Latest legal news

Britain's row over the liability of social media users continued to bubble this week as the wife of a senior political figure faced a £50,000 defamation suit for recent comments on Twitter. | 13yrs

No sooner had a gaggle of major global law firms piled into Australia to cut a variety of merger and joint venture deals, the jurisdiction is now reported to be contracting as local practices slash lawyer numbers. | 13yrs

A burgeoning love affair between global law firms and Brazil has hit a bump, with a London magic circle player cutting off an association in the wake of increased local protectionist measures. | 13yrs

Growth at the UK's leading law firms slowed for the fourth consecutive quarter, research reveals today, with top-10 practices the worst performers. | 13yrs

A leading lawyer has lashed out at the Indian authorities for dropping 'competent women' from a panel of practitioners designated to handle government litigation before the country's supreme court. | 13yrs

Trainee retention rates at leading English law firms remained relatively stable this year despite there being more newly-qualified lawyers for the system to absorb. | 13yrs

The British legal and political establishment was left reeling this week after publication of a long-awaited report into the 1989 murder of Northern Irish lawyer Pat Finucane. | 13yrs

Women professionals at US law firms are becoming scarcer, with research figures released this week showing the number of female lawyers dropping for the third year in a row. | 13yrs

China has overtaken the US as the world jurisdiction filing the most patent applications, according to UN figures released this week. | 13yrs

Wrangling broke out in South Africa this week following the death of renowned judicial figure Arthur Chaskalson, as the country's communist party was forced to back away from claims he had been a member for some 30 years until the early 1990s. | 13yrs

Europe's MPs gave the nod yesterday to much anticipated draft regulation for a unitary patent across the EU, in a move welcomed by specialist lawyers as a 'game changer' for business. | 13yrs

Use of English alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has tumbled by more than 20 per cent over the last three years, a survey released today claims. | 13yrs

Regulators of England's legal profession exhibit a worrying lack of understanding of consumer needs, according to the umbrella watchdog in its first report into the sector. | 13yrs

US prosecutors have spent the last 24 hours defending their decision not to prosecute one of the world's biggest banks for money laundering after it was handed a record-breaking fine. | 13yrs

An in-house lawyer who billed a Canadian litigation specialist law firm for work designed to assess his suitability as a possible employee has lost a court bid to claim the fees. | 13yrs

US watchdogs see changes to their in-house teams, while a Connecticut technology company fills its top seat and a leading airline lawyer flies off into the sunset | 13yrs

Global law firm Jones Day has topped a US corporate client service survey for the eighth time in a dozen years. | 13yrs

Australian women lawyers are moving farther and more quickly up the corporate ladder than counterparts in other areas of their businesses, a survey released this week has found. | 13yrs

Staff numbers and budgets increased at nearly half of US corporate compliance departments last year, but a significant proportion of team chiefs claim to be under-resourced, research released this week reports. | 13yrs