South Africa
Retrenchments : reality sets in - 30 April
Although it is clearly a difficult topic to discuss in public,
retrenchments in Pietermaritzburg have undoubtedly taken hold
across many of the city's main sectors.
One may even go as far as saying that in some business circles, it
is kept fairly well hidden from the public domain. For one young
Pietermaritzburg woman, her recent retrenchment from a local law
firm dished out all the expected emotions, namely a feeling of
worthlessness, irritation, pain, fear and eventually panic. -
The Witness
website
Cape
Law Society moves to have EL lawyer struck from roll - 12 May
The Cape Law Society
has moved to have a top East London lawyer struck off the roll of
attorneys for alleged misappropriation of trust fund money and
dishonesty.
Lindile Nompozolo , who represented Bush Bucks during
its liquidation case and again soccer boss Sturu Pasiya on fraud
charges, is alleged to have misappropriated trust funds worth over
R1 million.
The alleged misappropriation includes Road Accident
Fund claims dating back as far as 2002. -
Dispatch Online website
City mom's body found in bushes
- 12 May
The body of a Goodwood mother, who worked at a range of top city
law firms, has been found in bushes at Zeekoevlei. Police said the
body of Noorjehaan Abbass was discovered by residents chopping
wood off Strandfontein Road, near Pelican Park. She was well-known
in legal circles and had worked as a paralegal for many top law
firms in the city. -
IOL
website
Australia
Depression spikes as lawyers struggle in downturn - 6 May
An increased number of law practitioners in Australia and overseas
are suffering from depression as pressures of the global financial
crisis affect their industry. Dr Ian Chung, a Sydney Doctor who
works with LawCare, the counselling service operated by the
NSW Law Society,
said he has witnessed an increased number of lawyers coming to
LawCare in the past month than in the previous months. "Based
on anecdotal evidence it would appear there has been increased
pressure put on the profession by the global financial crisis",
Dr Chung said. "The culture and work
style that is required in law are fuel for depression. Lawyers
have to meet pressures such as deadlines and budgets. Overall it's
a fairly negative profession". -
The New Lawyer
website
Law societies keep mum over depression claims - 11 May
Law student societies around NSW are staying silent on the details
of their sponsorship deals with big law firms, which are
potentially damaging student health. The silence comes following The
New Lawyer reports that alarmingly high levels of depression
in law students might be linked to career advice that is heavily
influenced by big firm money. According to the Brain & Mind
Research Institute, a University of Sydney-established research
centre, 41 per cent of law students will suffer from psychological
distress severe enough to justify clinical assessment at some
point during their degree. The levels of depression will be even
higher than that suffered by practising lawyers, the Institute
claimed. -
The New
Lawyer
website
See also :
New Zealand.
Law Society slams three strikes bill
Canada
Law societies under fire - 30 April
Law societies, the regulatory bodies to which every practising
lawyer must belong, have the authority to investigate and
discipline their own members. But if you feel you’ve been
bamboozled by a lawyer, complaining to his or her membership group
can quickly undermine faith in the system. -
Maclean's
website
Fiji
Fiji's sacked chief justice back on bench
- 29 May
Fiji's sacked
chief justice Anthony Gates has startled the international legal
profession by accepting reappointment to the bench from the regime
that overthrew Fiji's Constitution. The new judges have been
appointed under a presidential decree that has been criticised for
offering weak guarantees of judicial independence. Their
appointments coincide with a radical change in the regulation of
Fiji's lawyers, the Law Society being
stripped of its power to deal with complaints and issue practising
certificates. That change was accompanied by a weekend raid on the
Law Society's offices and the removal of all complaint files
concerning Fiji's lawyers. The raid was carried out personally by
the recently appointed chief registrar of the Fiji High Court,
Major Ana Rokomokoti, who has extensive powers under the new
arrangements. -
The Australian website
Ireland
Crooked lawyer who admitted inciting murder
- 27 May
A solicitor who was caught plotting a murder after police bugged
his private conversations with suspected terrorist clients has
been suspended from practising by the Law
Society. Law Society president Barry Finlay said that
Manmohan Sandhu, who is in custody awaiting sentencing after
pleading guilty to incitement to murder, perverting the course of
justice and using his legal position to pass on information to
terrorists, had "betrayed his profession
and his professional colleagues". An
emergency meeting of the Law Society Council was held yesterday
afternoon. -
Belfast Telegraph website
Scotland
No fireworks, but membership costs the
burning issue - 1 June
In the end, the fireworks at the Law Society
AGM failed to burn as brightly as expected, with the society's
council winning its battle to be granted more time on the issue of
membership costs. A convincing victory for its motion amendment
means it has until September to bring forward concrete proposals
on how it will reduce the fee for the practising certificate. The
tantalising prospect of a "material reduction" to the current £665
levy was enough to secure the support of some of the bigger fish
in Scottish law. -
The Scotsman website
Law Society is 'wasting money of its
members', critics claim - 26 May
A row over the cost of practising as a solicitor has intensified
after the Law Society of Scotland was accused of wasting its
members' money. In a letter circulated throughout the profession,
David Flint, a partner in MacRoberts, claimed the Society operated
as though it had "an open cheque book" funded by the subscriptions
paid to it by Scottish solicitors. Mr Flint has already tabled a
motion at the forthcoming Law Society AGM demanding that the cost
of the lawyers' practising certificate be cut from £665 to £400,
in the face of the harsh economic climate. -
The
Scotsman website
See also :
AGM 2009. 28 May
The Law
Society of Scotland website
United Kingdom
Lawyers' baked-bean protest over
government plans for 'Tesco Law'
- 12 May
The first signs of a fight-back against reforms that will enable
supermarkets and other stores to offer customers legal services
came yesterday with a "baked beans"
protest by solicitors. The lawyers handed out free cans of beans
from shopping trolleys outside the High Court, warning that
Government plans for the "Big Bang"
in legal services was a recipe for disaster. The reforms, under
the Legal Services Act
2007, have become known as "Tesco
law". They will enable big companies
such as supermarkets or motoring organisations to own law firms or
employ lawyers and offer legal services directly to their
customers. Yesterday's protesters, who
waved placards saying "No to Tesco law",
staged the demonstration with cans of beans bearing the message
: "Legal services by supermarkets
is as ridiculous as lawyers selling beans".
-
Times Online
website
United States
Google
executive tells law school grads to be innovative in legal
profession - 15 May
A 1996 T C Williams School of Law alumnus advised Saturday’s 155
graduates to be innovative in the quickly changing legal
profession. The alumnus, Rick Klau, who is the business product
manager for Blogger at Google Inc, told graduates that the
Internet was changing the legal profession by giving people
immediate access to information. Klau used the Internet to change
the legal profession when he and a group of other law students
started the "Richmond Journal of Law and Technology",
the world’s first student-edited law journal to publish
exclusively online. - The
Collegian website