Legal Profession
South Africa
Where
to report an attorney - 13 July
Currently there is no ombud for legal services. However, the Law
Society of South Africa, which brings together the four
statutory provincial law societies, the Black
Lawyers Association and the National
Association of Democratic Lawyers, is in favour of such an
office being created in the future dispensation envisaged in the Legal
Practice Bill.
Stakeholders in the legal profession and the minister of justice
and constitutional development are discussing the Bill, and the
role and function of an ombud for legal services has yet to be
defined. - The
Times website
Attorney
: I acting as an 'in-between' - 17 July
A former attorney denied he had continued to practise after his
name was struck from the Attorneys' Roll, the Bellville
Specialised Commercial Crime Court heard on Friday. Hugh Pollard
was earlier this month acquitted on multiple fraud charges,
because the testimony in court of his alleged victims had differed
materially from what they had stated in their sworn affidavits. - IOL
website
Lawyers
feeling the pinch - 17 July
Legal & Tax, a company that offers affordable access to legal
and tax advice and expenses insurance to the consumer, reports
there has been a noticeable increase in job applications from
lawyers since the beginning of the year. Last year, five
applications per job specification were received. This year
the number has jumped to 35. - Moneyweb
website
14 July 2009
Keynote
address at the opening of Edward Nathan Sonnenberg Law Firm
Offices in Alexander, by Mr Jeff Radebe, Minister of Justice and
Constitutional Development, Alexandra
SA
Government Information website
Botswana
See
: Law
society could arraign Khama before ICC
China
China
shuts down office of volunteer lawyers - 17 July
Government officials on Friday shut down the office of a prominent
lawyers' group known for taking on cases involving civil rights
and corruption. It was the latest attempt by the government to
clamp down on lawyers willing to challenge officials and other
powerful figures in court. - New
York Times website
New
Zealand
Minister
tells judge to butt out - 17 July
The country's top judge appears to be on a collision course with
the Government after condemning most of its law and order
policies. Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias has raised concerns in the
Beehive with a speech to the Law Society
that slated the "punitive and knee-jerk" response of
successive governments to criminal justice issues. Justice
Minister Simon Power has told Elias to butt out of government
policy. Elias, the country's first female chief judge, has 40
years of legal experience. She said the "dramatic rise"
in violent crime and the near-doubling of the prison population
since the mid-1980s had coincided with a move from rehabilitative
strategies to more punitive responses. Politicians had listened to
popular opinion at the expense of experts in criminal justice,
despite overwhelming evidence that longer prison sentences did not
work, she said. - Stuff
website
United
Kingdom
Women
lawyers earn almost one-third less than male colleagues
Women solicitors earn 29% less than their male colleagues,at least
in the UK, according to their Law Gazette. The Law Society’s
latest salary survey showed only a slight narrowing of the pay gap
between the sexes compared with the previous year’s figure of
32%. While the gap can largely be attributed to the differences in
PQE and practice areas of men and women in the profession, 8% is
thought to relate to direct discrimination, either conscious or
unconscious. - Law
Fuel website
United
States
Could
there be accreditation for distance learning Law Schools in the
not-so distant future? - 13 July
Last month, Ross Mitchell made headlines when he became
the first online law school graduate to be admitted to the
Massachusetts bar. He got his law degree from Concord University
in 2004. He passed the bar in California - it's the one bar exam
that Concord grads can take directly out of the program - in 2004.
Other states allow Concord grads who have passed the California
bar to sit for their bar exams, but Massachusetts is not one of
them. The Mass Board of Bar Examiners requires that bar takers
have a degree from an accredited law school. Mitchell sued the
Mass Board of Bar Examiners, challenging the constitutionality of
that rule. He didn't succeed in getting the state to change the
rule, but he did get a waiver so that he could take the bar. He
still hopes the Board of Bar Examiners will change its rules. - Above
the Law blog
An interesting
blog : Notes
from the Breadline : a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York
Workingman's
blues - 15 July
A few days later, [a friend] delivered some encouraging news : he
knew someone who had found a job. "It took a while," he
said of his acquaintance, "but he did it". In fact, Lat
explained, it had taken the acquaintance a remarkably long time to
find work. Even more remarkable, however, was how long the man's
job search had taken, despite his impeccable credentials and
extensive network of well-connected lawyers. I decided to talk to
the lucky fellow about his experience in - and getting out of -
the breadline. Perhaps, I thought, he could inspire us, provide
some insight, or (at the very least) make us feel better about our
collective inability to find gainful employment . . . How did your
job search begin? . . . What else did you do? - Notes
from the Breadline blog
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