My Legal Life: Shami Chakrabarti

When I was about 12 I had a conversation with my father – a debate about whether the Yorkshire Ripper ought to be hanged or not. That was the trigger for my interest in civil liberties and human rights. A legal education is a wonderful preparation for a career in public life.

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Features | Law Gazette



Family Law solicitors in Sevenoaks

Traffic courts to be set up

Dedicated traffic courts will be established to deal with low-level road traffic offences and free up the courts to deal with more ‘serious and contested’ cases, the government announced today.

The new courts follow a pilot in nine areas. The Ministry of Justice said it is in discussion with judges to determine how the courts can set up, and it expects the courts to be operational by April 2014.

The special traffic courts will only deal with guilty pleas or those where the case against a defendant is not contested.

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News | Law Gazette



Sevenoaks Solicitors

Law Society Yacht Club

The Law Society Yacht Club has been inactive for a number of years. However, some members are hoping to revive it and to that end we are holding a general meeting on 5 June at El Vinos, 47 Fleet Street, London. The meeting starts at 6.45pm. If any members require further details or have any agenda items please contact the undersigned at [email protected].

Finbarr Leahy

Opinion | Law Gazette



Sevenoaks Divorce Lawyers

Tribunal rules against Travers in pregnancy discrimination case

Travers Smith has lost a discrimination case brought against it by a former trainee who claimed she was not given a permanent job because of her pregnancy.
The Lawyer – Latest News



Family Law Solicitors Sevenoaks

Coalition reforms threaten to jeopardise English law’s peerless status

Winston Churchill described Russia as a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’, and the fall of Soviet communism has hardly invalidated that description. We refer you to the fast-growing state-run global news service RT (Russia Today). For some ‘in the west’, RT is a sort of anti-Fox News, offering a refreshingly alternative (if occasionally eccentric) world view.

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Opinion | Law Gazette



Divorce Solicitors in Sevenoaks

AXA says what we all think on referral fees

I come from a depressing, end-of-the-line town called Clacton-on-Sea. You probably stayed there in a caravan once, but had the fortune to leave after a long rainy weekend. Not me, I was stuck there, with just candyfloss and those two-penny machines to see me through to 18.

Now, I’m allowed to say what I like about Clacton. But if any outsider ever dares do the same, they’ll have me to deal with. (Not much admittedly, but it sounds threatening.) Which brings me (and stick with me on this one) to referral fees.

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Blogs | Law Gazette



Lawyers in Sevenoaks

Why paying for pupillages is bad for the bar

Auctioning work experience places to the highest bidder is an inherently unfair system
The Lawyer – Opinion



Family Law solicitors in Sevenoaks

How To: write a novel

Ernest Hemingway once said that in order to be a man you should do four things; fight a bull, father a son, plant a tree and write a novel. I sort of agree but I consider that the first two need a more 21st-century approach (removing the misogyny and animal cruelty). As a lawyer I much prefer ‘fight a trial’ and ‘become a parent’.

I can now say I have done all four (of my list, not Ernest’s – no secret trip to Pamplona for me). The merits of the first three I think are plain and simple to appreciate. So does writing a novel make you more mature and a better person?

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In Business | Law Gazette



Sevenoaks Solicitors

The NHS constitution can bring about real improvements

by Alicia Alinia, a lawyer with Slater & Gordon and a trustee of Pain UK

In my capacity as a trustee of Pain UK, I was invited to attend a recent all-party parliamentary committee session on the NHS constitution.

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Opinion | Law Gazette



Sevenoaks Lawyers

Interview: Elisabeth Jones

As chief legal adviser to the Welsh assembly, Elisabeth Jones is politically neutral. As she puts it: ‘The particular party in power in the assembly doesn’t affect us at all. The legislative ambition affects us in terms of capacity.’ But her work, and that of her colleagues in the Legal Services Directorate of the National Assembly for Wales, is central to the credibility of a legislative chamber that is relatively young.

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Features | Law Gazette



Sevenoaks Solicitors

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