ABS trailblazers revealed

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Wednesday 28 March 2012 by John Hyde

The Solicitors Regulation Authority today announced the identities of the first three alternative business structures.

The Co-operative Legal Services, John Welch & Stammers and Lawbridge Solicitors are the first to have their applications approved. They can now provide reserved legal activities while owned and managed by non-lawyers, under the terms of the Legal Services Act.

The SRA has spent almost three months processing more than 180 applications from a range of businesses.

Co-op Legal Services, set up in 2006, employs 400 staff and has plans to add a further 150 this year. ABS status will allow it to diversify into family law later this year, to complement services in personal injury claims, will writing, probate, conveyancing and employment law.

Operating in Witney, Oxfordshire, since 1932, John Welch & Stammers has seven fee earners and 11 support staff.

Practice manager Bernadette Summers will now be appointed as a non-lawyer managing partner to join two existing solicitor partners.

Lawbridge Solicitors, based in Sidcup, Kent, has one solicitor, Michael Pope, who will now be joined in the shareholding by his wife Alison, practice manager.

SRA chief executive Antony Townsend said the announcement is a culmination of two years’ work: ‘By stimulating competition and encouraging innovation, we should see consumers’ experiences enjoy a major boost.

‘Some people may be surprised that there are two high street practices with a handful of staff among the first wave of ABS organisations that we’ve authorised. But we’ve always said that ABS offers options for all firms.’

Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said customers will find legal services ‘more accessible’ and the service ‘more competitive and efficient’.

Djanogly added: 'Our UK legal services are unrivalled around the world and these changes will allow them to reach new heights, as solicitors’ firms develop new markets, seek external investment and join up with other businesses to offer different products to consumers and provide opportunities for growth.'

The Law Society has congratulated all three practices on being the first to receive the ABS licence and said the trio all reflect the opportunities that non-lawyer ownership can offer.

John Wotton, president of the Law Society, said: 'The Co-operative Group is a well-known brand on the high street, with a substantial profile and a strong reputation for ethical business.

'I’d like to welcome Co-operative Legal Services into the Law Society fold. Lawbridge Solicitors and John Welch & Stammers are existing law firms who have taken an innovative step in adopting new ownership structures.’

He added that the latest development would introduce new ways of working and increase choice for consumers and corporate clients.

David Edmonds, chair of the Legal Services Board, stressed that while regulation has a part to play in the new era, it must not restrict growth.

'Breaking down barriers to entry and freeing the ways in which firm can operate is key. But the change and innovation has to be provider-led. We will be working to make sure that regulation does not create inappropriate barriers and targets risk. Supervision must be proportionate.’

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Lawyer: Islamic group not linked to gunman

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Published: March. 31, 2012 at 6:50 PM

PARIS, March 31 (UPI) -- The lawyer for the leader of an Islamic group arrested by French authorities said the group has no connection with the Toulouse gunman who killed seven people.

Lawyer Philippe Missamou, who represents Forsane Alizza leader Mohammed Achamlane, one of 19 people arrested Friday for alleged links to radical Islam, said Saturday Achamlane denied the group had anything to do with Mohammed Merah's killings, CNN reported.

Merah killed a rabbi, the cleric's two children and another schoolgirl outside a Jewish school last week and three paratroopers of north African descent the week before.

Merah allegedly admitted to the shootings during a two-day standoff with police at his apartment in Toulouse before he was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

CNN said French media reports have suggested Merah had links to Forsane Alizza, which has followers in Toulouse.

France's Interior Ministry said "19 arrests were made in connection with the group Forsane Alizza" Friday in Toulouse, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and the Ile de France region, around Paris.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said five rifles, four automatic weapons, three Kalashnikov rifles and a bulletproof vest were found in searches of the suspects' homes.

Missamou said Achamlane said Forsane Alizza did not support armed combat. The lawyer said the group was not dangerous but worked to battle injustice against Muslims in France.

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US Soldier's Lawyer Says Access Denied to Evidence - New York Times

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“We were expecting a lot more cooperation,” Sergeant Bales’s lead lawyer, John Henry Browne, said during a news conference in Seattle on Friday.

The complaints are expected to be just the first of many disputes over evidence in what experts predict will be an extremely complicated case for both defense and prosecution, given the location of the crime scene in a war zone and the possible hostility of witnesses to lawyers from both sides.

