Halliwells executive chairman Ian Austin is set to join Heatons as the Manchester law firm’s new head of commercial litigation. Austin, who will take up his new post at Heatons this week, has held various senior roles at Halliwells, including managing partner and litigation head. He was named executive chairman last September after the firm overhauled its senior management structure, a move Austin said was prompted by the need for “more resources to manage a firm the size of Halliwells”.
» Read more: Halliwells chairman lands new role at Manchester Firm

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs celebrates their twentieth anniversary this year. ILSPA not only offers recognised qualifications, but also provides professional recognition for their Members and their ongoing development, together with support, advice and career guidance for trainee and experienced Legal Secretaries.
» Read more: Celebrating 20 Years of Dedication to the Legal Secretary Profession

According to a study conducted by Sweet and Maxwell, legal information provider, the number of personal injury claims filed in the High Court have rose 32% between 2006 and 2008. The rise comes despite attempts to reduce personal injury claims under the Compensation Act 2006, which imposed registration requirements on claims management companies and created the Ministry of Justice’s claims management regulator. Sweet & Maxwell suggested that the recession is behind the rise in personal injury claims, with individuals claiming because they were under financial stress. At the same time, insurers suffering from weak investment returns were more willing to contest claims, Sweet & Maxwell suggested. Browse Simply Law Jobs for the latest Personal Injury Law Jobs Source : Law Society Gazette

A magistrate who is facing disciplinary action after describing two teenage vandals as "absolute scum" has insisted he had used "appropriate" language. The 16-year-old boys scribbled racist and sexually abusive graffiti on prayer books and bent a valuable cross out of shape in Blackburn Cathedral, Lancashire. Sentencing the pair, who were caught after signing their names in the visitors' book, Austin Molloy, chairman of the bench, said: "Normal people would consider you absolute scum." Mr Molloy said his fellow ma
» Read more: Magistrate stands by ’scum’ comment

Kenneth Clarke has been appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as incoming prime minister David Cameron forms his first cabinet. Details are emerging of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government, with key cabinet posts confirmed so far including Clarke as the UK's new Justice Secretary, replacing the outgoing Labour minister Jack Straw. Clarke, who served in the Conservative cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, holding roles including Chancellor of Exchequer, Health Secretary and Education Secretary, was appointed by Cameron in 2009 as Shadow Business Secretary before being confirmed as Justice Secretary today (12 May) in the new government.
» Read more: Ken Clarke named as Justice Secretary

The stragglers among the stranded volcano victims may be arriving home but we are not out of the ash cloud yet. Indeed — from a legal perspective — the crisis has barely started. Only now, as people dust themselves down and turn to the paperwork, can we start to get a glimmer of what lies ahead. And like the volcanic ash itself, the issues arising will drift across the legal landscape from airlines to regulators, insurance companies to ordinary employers who have only a remote interest in the airline business.
» Read more: After the Icelandic volcano: what the lawyers expect next

MPs will be allowed to continue employing spouses despite overwhelming public hostility, the head of the new expenses watchdog said yesterday.

Sir Ian Kennedy, the chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, risked the wrath of the Speaker and the Committee on Standards in Public Life by allowing one family member to be employed per MP.

» Read more: MPs told they can keep employing family members

Criminal case barristers delivered a broadside to Jack Straw over their pay, saying that most take home less per hour than a car mechanic.

Paul Mendelle, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, which represents 6,000 barristers, says that barristers conducting the most serious criminal trials typically earn £60 an hour gross.

After tax, overheads and expenses, they take home £40 an hour — “less than the mechanic who MOT’d your car” — yet they defend people in the criminal court on cases as serious as wounding with intent.

» Read more: Barristers fighting pay cuts ‘take home less per hour than a car mechanic’

Things are going from bad to worse at DLA Piper’s Middle East offices, with rumours of partners disappearing and office space being sold off.

Insiders have told RollOnFriday that there simply isn’t enough work for the massive number of partners the firm recently hired for Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and a raft of them have now been shipped off to DLA Phillips Fox in Australia.

» Read more: Partners head for Aus as crisis rumours hit DLA Piper’s Middle East offices

A group of City brokers will have to pay back loyalty bonuses of up to £500,000 after defecting from Tullett Prebon to one of its closest rivals, a court ruled today.

The ten brokers were at the centre of a bitter legal dispute in which Tullett accused rival BGC Partners and Anthony Verrier, a former senior Tullett executive who left to join BGC in 2008, of conducting an unlawful conspiracy to poach its senior staff.

» Read more: Tullett defectors forced to repay loyalty bonuses