Legal Profession

Australian law firm Clayton Utz has, this morning, announced that 14 partners have resigned. They will join a newly established office of London-based giant Allen & Overy.

A US judge has removed one of the USA's largest law firms, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, from representing First American Title Insurance Company in a class action suit. The firm, its partners and all other lawyers at the firm are injuncted against acting for the company in the litigation which raises questions about the migration of teams of lawyers and - perhaps even more importantly - what constitutes conflict.

The Law Society of Singapore has announced a shake up in the training regime and measures to help those returning to practice and foreign lawyers seeking transfer in a bid to become a regional centre for law.

When a court in Texas found in favour of a small Toronto based software company against Microsoft, the success was shared by the owners of the company - owners which include a specialist VC fund that buys into companies engaged in litigation.

Ian Clegg may or may not have started studying a law degree - but he never graduated and never went to law school nor did he ever complete pupillage. But that didn't stop his ambitions to be an advocate.

The UK government has set up a new body to deal with complaints against lawyers. The six-figure job has just been advertised - with the stipulation that it must go to a non-lawyer.

Beresfords, the law firm based in the UK's Midlands that became the favourite of the UK's Union movement for claims by employees against employers has been found to have been more interested in its own commercial interests than in acting in the best interests of its clients. Its partners have been struck off.