High Court judges’ pay rises rejected despite recruitment levels falling
Despite warnings of poor morale at the judiciary coupled with flailing levels of recruitment, the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB)…
Legal affairs
Snooper’s charter: Lawyers team up to launch new campaign as bill reaches committee stages
Lawyers have teamed up with journalists to condemn the so-called snooper’s charter as MPs began discussing the Investigatory Powers bill…
Guest post: On David Cameron and inheritance tax
To avoid tax you have to do a thing which cuts your tax bill. Fail to do that thing and…
Comment: Shifting the Overton window – Panama Papers will change the consensus on tax (and boost corporate law firms)
The leak of 11.5 million documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca has reheated a debate about tax and transparency…
State of the industry: UK legal services sector grows 8% as exports rise
Counter to the UK’s trade deficit widening at the end of 2015, the UK’s legal industry has again outperformed the…
Budget 2016: Contract lawyer services avoid tax crackdown
City law firms using contract lawyers can breathe a sigh of relief, after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (pictured)…
Guest post: The case for legal advice privilege is not as strong as the profession wants it to be
Lord Neuberger (pictured), in a recent short speech, provides some interesting insights in to the problematic world of legal advice…
Guest post: How Boris Johnson is wrong on parliamentary sovereignty
Since I wrote about David Cameron’s ‘sovereignty plan’, it seems to have been forgotten. It’s clear the idea was aimed…
Comment: Why it’s time for the Law Society’s levy to go
There is a reason that the slogan ‘No taxation without representation’ has echoed through history. The rally cry of the…
Gove’s City levy kicked into long grass amid Treasury opposition
A tax on City lawyers floated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to subsidise the criminal court system has been…
Taxation without representation – would you pay for the Law Society to represent you?
From court fee hikes to a mooted City law tax to legal aid cuts, the profession’s relationship with government is…
Gove’s City levy kicked into long-grass amid Treasury opposition
A tax on City lawyers floated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to subsidise the criminal court system has been…
‘A dangerous sleight of hand’: Concerns changes to Snooper’s Charter still a risk to legal privilege
After a new draft was released yesterday (1 March), there are growing concerns from the legal profession that the Investigatory…
Guest post: Legal lobby turf wars – what is the Law Society doing for you?
It is not a massive exaggeration to say that the Law Society will be fighting for its existence in the…
Guest post: The great tax debate – towards business accountability
This is the third in a series of pieces exploring what the Labour Centre might offer to the electorate. The…
News in brief – February 2016
CASES AGAINST LAW FIRMS DOWN Figures collated by RPC suggest the post-financial crisis wave of professional negligence claims against law…
‘Totally inappropriate’: Lawyers condemn Lord Jackson’s call to fix costs for civil claims
Calls by Lord Justice Jackson to introduce fixed costs for civil claims worth up to £250,000 have been majorly condemned…
Guest post: Do companies have a duty to avoid taxes?
Here’s a transaction that did the rounds some years ago. If I wanted some foreign exchange in the future I…
Legal aid u-turn: Gove scraps two-tier contract regime
More than two years after the government announced a wave of cuts to legal aid contracts, followed by continued calls…
‘Grave concerns’: Senior judges blast government over court fees
Three of the nation’s most senior civil judges appeared before the justice committee of the House of Commons yesterday and…