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Law firms may be forced to publish diversity figures
State Law Issues |
2010/09/05 07:28
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| pJustice may be blind, but the legal profession isn't, and from next year the public may get to see just what kind of people they are buying their legal services from./pp sizset=65 sizcache=0The a title= href=http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/font color=#005689Legal Services Board (LSB)/font/a, the body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales, is mulling over a title= href=http://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/firms-and-chambers-face-obligation-to-publish-staff-diversity-and-class-data-from-next-yearfont color=#005689plans that would require law firms and chambers to compile and publish comprehensive diversity information about their staff/font/a . This would include the seven diversity strands – age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and working patterns – plus social mobility./ppThe work is the latest in a string of initiatives aimed at changing the profile of the profession. However, the headline statistics are pretty good. Women have made huge strides over the last 40 years and it will not be long before they make up the majority of solicitors, while black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers are over-represented in the profession in proportion to the population as a whole./ppBut this only tells part of the story. The LSB notes that much of the work has focused, successfully, on entry level. For example, only a quarter of law firm partners are women, and a mere 3.5% of partners in the biggest 150 firms are BME. The anticipated 'trickle up' effect has not materialised, it says. There is also evidence of significant pay differentials, as well as concern that the impressive BME statistics mask significant under-representation for some groups, such as African-Caribbean men and Bangladeshi women./p |
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DOJ's elite Public Integrity unit gets new leader
Law Firm News |
2010/08/30 09:02
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| pThe Justice Department's Public Integrity Section has a storied 34-year history of pursuing corruption in government and safeguarding the public trust./ppThat trust was breached, however, when some of the unit's prosecutors failed to turn over evidence favorable to the defense in their high-profile criminal trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who died earlier this month in a plane crash./ppNow Jack Smith, a 41-year-old prosecutor with a love for courtroom work and an impressive record, has been brought in to restore the elite unit's credibility./ppBefore Stevens, Public Integrity's renown was built on large successes — like the prosecution of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and convictions of federal and state judges, members of Congress and state legislators, military officers, federal lawmen and bureaucrats and their state counterparts over the years./ppBut its stumble — not disclosing exculpatory evidence as Supreme Court precedent requires — was equally large. It was so serious that Attorney General Eric Holder, one of Public Integrity's distinguished alums, stepped in and asked a federal judge to throw out Stevens' convictions./p |
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Thousands sign on for $10 billion BP suit
Legal Information |
2010/08/30 07:01
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| pThe revelation that BP's Texas City refinery emitted toxic benzene for more than a month has ignited a furor in the port community that has suffered its share of deadly industrial accidents and toxic spills./ppThousands of residents who fear they may have been exposed to the known carcinogen released at the oil refinery from April 6 to May 16 have been flooding parking lots and conference halls where local trial attorneys hosted information sessions and sought clients for class-action lawsuits against the oil giant./ppBP faces the new challenge just as it is reaching a key milestone in another crisis — plugging the Gulf of Mexico well that blew out in an oil spill disaster that is costing the company billions of dollars./ppOn Wednesday, more than 3,400 people lined the hallways and sidewalks around the Nessler Center to sign on to a $10 billion class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Galveston federal court by Friendswood attorney Anthony Buzbee. /ppThe lawsuit alleges the release of 500,000 pounds of chemicals - including 17,000 pounds of benzene - has jeopardized the health and property values of people who live and work in the area. At the nearby College of the Mainland, a separate town hall meeting drew a crowd of 600. /p |
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Utah court rejects appeal from polygamous sect
Law Firm Press Release |
2010/08/30 03:01
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pUtah's Supreme Court has rejected a petition from members of a southern Utah-based polygamous sect seeking a reversal of changes made to its communal land trust./ppIn a ruling issued Friday, justices say members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints waited too long to challenge the state's intervention in the United Effort Plan Trust./ppValued at $110 million, the trust holds the property in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., the twin border towns where most church members live./ppUtah seized the trust in 2005 after allegations of mismanagement by church leaders. A court-appointed accountant has since converted the trust into a secular entity./ppFLDS members consider state control of the UEP a violation of their religious rights.
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