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A note to our readers

 

Law Central will be posting less frequently over the Christmas and new year period. We will return to a full publishing schedule from January 11. In the mean time, thanks for following us this year and happy holidays.

— The Times Law Team

Edwin Coe launches appeal on behalf of beer drinkers

Edwin Coe — typically known for class actions — has been instructed by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) to appeal against a decision by the OFT not to investigate beer prices.

CAMRA, which lobbies on behalf of independent pubs and brewers, asked the competition watchdog to review beer tie arrangements, which it claims prevent certain publicans from buying beer on the open market. It argues that wholesale prices paid by tied publicans are around £20,000 per year higher for an average pub than they could get on a competitive market. That, it says, leads to higher prices for consumers.

On October 22, the OFT declined to investigate the matter, prompting CAMRA's appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which was filed today.

It has instructed David Greene at Edwin Coe to lead the appeal. "The challenge goes to the core of the process of a super complaint and OFT's handling of it," Greene says. "There are many unresolved issues that will have to be considered by the Competition Appeal Tribunal."

OFT explains its reasons for dropping bank charges investigation

The OFT has laid out its reasons for dropping its investigation into the fairness of bank charges in a document published on its website.

In it, the competition regulator says that it looked at other potential grounds for challenging the charges under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs), namely:

Top earner at Norton Rose takes £160K pay cut

The highest-paid partner at Norton Rose received £739,416 last year, according to accounts made available today at Companies House. That's down from £901,557 the previous year.

Profit fell 15 per cent from £90.7 million to £76.9 million, while turnover increased by 5 per cent to £313.7 million.

Staff costs rose 22 per cent to £145.9 million as headcount increased by 70 fee earners (to 992) and 63 support staff (to 1,067).

Click here to read the full accounts for the year to April 30, 2009.

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert replaces chief executive Clint Evans

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert is parting company with Clint Evans, its chief executive, after only two years.

Evans, right, an accountant who trained with Deloitte and was later head of branding at Clifford Chance, became BLG's first non-lawyer chief executive in 2007. He will leave the firm at the end of January.

David Jabbari, BLG's chief operating officer, will take over Evans' job only a year after joining from Allen & Overy, where he spent eight years as head of knowledge management.

The reason for Evans' departure was not clear. A statement from BLG said:

In joining the firm in 2007, Clint responded to our partnership's call for change. Clint pursued a programme of modernisation that has resulted in many critical changes at management, partner, and office levels. All of these leave BLG with a strengthened and more effective operational platform.

We wish Clint the very best and thank him for his unstinting hard work and for the foundations he has helped to build.

Sky News: 'OFT dropping bank charges case'

The OFT is dropping the bank charges case after last month's surprise defeat in the Supreme Court, Sky News is reporting, citing unnamed sources.

The competition regulator is due to make an announcement on its next move at 7am tomorrow. An OFT spokesman said it would not comment in advance, despite Sky News's report.

If the OFT does drop the case, it won’t be popular with consumer groups. Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com, one of the most vocal of those that have championed the case, said ahead of the announcement:

We believe the only option for the OFT, in its consumer champion role, is to keep up the fight. If the OFT pulls out, it’ll be a terrible day for justice.

The banks’ deep pockets, filled to a great extent with taxpayers’ money, have priced out many consumers from fighting unjust charges. The only real solution is for an institution like the OFT to battle the banks.

Here's a link to The Times' report on the Supreme Court's decision in November.

The weirdest cases of 2009

Gary Slapper

Our columnist picks his favourites from a year of Weird Cases

1. In Florida, Judge Patricia Kinsey heard the case of a man who sued a men’s briefs manufacturer claiming he was injured on a beach holiday by their badly designed underwear. He claimed the briefs “gaped open and acted like a sandbelt on my privates”. The judge found herself required to analyse the relationship between male anatomy and underwear, but she wanted some independent evidence. A male criminal lawyer who was passing time in the gallery agreed to testify and was thanked for his “surprisingly candid testimony” despite the intimate questions.

Herbert Smith appoints Jonathan Scott as senior partner

Herbert Smith has appointed Jonathan Scott as senior partner to replace David Gold.

Scott, 53, a London-based competition partner, beat Allen Hanen, a Moscow-based corporate specialist, in a contested election. Scott was favoured to win the job.

He joined Herbert Smith as a trainee in 1979 and became a partner in 1988. In 1989 he set up the firm's Brussels office, returning to London in 1994. He was head of the firm's competition practice from 1996 until 2007 and served as Herbert Smith's partner responsible for graduate recruitment from 1997 until 2000.

