to $10.43bn (£5.26bn) - the highest of any exchange worldwide. The DIFC has also been an active investor in international markets and acquired a 2.2% stake in Deutsche Bank, which, according to publicly-available market data, makes it the largest external strategic shareholder in the international investment bank.

7 minute read

International Edition

Pomp and circumspect

By a:1:{i:0;s:1:" ";} | March 05, 2008

Just when you thought the QC application process had finally been sorted (or maybe you knew better all along), it turns out the lucky winners have yet more hoops to hop through before they can ratchet up those hourly rates. Successful applicants will still get to dress up for their official ceremony in March - but instead of then proceeding to see the judges that gave them references they will have to wait... because the courts are not sitting on the day of the ceremony.

1 minute read

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