Criminal barristers vote to strike over legal aid June 20, 2022 Criminal barristers yesterday voted in favour of plans to strike against the government, following a long-running dispute over legal aid fees. Barristers who work in criminal law are set to stage a series of court walkouts, after 81.5 per cent of the 2,055 barristers who voted in the Criminal Bar Association’s ballot came out in support of [...]
Value of litigation funders’ war chests hits record highs as investors seek to bankroll UK class actions June 20, 2022 THE value of UK litigation funders “war chests” has hit record highs of £2.2bn, as investors are increasingly bankrolling class-action lawsuits in a bid for higher returns. The value of assets held by third-party litigation funders, for use in bankrolling cases, has increased ten-fold over the past decade, having doubled in the past three [...]
UK watchdog met with BNP Paribas’ HR team over handling of sexual discrimination complaint June 20, 2022 FRENCH Bank BNP Paribas came under active scrutiny from the UK’s financial watchdog over its alleged mishandling of complaints from one of its brokers that she was subject to years of sexual discrimination and bullying at the firm’s London offices. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) held a series of meeting with senior members of [...]
Hackers delay Vladimir Putin’s opening speech at Russia’s version of Davos June 19, 2022 Hackers on Friday halted the start of Vladimir Putin’s opening speech to the St Petersburg conference dubbed ‘Russia’s version of Davos,’ as part of ongoing cyberwar between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian president’s opener was held up for more than an hour, after pro-Ukrainian hacktivists overloaded the St Petersburg International Economic Forum’s (SPIEF’s) servers with [...]
Atos finance chief to exit firm in wake of IT consultancy’s plans to split June 19, 2022 Atos yesterday said its chief financial officer is set to leave his job, just days after the French IT consultancy’s chief executive, Rodolphe Belmer, said he is exiting the company, after it set out plans to split into two, separate, listed firms. The exit comes as shares in Atos have lost more than half their value [...]
Elite Magic Circle law firm lets lawyers bring dogs to the office June 19, 2022 Slaughter and May’s new managing partner is set to let lawyers bring their dogs into the London offices of the elite City firm. Deborah Finkler – who took up her new role as Slaughter and May’s first ever female managing partner last month – is set to hold the Magic Circle firm’s first ever ‘Bring [...]
New audit watchdog chair pledges tougher rules for company executives June 16, 2022 The new chair of the UK’s audit watchdog has vowed to make company directors accountable for corporate accounting scandals, in his first public speech as head of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). FRC chair Sir Jan du Plessis said the government’s decision to water down plans for a British version of the USA’s “Sarbanes-Oxley [...]
Insurance giant Axa calls for clarity on self-driving cars June 16, 2022 French insurer Axa has called on the government to offer greater clarity around autonomous vehicles to support the rollout of self-driving cars. The French insurance firm called on the government to put in place laws that enable the deployment of self-driving vehicles, as it said lawmakers should work with the insurance sector to “pave the [...]
UK small businesses being priced out of cyber insurance by high premiums and cost-of-living crunch June 16, 2022 The UK’s small businesses are increasingly being priced out of cyber insurance policies, due to sky-high premiums and the cost-of-living crunch. Almost a third (29 per cent) of companies with fewer than 250 staff cancelled their cyber insurance policies last year, as part of efforts to cut costs, research from GlobalData shows. A further 17.3 [...]
Raab says scrapping Human Rights Act will let government send migrants to Rwanda June 16, 2022 Justice secretary Dominic Raab has said scrapping the Human Rights Act will allow the government to begin successfully sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. Speaking to the BBC, Raab blamed the UK’s Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 for blocking this week’s Rwanda flight, as he said the government’s plans to replace the HRA with a new [...]