Gold is standing down after serving as senior partner since 2005. Scott takes over in May.

BA wins High Court injunction to stop cabin crew striking at Christmas

BA has won its application for an injunction to stop a series of Christmas strikes by thousands of cabin crew.

Mrs Justice Cox, sitting in the High Court in London, granted the order to the airline, which challenged the union Unite’s ballot of its 12,500 cabin crew members.

During the proceedings, which began yesterday afternoon, Bruce Carr, QC, for BA, told the judge that the balloting process contained “serious and substantial irregularities”. The strike, due to start next Tuesday, would deprive “literally millions of people of a happy Christmas”, he said.

The injunction means that the planned 12-day strike can now not go ahead. Unite said it was a “disgraceful day for democracy”, adding it will hold a fresh ballot unless the dispute is resolved.

Four partners to go as Mayer Brown shrinks London corporate practice

Looks like a fresh round of job cuts is now under way. Happy Christmas!

Mayer Brown confirmed this morning that four partners in its London corporate department are leaving the firm.

In addition, eight associates across other parts of the business will be made redundant, although a spokesperson said that those cuts are not connected to the partners' departures.

Mayer Brown said:

Four partners from the Corporate group are leaving the firm. We thank them for their contribution over the years and also wish them every success in their future careers.

Unrelated to this, we continue to look carefully at our business to ensure that we have as strong a platform as  possible on which to build. We have concluded that a small reduction in headcount is necessary which may result in up to eight fee earners from across the London office leaving the firm. All those potentially impacted by this decision have been notified and will be provided with support and assistance at this difficult time. 

Mumbai court: foreign firms can't open in India

A court in India has struck another blow to big American and British law firms that are eager to open offices in the country.

Bloomberg has the report.

Lawyer of the week: Richard Hitchcock

Richard Hitchcock, a barrister at Outer Temple Chambers, acted for the members/employees in the case involving the IMG pension plan. The High Court ruled that the conversion of valuable defined benefits to less valuable defined contribution benefits was invalid.

What were the main challenges in this case, and the possible implications?

If things had gone against the members, their pensions would have been vastly lower than expected. As it was, they were successful in requiring their employer to fund the full extent of the pension they had been promised. The case had industry-wide implications, relating in particular to the ability of employers and trustees to amend the terms of their pension scheme and to the capacity of employers to reach legally binding agreements with their employees that varied their pension rights under a pension scheme.

Edward Fennell: In the City

Star, ce soir

Christmas — so what was it like for you? I’m still recovering from Christmas 2008 but, hey presto, it seems it’s here again already. Most London law firms, prudently, don’t invite journalists to their Christmas parties — or even notify them when they are happening. But I do know that the Parisian legal celebrations kick off tonight when Salans holds its staff-only, end-of-the-year rave on the top floor of its building near the Madeleine with brilliant views over the City of Light.

“The idea is to create a magic atmosphere and to give the staff a completely different vision of the offices they come to every day to work,” says the firm’s all-star spokesperson Paola Pozzi. “There will be live animals, teddy bears, stuffed animals, snow, a POP disco room with a trendy DJ and . . . a REAL medium in a red mind-reader’s room (welcome into my caravan!).”

BA asks court to block Christmas strike

BA today went to court to seek an injunction to prevent a series of crippling Christmas strikes by thousands of cabin crew.

It is challenging Unite’s ballot of its 12,500 cabin crew members, claiming some workers who had left the company took part in the voting. Opening the contested hearing at London’s High Court, Bruce Carr, QC, told Mrs Justice Cox the balloting process contained “serious and substantial irregularities”.

The strike is due to start on Tuesday. Bloomberg has more.

George Lucas loses battle over Stormtrooper suits

George Lucas's production company today lost the latest round of a lawsuit against one of the designers of the iconic Stormtrooper costumes used in Star Wars.

The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the US film-makers in their court action to stop Andrew Ainsworth, a British prop designer, selling replicas from his studio in Twickenham, south west London.

Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, took Ainsworth to the High Court last year in a multimillion-pound battle. But a judge ruled that the Stormtrooper suits are not covered by copyright law because they are not works of art.

That ruling was today upheld by three appeal judges. They also ruled that a $10 million damages award in the US courts against Ainsworth, who helped manufacture the helmets and suits for the first film in 1977, can not be enforced in the UK.