Mr. Browne said that after members of his team were prevented from interviewing survivors of the attacks at a hospital, prosecutors interviewed those witnesses the following day. The witnesses were then released, leaving no contact information. “They could just disappear into the countryside,” Mr. Browne said.

He also said that the team was not given access to health records for the wounded civilians or surveillance video that purportedly shows Sergeant Bales returning to his combat outpost after the killings.

“The prosecution will provide the defense with evidence in accordance with the rules for courts-martial and the military rules of evidence,” said Maj. Chris Ophardt, an Army spokesman at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Tacoma, Wash., where Sergeant Bales was stationed. “Within these guidelines the prosecution is and has been communicating with the defense.”

Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, said there was no reason that the government should be expected to share files from an open investigation this early in the case. He added that prosecutors would have to make their major witnesses available to the defense, if they wanted that testimony in the record.

Sergeant Bales, who is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., will be examined by mental health experts to determine whether he is mentally fit for trial, a process that could take months. Mr. Browne, who says that Sergeant Bales cannot remember many events from the night of the killings, will also seek to determine whether the sergeant had a concussive head injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Military officials say Sergeant Bales, 38, walked out of his combat outpost in Kandahar Province to two nearby villages early on the morning of March 11 and fatally shot a number of people, at least nine of whom were children. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, a capital crime.

The military has yet to suggest a motive for the killings, though officials have said that Sergeant Bales may have been drinking that night and may have been struggling with the stresses of multiple deployments; he was on his fourth deployment in 10 years.

Mr. Browne has said Sergeant Bales was happily married and that there was no evidence he drank alcohol the night of the shootings. He has also said that Sergeant Bales knew a soldier who was badly wounded days before the killings, had a mild traumatic brain injury and may also have P.T.S.D. — though the sergeant’s wife has said she never noticed any symptoms.

Mr. Browne later said that Sergeant Bales had probably tried to hide his problems from her.

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Lawyer Says Zuccotti Park Demonstrators Broke No Law - New York Times (blog)

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Robert Stolarik for The New York TimesPolice officers in Zuccotti Park, on Nov. 15, 2011 where they removed tents and arrested Occupy Wall Street protesters.

When hundreds of police officers entered Zuccotti Park early on Nov. 15, they dismantled tents and other structures that had been erected by Occupy Wall Street protesters in defiance of rules established in September by the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties.

The police also arrested dozens of protesters who refused to leave the park, charging them with offenses that included trespassing and disorderly conduct, as officers set up metal barricades around the park’s perimeter.

On Friday, a defense lawyer argued in Criminal Court in Manhattan that such charges filed against two of his clients should be dismissed.

While it might be appropriate for Brookfield to establish rules governing behavior in the park, the lawyer said, the company could not order people out of the park, because an agreement with the city required it to be open to the public 24 hours a day.

“Brookfield lacked the authority to exclude people,” the lawyer, Jethro M. Eisenstein, argued in support of a motion to dismiss the charges, contending that it was “unseemly and unjust to allow Brookfield to harness the power of the state” to clear the park of protesters.

But an assistant district attorney told Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. that the company was within its rights to revoke permission for protesters to be in the park while the police and sanitation workers removed banned structures.

“They have to have the ability to enforce rules,” the prosecutor, Ryan Hayward, said. “They did deem it necessary to close that park.”

Judge Sciarrino asked both sides to clarify certain points. He asked Mr. Eisenstein if he thought the rules allowed people to use Zuccotti Park for any purpose. Later, he told Mr. Hayward that experience had taught him that sometimes, “the law is not simply what the city says it is.”

At the heart of the arguments is the issue of what authority and responsibilities Brookfield has in managing Zuccotti Park, a half-acre granite expanse in the financial district that the Occupy protesters turned into a headquarters in mid-September. The park was created under an agreement that allowed developers of a skyscraper across Liberty Street to build 500,000 extra square feet of office space.

In return, the developers created a public space that would be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

According to papers filed by Mr. Eisenstein and the New York Civil Liberties Union, Brookfield can limit public access to the park only after going through a process that involves gaining the approval of the City Planning Commission.

The district attorney’s office, along with the city’s Law Department, disagreed, writing that “Brookfield Properties was faced with a situation where the volume of tenting, structures, sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, trash and other personal property had created a safety condition,” and that the only effective remedy involved clearing people from the park.

At one point, Judge Sciarrino asked Mr. Hayward if he agreed that there was a distinction between rules of conduct and rules of access. Mr. Hayward replied that he did and that in order “to ensure compliance with rules of conduct that temporary closure needed to be effectuated.”

