briefs

Early exit for Veronica Lowe

Veronica Lowe is to step down as director of the Solicitors Complaints Bureau at the end of October, months earlier than expected. Martin O'Reilly, assistant director, becomes acting head. The bureau's future is in turmoil, with the Law Society's old guard wanting a complaints body with a non- lawyer as head, and the new president, Martin Mears, wanting to return to the position of 20 years ago by taking it completely under the wing of the society. Ms Lowe will work on special projects for the Law Society until the end of the year when she will leave with an pounds 80,000 pay-off.

Irish litigation guide

The Irish solicitors McCann FitzGerald have produced a guide to litigation in Ireland with the aim of providing lawyers accustomed to the system of civil procedure in England and Wales with a quick understanding of the Irish approach when they need to instruct Irish lawyers or understand assumptions behind advice received from Irish lawyers.

Legal 500 on the Internet

Legalease, the publisher of Legal Business magazine and the Legal 500, has launched the Centre for Commercial Law as an Internet site for the top 3,000 law firms in Europe. The site is an electronic form of the Legal 500 and its companion volume, Law Firms in Europe, so firms are listed according to specialism as well as country and region. Access to the site [http://www.link.org] is free.

Three leave Brecher

Three senior lawyers from Brecher have joined Mischon de Reya. The move by equity partner Susan Freeman, junior partner Nick Doffman and senior assistant Ian Paul comes as Brechers has merged with Nicholson Graham & Jones.

Divorce proposals

Divorcing couples on legal aid could still have access to independent legal advice before, during and after mediation, as well as when the process is unsuitable or breaks down, if the Government adopts proposals from the Solicitors' Family Law Association in its response to the Legal Aid Green Paper.