In addition to the spectacle of stormtroopers in court, there is an important legal aspect to this. As Robert Guthrie, an IP specialist at SJ Berwin, points out, the court's finding that the US judgment can't be enforced in Britain brings clarity to an area of the law where there had previously been little — but also provides less protection for IP owners in an age when their rights can easily be infringed across multiple jurisdictions.

However, Lucasfilm could still take its case to the Supreme Court.

SFO to probe suspected fraud at Kaupthing

The Serious Fraud Office today launched a probe into suspected fraud at the UK arm of Kaupthing, the failed Icelandic bank, before its collapse in October 2008.

The SFO will examine whether the bank misled savers to encourage deposits into its Kaupthing Edge account and investigate why large sums flooded out of the bank in the days before it failed.

More than 30,000 UK individuals, companies and organisations invested in Kaupthing Edge accounts, the SFO estimates.

The SFO has set up an online survey in an effort to gather information from the public. If you were a Kaupthing depositor, check it out here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9LR8TWX

Jewish school loses Supreme Court appeal over admissions policy — what the ruling means

A Jewish school’s admission policy amounted to race discrimination, the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark case today.

The case arose after a boy, referred to as M, was refused entry to JFS — formerly the Jews' Free School, in Brent, north west London — because he was not considered Jewish under the rules set by the chief rabbi.

Although the boy's father is Jewish by birth, his mother converted to the faith at a progressive synagogue that is not recognised by the orthodox faith. The family issued a legal challenge to the decision to exclude the boy, and the case went all the way to the higest court. Five of the nine justices hearing the case ruled against the school this morning, although they pointed out that the school's policy had not been motivated by racism in the perjorative sense of the term.

Sue Ashtiany, a partner at Nabarro, has provided an analysis of the decision:

Partners approve Hogan Lovells tie-up

Partners in Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have approved plans for a merger that will create the world’s ninth-biggest legal group by revenue.

The new firm, which will be known as Hogan Lovells, will have turnover of $1.8 billion (£1.1 billion) and around 2,500 lawyers, ranking it just behind Allen & Overy in size.

Merger talks between the two firms were first revealed in October but required the approval of their respective partners, which was given today. The combined firm will begin operating in May next year.

It is the biggest tie-up yet between a US and a British firm of comparable size but senior figures in the legal market said that several other big mergers are also under discussion.

David Harris, Lovell’s managing partner, above, said: “Hogan Lovells presents a compelling proposition to our clients and to the market more generally.”

Lovells had turnover of £531 million last year, while Hogan & Hartson, headquartered in Washington, had revenue of $922 million, making it the 22nd largest law firm in the US.

Freshfields: hedge funds will flee Europe in droves under new rules

Freshfields' financial services head Michael Raffan, right, strikes a pessimistic note in today's Financial Times, warning that European proposals to crack down on hedge funds will lead to an exodus.

Plans to radically overhaul the way hedge funds pay their staff are likely to drive the industry out of the European Union and into less regulated financial activities, Raffan warns.

The exodus will be "rapid and decisive," he says, adding: "Hedge funds are much more mobile than banks. It's much easier for three guys in Mayfair to pack their bags and move to Geneva."

Bid-rigging appeal thwarted by postal slip-up

A construction firm fined £170,000 by the Office of Fair Trading in the landmark bid rigging inquiry intended to challenge the decision but failed at the first hurdle: it sent its notice of appeal to the wrong postal address.

According to this piece in Construction News, Fish Holdings sent its documents to the Competition Appeal Tribunal's old office in Carey Street. By the time it had been redirected, it was three days past the November 23 deadline. And the CAT showed little sympathy, refusing to grant an extension.

Oops.

Morning roundup: Guy Hands and Citigroup step up legal fight

Legal news from today's papers . . .

* Guy Hands moved closer to a legal showdown with Citigroup as lawyers for the bank prepared a response to the private equity investor's £1.5 billion lawsuit (Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times).

* Sir Ken Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions (and a colleague of Cherie Blair), has accused Tony Blair of sending British soldiers to their deaths in Iraq because of "sycophancy" towards Washington (The Times).

* Operation Stealth, a national operation to review unsolved murders could be closed next year as police spending cuts bite, The Times reports.

* The long-running Equitas litigation, involving claims linked to the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the first Gulf War, is expected to be settled, allowing around £615 million of outstanding insurance claims to be settled (Financial Times).

* A British environmental consulting company has been accused of bribing a Chinese official with £15,000 to win contracts (The Sunday Times).