Court security guards call off strike after OCS offers pay deal July 28, 2022 Court security guards have called off plans to strike after outsourcing firm OCS offered to up their pay by up to 8.3 per cent and hand over a raft of other benefits. Workers employed by Crawley contractor OCS on the Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Services (HMCTS) contract have suspended plans to strike while they [...]
Trade unions challenge government’s strike breaking law July 27, 2022 A COALITION of trade unions have launched a legal challenge against the government, over claims its new law, allowing companies to bring in agency workers as strikebreakers, breaches the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and violates the UK’s Brexit trade deal. The challenge comes after the government last week overturned laws forbidding companies from hiring angency [...]
Litigation funder Therium poaches lawyers from top firms as it seeks to build up record lawsuit war chest July 27, 2022 Litigation funder Therium Capital today said it had recruited four new lawyers from some of London and New York’s top firms, as it prepares to raise its largest war chest yet. The firm has brought on board two new London lawyers – ex-Slaughter and May associate Chris Wilkins and ex-Michelmores associate Charlie Temperley – [...]
News channels to be given new freedoms to broadcast sentencing hearings July 27, 2022 Broadcasters will be given new freedoms to film and broadcast Crown Court judges’ sentencing remarks, after a new law comes into force tomorrow morning. The UK’s biggest broadcasters will be given the right to broadcast statements made by Crown Court judges during sentencing hearings, both online and on TV. Under the new rules, TV news [...]
Freshfields outstrips Magic Circle rivals with record partner payouts of more than £2m July 27, 2022 The sums paid out to partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have surged to record highs of more than £2m, after the Magic Circle law firm’s revenues jumped 10 per cent year on year. The centuries old law firm saw its profits increase for the sixth year in a row, after revenues surged to heights of [...]
Staff cuts in crime agencies would ‘completely undermine’ UK’s fight against oligarchs, campaigners warn July 26, 2022 Campaigners have called on the UK government to rule out plans to slash headcounts in the enforcement agencies tasked with fighting economic crime, after warning any cuts would “completely undermine” Britain’s bid to crack down on the kleptocrats, criminals, and oligarchs that seek to launder dirty money in the UK. UK government plans to cut [...]
Macfarlanes’ partner pay outstrips Magic Circle’s in surging to highs of almost £2.5m July 26, 2022 Partners at ‘Silver Circle’ law firm Macfarlanes are set to receive payouts worth almost £2.5m this year, after profits at the City firm surged. The bumper payouts mean partners at Macfarlanes will be handed sums worth significantly more than those paid out to top lawyers at London’s elite Magic Circle firms. Partners at the City [...]
New York law firm struggles to find firm to process fee payments from sanctioned VTB Bank July 25, 2022 The law firm acting on behalf of VTB Bank has asked for more time to file its case, after warning that at least three financial institutions have refused to process legal fee payments from the sanctioned Russian bank, even after being assured that processing the payments would be legal. The New York law firm Brafman [...]
‘Crumbling’ court buildings are worsening case backlog as repair works see more than 100 sitting days lost July 25, 2022 The Law Society has called for “widespread investment” in the criminal justice system after it was revealed that more than 100 court sitting days were lost in the first six months of 2022 due to repair works in England and Wales’ “crumbling” Crown Court estate. As of the end of June, 111 court sitting days [...]
UK’s Insolvency Service uses new powers to crack down on Covid loan fraud July 25, 2022 The UK’s Insolvency Service has begun using new powers, given to it last December, to crack down on company directors that dissolve their firms to avoid making repayments on government backed loans. The Insolvency Service used its “tough new powers” to ban three individuals from acting as company directors, for dissolving their companies to avoid [...]