Mr. Eisenstein countered that the closure could not accurately be termed temporary because metal barricades surrounded the park for nearly two months after Nov. 15, and that people entering during that time were subject to searches by private security guards.

Judge Sciarrino did not rule immediately on the motion.

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US soldier's lawyer slams Afghan killings 'blackout'

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The lawyer representing a US soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers condemned what he called an "information blackout" that prevents him from preparing his defense case.

Attorney John Henry Browne on Friday said his team had been blocked from interviewing witnesses and injured civilians in southern Afghanistan following the alleged massacre earlier this month.

"We were expecting a lot more cooperation. The prosecutors in this case promised us a lot of cooperation which we're just not getting," he told reporters in Seattle.

"We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he added in a statement.

His client Sergeant Robert Bales, 38, is said to have walked out of his base in the southern province of Kandahar in the early hours of March 11 and mounted a massacre in two nearby villages, with many of his victims women and children.

Browne met his client earlier this month at the Fort Leavenworth military base in Kansas, where Bales is detained charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, as well as six counts of assault and attempted murder.

But his team has made little progress on the ground in Afghanistan. "When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital, we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," it said.

The next day, prosecutors interviewed the injured civilians, but Browne's office found out shortly afterward that "the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them.

"In addition, we are being denied access to the injured civilians medical records that are in the possession of the government which makes it even more impossible for us to try to locate and interview these crucial witnesses," it said.

"The prosecution is withholding the entire investigative file from the defense team while the potential witnesses scatter into unknown and potentially inaccessible areas in Afghanistan."

Browne, who said his team had also not been shown an alleged video of Bales, conceded that under military trial rules, they do not have the right to shared "discovery" information until 30 days before a so-called Article 32 preliminary hearing.

"In this case, they actually promised us that if we sent people to Afghanistan... they would cooperate, and make witnesses available for us. And they've obviously violated that promise," he said.

He also warned that the defense -- which will have access to the results of a "sanity review" of Bales expected in the next two months and not made officially available to prosecutors -- could withhold cooperation.

"If they want cooperation from us they better start cooperating more," he told reporters.

Browne said earlier this week that post-traumatic stress disorder will almost certainly be part of his defense, adding that prosecutors will have trouble proving their case against Bales.

The killings have further strained the already difficult relationship between Kabul and Washington, at an all-time low after the burning of Korans by Americans, a spate of deadly anti-US protests and an earlier video showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban militants.

US military officials declined to respond directly to Browne's allegations. But army spokesman George Wright told AFP: "The US Army will continue to work with the Bales legal defense team in the months to come."

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Bahrain lawyer: Leading activist could face trial

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MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A lawyer for a leading Bahrain rights activist says his client could face possible trial on charges of taking part in anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom.

Lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi says activist Nabeel Rajab was released early Sunday after hours of interrogation. Al-Jishi says the next step may be a trial for Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Rajab has been an outspoken critic of crackdowns against Bahrain's Shiite majority, which began an uprising in February 2011 seeking to end the Sunni monarchy's near monopoly on power.

A police statement Saturday said Rajab was detained on charges linked to "illegal" demonstrations and the case was referred to the public prosecutor.

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Two Firm Injury Lawyers Recognized as Top 40 Under 40 Trial Lawyers in Virginia - PR Web (press release)

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Virginia Beach, VA (PRWEB) March 30, 2012

The National Trial Lawyers has selected Virginia injury attorneys Emily Mapp Brannon and Kevin Duffan, associates with the Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton law firm, for inclusion in “Top 40 under 40″ trial lawyers in Virginia.

The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 is a professional organization comprised of America’s top young trial attorneys. Membership into the Top 40 Under 40 association is by invitation only and is limited to lawyers under the age of 40 who are chosen by a comprehensive selection process that includes peer nominations and third-party research. Those lawyers selected have excelled in the court room, possess superior qualifications, and have displayed leadership as young trial lawyers.

Basically, this means Emily and Kevin are some of the best personal injury lawyers in Virginia under the age of 40.

Our Virginia personal injury law firm is proud that Emily and Kevin were selected for this prestigious honor. They represent our firm’s commitment to excellence and willingness to advocate our client’s rights from the initial pleading all the way to a jury trial, when necessary.

Emily and Kevin’s achievement comes on the heels of the firm being selected as one of the best injury law firms in Virginia for 2011-2012 by U.S. News & World Report.

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